Credential Acquisition via Registry Hive Dumpingedit

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: 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
  • Credential Access

Version: 4 (version history)

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.11.0

Last modified (Elastic Stack release): 7.16.0

Rule authors: Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Rule queryedit

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")

Threat mappingedit

Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM

Rule version historyedit

Version 4 (7.16.0 release)
  • Formatting only
Version 3 (7.12.0 release)
  • Updated query, changed from:

    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")
    and not process.parent.executable : "C:\\Program
    Files*\\Rapid7\\Insight
    Agent\\components\\insight_agent\\*\\ir_agent.exe"
Version 2 (7.11.2 release)
  • Updated query, changed from:

    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")
    and not process.parent.executable : "C:\\Program
    Files*\\Rapid7\\Insight
    Agent\\components\\insight_agent\\*\\ir_agent.exe"