WELA/website/docs/resources/changelog.md

Changelog

!!! info This page mirrors the project CHANGELOG.md. See the Releases page for downloads.

2.2.0 [2026/xx/xx] - Dev Release

Improvements:

• Extended explicit targeted-sacl child consent with bounded reviewed descendant inventories, fresh preflight/pre-write checks, durable child snapshots, protected-subtree preservation and per-child native inheritance outcomes. Caps, denials, links, new/disappeared children and drift block or fail the run; parent-only behavior stays unchanged. Disposable populated file/registry tests verify inheritance and protection without child-ACE ownership, bulk rollback or Sigma credit. (#429) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added opt-in wmi-probe for a fixed local namespace read with observed token, audit-policy and full SACL context, exact WMI Security4662 correlation, bounded private raw XML and source fingerprints. Production makes no namespace/policy changes and grants no Sigma credit. WMI connections now use only the explicitly scoped security privilege, avoiding unintended thread privilege expansion. Disposable Server 2022/2025 tests under both PowerShell engines verify real local 4662 events and exact policy/namespace cleanup. Remote access, provider-operation success and exclusive query attribution remain unverified. (#428) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added opt-in gpo-create review, plan and new disabled/unlinked GPO creation from an exact genuine backup matched to current WELA audit components. Strict payload/native-report validation, explicit domain/writable-DC identity, protected unchanged backup copies, durable GUID receipts and fresh/final content, flags, permissions, link and version checks preserve existing policies. Native Windows tests read a pinned Microsoft backup and exercise broad-payload/workgroup refusal; positive AD/SYSVOL import and client/event acceptance remain pending, with no deployment or Sigma credit. (#427) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added wec-update to review and apply query/description changes to one already disabled native subscription through existing-only WEC handles. Complete definition/context/code fingerprints, a separately reviewed plan hash, durable receipts, fresh checks and preserved-property readback reject drift without recreation or activation. Disposable Windows tests cover actual updates/restoration and stale plans; active-source bookmarks, delivery and Sigma readiness remain unverified. (#426) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added opt-in dns-analytical auditing, planning and selective DNS Server channel configuration with explicit trace-reset consent, durable state records and bounded native ETL archives verified before resets. Preserve ACLs, paths and larger buffers; report stopped partial failures honestly. Added disposable standalone-DNS tests for loopback event 257 and exact configuration restoration; forwarding and Sigma readiness remain unverified. (#425) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added read-only wec-runtime with typed native WEC activity, numeric errors, UTC timestamps and bounded per-source observations. Actual reader/context and definition checks keep partial reads, caps and drift explicit; existing WEF/retention inventories retain raw text alongside typed fields. Historical source lists are not connection counts and Active grants no arrival or Sigma credit. Disposable disabled-subscription tests restore service state and remove only their owned fixture. Also fixed synthetic WEF/EVTX fixture timestamp roundtrips without weakening bundle validation. (#424) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added opt-in applocker-probe planning and fixed native EXE collection against existing audit-only policy, with exact AppLocker event correlation, private hashed evidence and drift checks. No policy/service/channel changes or Sigma credit; disposable Windows CI prepares one temporary audit-only fixture for real 8003 collection, preserving management observations and restoring GP policy/channel settings. (#423) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added opt-in targeted-sacl auditing, reviewed plans and selective configuration for existing local file/registry targets. Source-specific audit ACEs, policy prerequisites, inheritance consent, handle-bound SACL-only writes, preserved security descriptors, pending/confirmed receipts and final checks keep target scope explicit. Privileges are restored; native disposable-object tests cover file/registry events without claiming descendant, forwarding or Sigma readiness. (#422) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added dedicated native adcs-auditing audit, plan and source-profile configuration, with pinned CA/certificate identity, verified audit prerequisites, typed journals and fresh/readback guards. Legacy CA configuration uses the same engine; stopped CAs are preserved and dedicated filter changes require explicit restart consent. Policy matches, observed restarts and request events remain separate, with no Sigma credit. Disposable standalone-CA tests collect correlated pending-request 4886/4889 XML and restore policy/created resources; enterprise/DC/backend acceptance remains separate. (#421) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added opt-in evtx-recovery to export one validated native Security probe and reopen its EVTX through Windows event APIs, with a separate verification action under the actual reader. Strict source/component checks, exact event comparison, protected new output, archive hashes and reader/context drift checks reject empty or changed evidence. Disposable Windows tests cover real export/recovery and empty archives; full retention, other-reader access and Sigma readiness remain separate. (#420) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added opt-in audit-recovery planning and restoration for selected completed audit subcategory and typed precedence writes. Matched journals/results, independently rebuilt plans, actual host/source guards, durable receipts on local fixed drives and final readback refuse drift; minimum masks preserve independent additions and precedence restores last. Native disposable Windows tests verify exact restoration, without historical-identity, policy-persistence or Sigma claims. (#419) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added read-only wef-arrival to validate a completed native 4688 probe bundle and query the local collector for one exact original event. Strict hashes/schema/context checks, bounded native queries, actual reader observations, drift checks and protected raw evidence keep failed or ambiguous results unverified. Presence is separate from subscription attribution, latency, clock synchronization and Sigma readiness; positive cross-host acceptance remains pending. (#418) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added read-only score JSON and self-contained HTML reports with separate advanced audit-profile compliance and severity-weighted native rule readiness. Versioned weights, explicit numerators/denominators, unknowns, exclusions, source fingerprints and recorded evidence contexts make each result reviewable. Offline scenarios keep current settings Unknown; enabled settings grant no Ready credit, and no overall security grade or Sysmon coverage is implied. (#417) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added offline gpo-package plan, export and verification for shared advanced audit profiles and the precedence security template. Packages preserve omissions, require explicit expansion of one-sided minimum masks, reject unvalidated zero-mask deployment, and include source/target context, full reviews and verified file hashes. These are deployment components, not GPO backups; genuine GPMC/LGPO preparation and reviewed create-unlinked procedures are documented. Native domain application and event evidence remain separate lab acceptance with no Sigma credit. (#415) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added offline intune-export for shared native audit profiles on reviewed Windows 11 client targets, with 59 explicit Microsoft DDF mappings, typed OMA-URI CSV/Graph artifacts, the audit precedence prerequisite and complete source/omission manifests. Static minimum masks are rejected unless explicitly expanded with PromoteToBoth; fresh local bundles include verified fingerprints and never upload, assign, delete policies or change Windows. Intune deployment, conflicts, recovery and event evidence remain separate validation. (#414) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added -ProfileFile for strictly validated custom advanced audit profiles in listing, planning, auditing and configuration. Canonical GUIDs, roles, modes and source hashes remain explicit; built-in profiles are preserved. Strict JSON tokens prevent duplicate-key bypasses, and new report files preserve inputs and prior evidence even through file aliases. Shared precedence, recovery journals, pre-write file checks and final verification protect configuration, without claiming event or Sigma readiness. (#416) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added opt-in native-validation to collect a fixed benign Security 4688 probe with typed prerequisites, exact native event matching, before/after state and hashed components in a new private directory. Partial, capped, ambiguous and drifted results remain unverified; the collector changes no audit policy and grants no Sigma readiness credit. Disposable Server 2022/2025 tests exercise real events with verified policy restoration; Windows 11/DC/ADCS and backend acceptance remain separate. (#413) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added opt-in audit-integrity audit, plan and source-profile configuration for local audit privileges and CrashOnAuditFail, with separate actual client/member/DC scope and preserved Microsoft SCT omissions. Exact affected SIDs, explicit privilege-removal consent, per-right LSA updates, complete recovery journals and fresh/readback checks preserve unrelated privileges. Recovery states are blocked; native CI reads policy only, while token, GPO, service and event validation remains a lab requirement without Sigma credit. (#412) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added read-only retention-health source/collector JSON and self-contained HTML reports separating native buffers, observed record-boundary ages, declared archive policy, bounded local EVTX/ACL inventory, localized WEF/time evidence and loss/clear/full indicators. Retained-event timestamp rates and UTF-8 XML-byte scenarios expose caps and assumptions; none establish archive capacity, complete retention, effective reader access, synchronized time or successful forwarding. Multi-host rollover/recovery/arrival validation remains pending. (#410) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added read-only control-applicability for the historical CIS Application Guard audit requirement, reporting removal on Windows 11 24H2+ without remediation. Added exact build/patch/join/role native snapshots and provenance-bound reference comparison through default-evidence. Legacy baseline default strings are retained as historical hints while public defaults remain Unknown without reviewed scenario evidence. Synthetic fixtures and native read-only CI do not claim clean-install or event-generation proof. (#409) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added explicit native DNS Client/Server, CAPI2, WinRM and RDP Client provider-pack inventory and selective channel configuration. Pinned full rule definitions and live provider/channel/event schemas retain DNS channel mismatches and unknown prerequisites; journaled opt-in changes preserve larger buffers, retention and ACLs. Analytical/classic DNS remain manual-only, and no event/backend readiness uplift is claimed. (#411) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added opt-in audit-notifications audit/plan/configure for OneSettings auditing and Security log warning thresholds, with explicit control/channel selections, reviewed host and ADMX gates, typed recovery journals and drift checks. Earlier warning thresholds and channel ACL/retention are preserved. Reports separate policy matches from warning/event generation; Windows lab evidence and Sigma eligibility remain unverified. (#408) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added read-only rule-eligibility reports with pinned corpus/mapping hashes, per-rule reasons, explicit scope exclusions and numerator/denominator totals. Optional imported lab artifacts are checked against a narrow complete-rule parser, native XML, configuration, ingestion and query evidence; unsupported or incomplete cases stay Conditional. Audit CSV/JSON/HTML and Navigator outputs no longer treat enabled settings as proven usable rules. Imported Ready results apply only to their recorded context/time; no live end-to-end validation is implied. (#407) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added separate opt-in wef-source and wec-collector audit, plan and configure commands for native domain/Kerberos source settings and explicitly selected collector subscriptions. Actual collector identity, scoped existing ingress/listener prerequisites, explicit source SIDs, additive member-host read permissions, optional ASD WSMan hardening and shared channel controls are checked with journals, drift guards and readback. DC group authority and different existing subscriptions are preserved. JSON retains query/channel/runtime evidence without claiming effective read access, event arrival or forwarded Sigma coverage; isolated Windows deployment validation remains pending. (#406) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added explicit CIS v4.0.0 Level 2 Windows PowerShell 5.1 transcription audit, plan and configure actions. An operator-selected existing output directory is checked and reported separately from policy; typed canonical registry writes are journaled, verified through shared 32/64-bit views and checked for drift while preserving invocation-header preferences. No ACL/share/retention changes or automatic Sigma EVTX credit are introduced; disposable native transcript tests restore original policy, and central authorization/collection remains a deployment check. (#405) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Preserved LDAP 1644 diagnostics during normal configuration instead of automatically enabling Field Engineering level 5 on DCs. Added explicit ldap-diagnostics audit/plan/configure modes for preservation, tunable diagnostics and MDI legacy cleanup, with role/build checks, typed recovery snapshots, race guards, ordered readback and final drift checks. LDAP-only options are rejected before unrelated profile commands can run. Generated events, volume and forwarding remain isolated-DC validation. (#404) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Corrected the legacy Token Right Adjusted Events GUID so RPC and token auditing are assessed independently in every baseline. Added runtime catalog identity/alias checks and a read-only, fingerprinted EventID mapping review that preserves ambiguous, category-only and unknown candidates without detection credit. (#403) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added opt-in ad-object-sacl audit, plan, configure and conservative rollback actions for MDI domain/Exchange Configuration auditing and explicitly selected certificate template/enrollment service objects. Exact DC binding, schema GUID checks, additive SACL-only changes, pre-write SDDL/ACE receipts and read-back preserve existing security entries. Unknown optional dMSA prerequisites are reported as a separate skipped gap while the five independent domain class ACEs continue. Effective audit policy, inheritance/replication and 4662/5136 event evidence remain separate isolated-DC checks; no Sigma uplift is claimed. (#402) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added opt-in channel-settings audit, plan and configure actions for Microsoft WEF Appendix C, including CAPI2 enablement, exact source byte sizes and an explicitly requested Event Log Readers read ACE. Existing descriptor components/ACEs and larger buffers are preserved or unsafe ACL edits are refused; shared journaling, fresh-state guards and readback report failures. Native Appendix E/F channel inventories exclude Sysmon/EMET and retain unverified identity access, generation and ingestion prerequisites. Windows lab evidence remains pending. (#401) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added opt-in WMI namespace SACL audit, plan and configure actions based on ASD guidance, with explicit local namespace selection and separate descendant-inheritance consent. Full descriptor journals, SACL-only native requests, checked privilege restoration, race guards and read-back verification preserve existing permissions and unknown audit entries; event generation and forwarding remain separate lab validation. Verified native control-flag readback and idempotence on disposable Server 2022/2025 namespaces under PowerShell 5.1/7. (#399) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added opt-in firewall-logging audit, plan and configure actions for native Domain/Private/Public text logs, with allowed/dropped logging, minimum size checks, preserved operator paths/larger limits, and explicit CIS v4.0.0 paths. Configuration checks firewall service directory permissions, journals local/effective state and verifies effective policy without changing firewall enforcement or ACLs. Traffic and ingestion validation remains required. (#394) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Unified event-log size auditing and configuration with shared byte-based profiles, including 256 MiB AppLocker/firewall logs, 32 MiB Setup and ASD 2048 MiB Security. Added separate source and collector size/mode choices through -LogProfile and configure-eventlogs; larger buffers and existing retention modes are preserved unless explicitly changed. Results include verified state and unknown retention duration. (#396) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added opt-in smb-auditing audit, plan and configure actions for six native SMB audit policies. Host builds and exact local ADMX mappings gate writes; policy DWORDs and available runtime values are reported separately, with dry-run, recovery journaling and policy-registry verification. Runtime activation is reported separately as active, pending verification or unknown; an observed False does not turn a verified registry write into a failure. Signing/encryption requirements and guest access are not changed; runtime event/ingestion validation remains required. (#397) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added versioned advanced audit-policy profiles shared by audit-settings, plan and configure: 59 subcategories and 14 profiles covering WELA, documented Windows defaults, Microsoft, reviewed CIS v4.0.0 and ASD native guidance. Profiles support role/build validation, offline planning and JSON exports with sources and prerequisites. Exact, minimum, optional, unchanged, Not Configured and not-applicable settings remain distinct. Windows defaults are reference-only; profile scope is advanced Security audit policy. (#390) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added six native Windows audit subcategories to WELA's profile: Group Membership and Authorization Policy Change (Success), plus Application Group Management, MPSSVC Rule-Level Policy Change, IPsec Driver and Kernel Object (Success and Failure). Source-specific profiles retain their own audit settings and prerequisites; Kernel Object events require matching object SACLs, which this change does not create. (#391) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added -DryRun and -ResultsPath to configure and configure -Profile to preview changes without modifying Windows settings and export per-control results as JSON. Commands that do not support -DryRun reject it before running. (#392) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added -BackupPath and a recovery journal that records each control's previous state before making changes, with a documented manual recovery procedure. (#392) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Added a configure-sacl command that sets targeted audit SACLs on the autostart/persistence registry keys and sensitive files the detection rules watch, so File System (4663), Registry (4657) and Handle Manipulation (4656) auditing produce useful events without enabling global object auditing. It covers machine-wide objects plus per-user HKCU keys and profile AppData across all user profiles and the Default profile (so future users inherit the SACL). Targets live in config/audit_sacl_targets.json. (#361) (@YamatoSecurity)

• configure now also enables Detailed Tracking > Process Termination (4689), Object Access > Detailed File Share (5145), and (on domain controllers) LDAP query logging (Directory Service 1644 via NTDS 15 Field Engineering), so a full detection baseline is applied without any manual auditpol/registry steps. (#361) (@YamatoSecurity)

• Baseline definitions were moved out of WELA.ps1 into a config/baselines.json config file, so adding or changing a baseline is now a JSON-only edit. (#358) (@fukusuket)

• The Microsoft-Windows-DFSN-Server/Admin channel is now checked by audit-settings and audit-filesize. (#358) (@fukusuket)

• MITRE ATT&CK Navigator heatmaps are now generated for ATT&CK v19, and technique IDs that ATT&CK has revoked are rewritten to their replacements (for example T1562 and T1562.001, which v19 folded into T1685). Navigator silently discards revoked entries, so that coverage used to disappear from the heatmap. (@fukusuket)

Bug Fixes:

• Both configure paths now journal and verify SCENoApplyLegacyAuditPolicy=1 (DWORD) before applying advanced audit subcategories. Failed or declined precedence changes block dependent writes; pre-write and final checks detect drift. Profile plans report precedence state and available last-applied RSoP evidence without claiming persistence through policy refresh. (#393) (@Shirofune-Security)
• Replaced static native-channel Enabled claims with actual channel state, mode and ACL reads plus provider prerequisite observations. AppLocker, NTLM, Defender and other native sources remain conditional until event generation is validated; channel enablement alone grants no usable-rule credit. Added JSON/HTML audit assessment exports preserving denied/absent states and source evidence. Rule channel patterns now match concrete catalog channels consistently during filtering and source mapping. (#395) (@Shirofune-Security)
• Fixed configure enabling outgoing NTLM blocking by default. It now sets Audit all (RestrictSendingNTLMTraffic=1) for unset or Allow policies while preserving existing Deny all (2) and unknown values/types. Use -OutgoingNtlmMode Audit to explicitly replace a deny policy, or Deny to enable blocking. Configuration rechecks policy before writing, verifies changes, reports failures, and displays the observed policy and available last-applied RSoP information. (#388) (@Shirofune-Security)
• audit-settings now reports role-inapplicable audit policies as Not applicable and excludes them from category enablement totals. NTLM policy values are interpreted and verified only when stored as DWORDs. (#392) (@Shirofune-Security)
• Configuration now checks native command exit codes, verifies settings after applying changes, and checks them again before finishing. Failed writes, ineffective changes, CA restart failures and settings that no longer match at the final check produce explicit results and a nonzero exit code instead of unconditional success. (#392) (@Shirofune-Security)
• Fixed domain NTLM auditing: configure now sets AuditNTLMInDomain=7 (Enable all) only on confirmed domain controllers, instead of writing 2 on every host. This setting is left unchanged on other hosts and hosts whose role cannot be determined. Audit output reports the domain NTLM setting, and configuration verifies registry writes and reports failures. (#389) (@Shirofune-Security)
• Rule filtering applied only the last criterion instead of all of them, so rule counts were inaccurate. (#358) (@fukusuket)
• Rules were reported as usable even when the logs they depend on were disabled. (#358) (@fukusuket)
• Rules that belong to multiple categories were counted and written to the CSV files multiple times. (#358) (@fukusuket)
• Rules that did not match any category were dropped from the CSV files and from the coverage total. They are now reported under Uncategorized. (#358) (@fukusuket)
• The utilization threshold was compared as a string, so the percentage was shown in the wrong color. (#358) (@fukusuket)
• Success and Failure was shown in red even though auditing was enabled. (#358) (@fukusuket)
• The MITRE ATT&CK Navigator layer contained invalid technique IDs and was written as UTF-16, which ATT&CK Navigator cannot read. (#358) (@fukusuket)
• Running WELA from a directory other than the one it is installed in failed. (#358) (@fukusuket)
• audit-filesize aborted the whole check when a single log was missing. (#358) (@fukusuket)
• PowerShell logging settings were only read from the 32-bit registry view, so a machine configured by GPO was reported as Disabled. (#358) (@fukusuket)
• Parsing of the auditpol output could fail, and running audit-settings without Administrator privileges produced a confidently wrong report. (#358) (@fukusuket)
• configure -Baseline ASD silently applied the YamatoSecurity settings. (#358) (@fukusuket)
• A failed download in update-rules could corrupt the existing config files. (#358) (@fukusuket)
• CSV output was inconsistent between the std, table and gui output types. (#358) (@fukusuket)
• The release and CSV creation GitHub Actions workflows were failing. (#358) (@fukusuket)

Note: because of the fixes above, the reported utilization is now lower than in 2.1.0 (23.38% -> 12.94% on the same machine). The new number is the correct one: rules whose logs are disabled are no longer counted as usable, and rules that were previously dropped are now included in the total.

2.1.0 [2026/02/13] - Winter Release

Bug Fixes:

• Configuration might break Netlogon on Domain Controllers. (#243) (@fukusuket) (Thanks to @feiglein74 for reporting this!)

2.0.0 [2025/11/16] - CODE BLUE Release

New Features:

• Added applocker-readiness to inspect native policy collections, enforcement, Application Identity and channels, plus a guarded operator-supplied audit-only import for empty local policies. Existing enforcement and managed hosts block import; unused empty NotConfigured placeholders no longer cause false comparison failures, while targeted placeholders remain blocked because merge can retain enforcement. Original XML and unknown/configured collection content stay preserved; GP/CSP visibility and event-generation gaps remain explicit. (#400) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Profile plan/audit/configure now include read-only targeted SACL prerequisites with object policy masks, per-user hive and redirected-folder gaps, exact WEF Run/RunOnce audit entries, and an explicit -SaclMode Skip. User-file targets retain their configured suffix under the user's AppData or Startup known folder; unsupported or ambiguous paths remain unresolved. No SACL writes or unverified detection uplift are implied. (#398) (@Shirofune-Security)

• Support for MITRE ATT&CK Navigator heatmaps. (#11) (@fukusuket)

• Added a configure command to configure Windows settings to various baselines. (#12) (@fukusuket)

• Support for Defender for Identity required logs. (#114) (@fukusuket)

Bug Fixes:

• Some of the rule count was not accurate. (#99) (@fukusuket)
• TaskScheduler log settings were not accurately reported. (#100) (@fukusuket))

1.0.0 [2025/05/20] - AUSCERT/SINCON Release

New Features:

• audit-settings: Check Windows Event Log audit policy settings.
• audit-filesize: Check Windows Event Log file size.
• update-rules: Update WELA's Sigma rules config files.