DNS-over-HTTPS Enabled via Registry

Identifies when a user enables DNS-over-HTTPS. This can be used to hide internet activity or be used to hide the process of exfiltrating data. With this enabled organization will lose visibility into data such as query type, response and originating IP that are used to determine bad actors.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

winlogbeat-*
logs-endpoint.events.*
logs-windows.*

Severity: low

Risk score: 21

Runs every: 5 minutes

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

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References:

Tags:

Elastic
Host
Windows
Threat Detection
Defense Evasion

Version: 1

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.16.0

Rule authors: Austin Songer

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Rule query

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registry where event.type in ("creation", "change") and
(registry.path :
"*\\SOFTWARE\\Policies\\Microsoft\\Edge\\BuiltInDnsClientEnabled" and
registry.data.strings : "1") or (registry.path :
"*\\SOFTWARE\\Google\\Chrome\\DnsOverHttpsMode" and
registry.data.strings : "secure") or (registry.path :
"*\\SOFTWARE\\Policies\\Mozilla\\Firefox\\DNSOverHTTPS" and
registry.data.strings : "1")

Threat mapping

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Framework: MITRE ATT&CK^TM

Tactic:
- Name: Defense Evasion
- ID: TA0005
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0005/
Technique:
- Name: Impair Defenses
- ID: T1562
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1562/

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