Disable Windows Firewall Rules via Netsh

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Identifies use of the netsh.exe to disable or weaken the local firewall. Attackers will use this command line tool to disable the firewall during troubleshooting or to enable network mobility.

Rule type: query

Rule indices:

  • winlogbeat-*
  • logs-endpoint.events.*

Severity: medium

Risk score: 47

Runs every: 5 minutes

Searches indices from: now-9m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

Tags:

  • Elastic
  • Host
  • Windows
  • Threat Detection
  • Defense Evasion

Version: 5 (version history)

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.6.0

Last modified (Elastic Stack release): 7.10.0

Rule authors: Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License

Rule query

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event.category:process and event.type:(start or process_started) and
process.name:netsh.exe and process.args:(disable and firewall and set)
or process.args:(advfirewall and off and state)

Threat mapping

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Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM

Rule version history

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Version 5 (7.10.0 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 4 (7.9.1 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 3 (7.9.0 release)
  • Updated query, changed from:

    event.action:"Process Create (rule: ProcessCreate)" and
    process.name:netsh.exe and process.args:(disable and firewall and set)
    or process.args:(advfirewall and off and state)
Version 2 (7.7.0 release)
  • Updated query, changed from:

    event.action:"Process Create (rule: ProcessCreate)" and
    process.name:"netsh.exe" and process.args:("firewall" and "set" and
    "disable") or process.args:("advfirewall" and "state" and "off")