Unsecured Credentials T1552
Adversaries may search compromised systems to find and obtain insecurely stored credentials. These credentials can be stored and/or misplaced in many locations on a system, including plaintext files (e.g. Shell History), operating system or application-specific repositories (e.g. Credentials in Registry), or other specialized files/artifacts (e.g. Private Keys).
Events covered
16 catalog events are tagged with this technique by at least one rule.
Authoring guide
Patterns shared across the 67 rules above: which fields they filter on, what specific values they look for, and what they exclude. The catalog normalizes field names across vendors so Sigma's Image, Elastic's process.name, and Splunk's process_name collapse into one row. Each rule contributes at most once per row.
Fields filtered most (29 distinct)
The fields most rules look at when detecting this technique. The How column shows the operators authors use (eq, wildcard, regex_match, match) and how often each appears. Sample values are concrete examples to start from, not an exhaustive list.
Top indicator values (353 distinct)
Specific (field, operator, value) combinations the rules check for, ranked by how many rules under this technique use each one. The Corpus reach column counts how many rules across the entire catalog (any technique) check the same combination. High numbers point to widely-used indicators that are likely noisy on their own; combine them with another condition for useful signal. Blank means the combination is specific to rules under this technique. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that use it.
Exclusions (49 distinct)
Field/operator/value combinations excluded by rules under this technique (top-level not() clauses), sorted by how many rules exclude each. These are the false-positive paths the community has learned to filter out. A new rule that ignores the high-count entries here will likely fire on the same noisy paths. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that exclude it.
Rules under this technique
Every rule in the catalog tagged with this technique, grouped by vendor. Click a rule title for its full predicates, exclusions, and indicators.
Sigma 30 rules
- Automated Collection Command Prompt
- Certificate Exported Via PowerShell
- Certificate Exported Via PowerShell - ScriptBlock
- DPAPI Backup Keys And Certificate Export Activity IOC
- Enumeration for 3rd Party Creds From CLI
- Enumeration for Credentials in Registry
- EventLog Query Requests By Builtin Utilities
- Extracting Information with PowerShell
- Findstr GPP Passwords
- HackTool - Typical HiveNightmare SAM File Export
- HackTool - WinPwn Execution
- HackTool - WinPwn Execution - ScriptBlock
- Insensitive Subfolder Search Via Findstr.EXE
- LSASS Process Reconnaissance Via Findstr.EXE
- Permission Misconfiguration Reconnaissance Via Findstr.EXE
- PFX File Creation
- Potential Password Reconnaissance Via Findstr.EXE
- Potential PowerShell Console History Access Attempt via History File
- Potential Russian APT Credential Theft Activity
- Potentially Suspicious EventLog Recon Activity Using Log Query Utilities
- Potentially Suspicious JWT Token Search Via CLI
- PowerShell Get-Process LSASS
- Private Keys Reconnaissance Via CommandLine Tools
- PUA - TruffleHog Execution
- Registry Export of Third-Party Credentials
- Remote File Download Via Findstr.EXE
- SAM Registry Hive Handle Request
- Script Interpreter Spawning Credential Scanner - Windows
- Shai-Hulud Malicious GitHub Workflow Creation
- Suspicious SYSVOL Domain Group Policy Access
Elastic 7 rules
- Access to a Sensitive LDAP Attribute
- Attempted Private Key Access
- Command Shell Activity Started via RunDLL32
- Microsoft IIS Connection Strings Decryption
- Microsoft IIS Service Account Password Dumped
- Suspicious CertUtil Commands
- Wireless Credential Dumping using Netsh Command
Splunk 28 rules
- Add DefaultUser And Password In Registry
- ADExplorer Execution (Sysmon)
- ADExplorer Execution (Windows Event Log)
- ADExplorer Snapshot Creation (Sysmon)
- ADExplorer Snapshot Creation (Windows Event Log)
- Attempted Veeam Database Credential Dump (PowerShell)
- Attempted Veeam Database Credential Dump (Sysmon)
- Attempted Veeam Database Credential Dump (Windows Event Log)
- Auto Admin Logon Registry Entry
- Credentials in Registry (Windows Event Log)
- Locate Credentials (PowerShell)
- Locate Credentials (Sysmon)
- Locate Credentials (Windows Event Log)
- Mimikatz (Sysmon)
- Mimikatz (Windows Event Log)
- Mimikatz Execution (Windows Event Log)
- Shai-Hulud 2 Exfiltration Artifact Files
- Windows Credentials in Registry Reg Query
- Windows Export Certificate
- Windows Findstr GPP Discovery
- Windows LAPS Password Gathering Via PowerShell Script
- Windows PowerShell Export Certificate
- Windows PowerShell Export PfxCertificate
- Windows PowerSploit GPP Discovery
- Windows Private Keys Discovery
- Windows Unsecured Outlook Credentials Access In Registry
- Windows Unusual FileZilla XML Config Access
- Windows Unusual Intelliform Storage Registry Access