RDP connections enabled remotely via Registry

Synopsis

Field	Value
Activation Period	14 Days
Training Period	30 Days
Test Period	N/A (single event)
Deduplication Period	1 Day
Required Data	XDR Agent with eXtended Threat Hunting (XTH)
Detector Tags	Enhanced RDP Analytics
ATT&CK Tactic	Lateral Movement (TA0008)
ATT&CK Technique	Remote Services: Remote Desktop Protocol (T1021.001)
Severity	Low

Description

An attacker may remotely enable RDP connections to a machine by setting the fDenyTSConnections Registry key to 0.

Attacker's Goals

Remotely enable RDP on the host for lateral movement.

Investigative actions

• Check whether the executing process is benign and if this was a desired behavior as part of its normal execution flow.
• Search for RDP sessions to this host and investigate them for malicious activities.

Variations

RDP connections enabled by a remote process via Registry

Synopsis

Field	Value
ATT&CK Tactic	Lateral Movement (TA0008)
ATT&CK Technique	Remote Services: Remote Desktop Protocol (T1021.001)
Severity	Low

Description

An attacker may remotely enable RDP connections to a machine by setting the fDenyTSConnections Registry key to 0.

Attacker's Goals

Remotely enable RDP on the host for lateral movement.

Investigative actions

• Check whether the executing process is benign and if this was a desired behavior as part of its normal execution flow.
• Search for RDP sessions to this host and investigate them for malicious activities.

RDP connections enabled remotely via Registry using WinRM

Synopsis

Field	Value
ATT&CK Tactic	Lateral Movement (TA0008)
ATT&CK Technique	Remote Services: Remote Desktop Protocol (T1021.001), Remote Services: Windows Remote Management (T1021.006)
Severity	Low

Description

An attacker may remotely enable RDP connections to a machine by setting the fDenyTSConnections Registry key to 0.

Attacker's Goals

Remotely enable RDP on the host for lateral movement.

Investigative actions

• Check whether the executing process is benign and if this was a desired behavior as part of its normal execution flow.
• Search for RDP sessions to this host and investigate them for malicious activities.