GitHub Repo

Detection: Windows Product Key Registry Query

Updated Date: 2026-03-03 ID: 977da0c0-c7d5-45de-8b7e-f79e959ca13d Author: Teoderick Contreras, Splunk Type: Anomaly Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

This Analytic detects the execution of a process attempting to access the registry for product key recovery purposes. This behavior could be significant as it might indicate potential malware activity or attempts to bypass security measures or data exfiltration.

 1`wineventlog_security`
 2EventCode=4663
 3object_file_path="*\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows NT\\CurrentVersion\\SoftwareProtectionPlatform"
 4
 5| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime
 6    by object_file_name object_file_path process_name
 7       process_path process_id EventCode dest
 8
 9| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
10
11| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
12
13| `windows_product_key_registry_query_filter`

Data Source

Name Platform Sourcetype Source
Windows Event Log Security 4663 Windows icon Windows 'XmlWinEventLog' 'XmlWinEventLog:Security'

Macros Used

Name Value
security_content_ctime convert timeformat="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S" ctime($field$)
windows_product_key_registry_query_filter search *
windows_product_key_registry_query_filter is an empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.

Annotations

- MITRE ATT&CK
+ Kill Chain Phases
+ NIST
+ CIS
- Threat Actors
ID Technique Tactic
T1012 Query Registry Discovery
Exploitation
DE.AE
CIS 10

Default Configuration

This detection is configured by default in Splunk Enterprise Security to run with the following settings:

Setting Value
Disabled true
Cron Schedule 0 * * * *
Earliest Time -70m@m
Latest Time -10m@m
Schedule Window auto
Creates Risk Event True
This configuration file applies to all detections of type anomaly. These detections will use Risk Based Alerting.

Implementation

To successfully implement this search, you must ingest Windows Security Event logs and track event code 4663. For 4663, enable "Audit Object Access" in Group Policy. Then check the two boxes listed for both "Success" and "Failure." This search may trigger on a browser application that is not included in the browser_app_list lookup file.

Known False Positives

Administrator may access this registry for product key recovery purposes.

Associated Analytic Story

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message:

A [$process_name$] attempting to access the registry path [$object_file_path$] on [$dest$].

Risk Object Risk Object Type Risk Score Threat Objects
dest system 20 process_name

References

Detection Testing

Test Type Status Dataset Source Sourcetype
Validation ✅ Passing N/A N/A N/A
Unit ✅ Passing Dataset XmlWinEventLog:Security XmlWinEventLog
Integration ✅ Passing Dataset XmlWinEventLog:Security XmlWinEventLog

Replay any dataset to Splunk Enterprise by using our replay.py tool or the UI. Alternatively you can replay a dataset into a Splunk Attack Range

Source: GitHub | Version: 1