Credential Acquisition via Registry Hive Dumping

Elastic Stack Serverless Security

Identifies attempts to export a registry hive which may contain credentials using the Windows reg.exe tool.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

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

Severity: high

Risk score: 73

Runs every: 5m

Searches indices from: now-9m (https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/common-options.html#date-math[Date Math format], see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References:

• https://medium.com/threatpunter/detecting-attempts-to-steal-passwords-from-the-registry-7512674487f8

Tags:

• Elastic
• Host
• Windows
• Threat Detection
• Credential Access

Version: 4

Rule authors:

• Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

process where event.type in ("start", "process_started") and
 process.pe.original_file_name == "reg.exe" and
 process.args : ("save", "export") and
 process.args : ("hklm\\sam", "hklm\\security")

Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM

• Tactic:

  • Name: Credential Access
  • ID: TA0006
  • Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0006/

• Technique:

  • Name: OS Credential Dumping
  • ID: T1003
  • Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1003/

• Sub-technique:

  • Name: Security Account Manager
  • ID: T1003.002
  • Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1003/002/

• Sub-technique:

  • Name: LSA Secrets
  • ID: T1003.004
  • Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1003/004/