↳ GitHub sourceAnalytics ruleMedium
Microsoft Entra ID Health Monitoring Agent Registry Keys Access
Description
'This detection uses Windows security events to detect suspicious access attempts to the registry key of Microsoft Entra ID Health monitoring agent.
This detection requires an access control entry (ACE) on the system access control list (SACL) of the following securable object HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft Online\Reporting\MonitoringAgent.
You can find more information in here https://github.com/OTRF/Set-AuditRule/blob/master/rules/registry/aad_connect_health_monitoring_agent.yml
'
- Rule type
- Scheduled
- Version
- 1.1.6
- Query frequency
- 1d
- Query period
- 1d
- Trigger
- gt 0
Declared MITRE coverage
Declared sources
Metadata from the source file. No dependencies inferred from KQL.
Connectors
Data types
KQL query
Original query, unchanged.
// ADHealth Monitoring Agent Registry Key
let aadHealthMonAgentRegKey = "\\REGISTRY\\MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Microsoft Online\\Reporting\\MonitoringAgent";
// Filter out known processes
let aadConnectHealthProcs = dynamic ([
'Microsoft.Identity.Health.Adfs.DiagnosticsAgent.exe',
'Microsoft.Identity.Health.Adfs.InsightsService.exe',
'Microsoft.Identity.Health.Adfs.MonitoringAgent.Startup.exe',
'Microsoft.Identity.Health.Adfs.PshSurrogate.exe',
'Microsoft.Identity.Health.Common.Clients.ResourceMonitor.exe',
'Microsoft.Identity.Health.AadSync.MonitoringAgent.Startup.exe',
'Microsoft.Identity.AadConnect.Health.AadSync.Host.exe',
'Microsoft.Azure.ActiveDirectory.Synchronization.Upgrader.exe',
'miiserver.exe'
]);
(union isfuzzy=true
(
SecurityEvent
| where EventID == '4656'
| where EventData has aadHealthMonAgentRegKey
| extend EventData = parse_xml(EventData).EventData.Data
| mv-expand bagexpansion=array EventData
| evaluate bag_unpack(EventData)
| extend Key = tostring(column_ifexists('@Name', "")), Value = column_ifexists('#text', "")
| evaluate pivot(Key, any(Value), TimeGenerated, Computer, EventID)
| extend ObjectName = column_ifexists("ObjectName", ""),
ObjectType = column_ifexists("ObjectType", "")
| where ObjectType == 'Key'
| where ObjectName == aadHealthMonAgentRegKey
| extend SubjectUserName = column_ifexists("SubjectUserName", ""),
SubjectDomainName = column_ifexists("SubjectDomainName", ""),
ProcessName = column_ifexists("ProcessName", "")
| extend Process = split(ProcessName, '\\', -1)[-1],
Account = strcat(SubjectDomainName, "\\", SubjectUserName)
| where Process !in (aadConnectHealthProcs)
| summarize StartTime = max(TimeGenerated), EndTime = min(TimeGenerated), count() by EventID, Account, Computer, Process, SubjectUserName, SubjectDomainName, ObjectName, ObjectType, ProcessName
),
(
WindowsEvent
| where EventID == '4656' and EventData has aadHealthMonAgentRegKey
| extend ObjectType = tostring(EventData.ObjectType)
| where ObjectType == 'Key'
| extend ObjectName = tostring(EventData.ObjectName)
| where ObjectName == aadHealthMonAgentRegKey
| extend ProcessName = tostring(EventData.ProcessName)
| extend Process = tostring(split(ProcessName, '\\')[-1])
| where Process !in (aadConnectHealthProcs)
| extend Account = strcat(tostring(EventData.SubjectDomainName),"\\", tostring(EventData.SubjectUserName))
| extend SubjectUserName = tostring(EventData.SubjectUserName)
| extend SubjectDomainName = tostring(EventData.SubjectDomainName)
| summarize StartTime = max(TimeGenerated), EndTime = min(TimeGenerated), count() by EventID, Account, Computer, Process, SubjectUserName, SubjectDomainName, ObjectName, ObjectType, ProcessName
),
(
SecurityEvent
| where EventID == '4663'
| where ObjectType == 'Key'
| where ObjectName == aadHealthMonAgentRegKey
| extend Process = tostring(split(ProcessName, '\\', -1)[-1])
| where Process !in (aadConnectHealthProcs)
| summarize StartTime = max(TimeGenerated), EndTime = min(TimeGenerated), count() by EventID, Account, Computer, Process, SubjectUserName, SubjectDomainName, ObjectName, ObjectType, ProcessName
),
(
WindowsEvent
| where EventID == '4663' and EventData has aadHealthMonAgentRegKey
| extend ObjectType = tostring(EventData.ObjectType)
| where ObjectType == 'Key'
| extend ObjectName = tostring(EventData.ObjectName)
| where ObjectName == aadHealthMonAgentRegKey
| extend ProcessName = tostring(EventData.ProcessName)
| extend Process = tostring(split(ProcessName, '\\')[-1])
| where Process !in (aadConnectHealthProcs)
| extend Account = strcat(tostring(EventData.SubjectDomainName),"\\", tostring(EventData.SubjectUserName))
| extend SubjectUserName = tostring(EventData.SubjectUserName)
| extend SubjectDomainName = tostring(EventData.SubjectDomainName)
| summarize StartTime = max(TimeGenerated), EndTime = min(TimeGenerated), count() by EventID, Account, Computer, Process, SubjectUserName, SubjectDomainName, ObjectName, ObjectType, ProcessName
)
)
// You can filter out potential machine accounts
//| where AccountType != 'Machine'
| extend HostName = tostring(split(Computer, ".")[0]), DomainIndex = toint(indexof(Computer, '.'))
| extend HostNameDomain = iff(DomainIndex != -1, substring(Computer, DomainIndex + 1), Computer)
| extend Name = tostring(split(Account, "\\")[1]), NTDomain = tostring(split(Account, "\\")[0])
| project-away DomainIndex
Declared entities
Related content
Links established from declared identifiers and solution manifests.
Source provenance
GitHubDisplayed values come from files in Azure/Azure-Sentinel. They describe the published template, not your workspace configuration.
- Commit
9800e51↗- Source identifier
f819c592-c5f9-4d5c-a79f-1e6819863533
Additional source files 1
Detections/SecurityEvent/AADHealthMonAgentRegKeyAccess.yamlsource ↗GSTEP / CATALOG TRACKING
Added to catalog : 16 Sept 2026 · 05:49 UTC
Last change observed : 16 Sept 2026 · 05:49 UTC