Elastic medium stable eql

Potential Persistence via Mandatory User Profile

Detects the creation or modification of a mandatory user profile hive (NTUSER.MAN) by an unusual process. Adversaries may abuse Windows mandatory profiles by dropping a malicious NTUSER.MAN file containing pre-populated persistence-related registry keys. On the next user logon, Windows loads the registry hive from NTUSER.MAN, causing embedded persistence mechanisms to activate without directly modifying the live registry. This technique can evade traditional registry-based monitoring and indicate a stealthy persistence attempt.

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Detection Logic

file where host.os.type == "windows" and
 event.type in ("creation", "change") and user.id != "S-1-5-18" and
 file.name : "NTUSER.MAN" and file.path : "?:\\Users\\*.MAN"

Field Validations

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