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T1003.004 LSA Secrets

Adversaries with SYSTEM access to a host may attempt to access Local Security Authority (LSA) secrets, which can contain a variety of different credential materials, such as credentials for service accounts.123 LSA secrets are stored in the registry at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SECURITY\Policy\Secrets. LSA secrets can also be dumped from memory.4

Reg can be used to extract from the Registry. Mimikatz can be used to extract secrets from memory.4

Item Value
ID T1003.004
Sub-techniques T1003.001, T1003.002, T1003.003, T1003.004, T1003.005, T1003.006, T1003.007, T1003.008
Tactics TA0006
Platforms Windows
Permissions required SYSTEM
Version 1.0
Created 21 February 2020
Last Modified 21 April 2021

Procedure Examples

ID Name Description
S0677 AADInternals AADInternals can dump secrets from the Local Security Authority.7
G0064 APT33 APT33 has used a variety of publicly available tools like LaZagne to gather credentials.3233
S0050 CosmicDuke CosmicDuke collects LSA secrets.16
S0488 CrackMapExec CrackMapExec can dump hashed passwords from LSA secrets for the targeted system.15
G0035 Dragonfly Dragonfly has dropped and executed SecretsDump to dump password hashes.2425
S0008 gsecdump gsecdump can dump LSA secrets.6
S0357 Impacket SecretsDump and Mimikatz modules within Impacket can perform credential dumping to obtain account and password information.8
G0004 Ke3chang Ke3chang has dumped credentials, including by using gsecdump.1718
S0349 LaZagne LaZagne can perform credential dumping from LSA secrets to obtain account and password information.14
G0077 Leafminer Leafminer used several tools for retrieving login and password information, including LaZagne.19
G0045 menuPass menuPass has used a modified version of pentesting tools wmiexec.vbs and secretsdump.py to dump credentials.2021
S0002 Mimikatz Mimikatz performs credential dumping to obtain account and password information useful in gaining access to additional systems and enterprise network resources. It contains functionality to acquire information about credentials in many ways, including from the LSA.9101112
G0069 MuddyWater MuddyWater has performed credential dumping with LaZagne.3031
G0049 OilRig OilRig has used credential dumping tools such as LaZagne to steal credentials to accounts logged into the compromised system and to Outlook Web Access.26272829
S0192 Pupy Pupy can use Lazagne for harvesting credentials.13
G0027 Threat Group-3390 Threat Group-3390 actors have used gsecdump to dump credentials. They have also dumped credentials from domain controllers.2223

Mitigations

ID Mitigation Description
M1027 Password Policies Ensure that local administrator accounts have complex, unique passwords across all systems on the network.
M1026 Privileged Account Management Follow best practices for design and administration of an enterprise network to limit privileged account use across administrative tiers.3
M1017 User Training Limit credential overlap across accounts and systems by training users and administrators not to use the same password for multiple accounts.

Detection

ID Data Source Data Component
DS0017 Command Command Execution
DS0024 Windows Registry Windows Registry Key Access

References

  1. Passcape. (n.d.). Windows LSA secrets. Retrieved February 21, 2020. ↩

  2. Microsoft. (2019, February 14). Active Directory administrative tier model. Retrieved February 21, 2020. ↩

  3. Chad Tilbury. (2017, August 8). 1Windows Credentials: Attack, Mitigation, Defense. Retrieved February 21, 2020. ↩↩

  4. Mantvydas Baranauskas. (2019, November 16). Dumping LSA Secrets. Retrieved February 21, 2020. ↩↩

  5. PowerSploit. (n.d.). Retrieved December 4, 2014. ↩

  6. TrueSec. (n.d.). gsecdump v2.0b5. Retrieved September 29, 2015. ↩

  7. Dr. Nestori Syynimaa. (2018, October 25). AADInternals. Retrieved February 18, 2022. ↩

  8. SecureAuth. (n.d.). Retrieved January 15, 2019. ↩

  9. Deply, B. (n.d.). Mimikatz. Retrieved September 29, 2015. ↩

  10. Deply, B., Le Toux, V. (2016, June 5). module ~ lsadump. Retrieved August 7, 2017. ↩

  11. Grafnetter, M. (2015, October 26). Retrieving DPAPI Backup Keys from Active Directory. Retrieved December 19, 2017. ↩

  12. The Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC), the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS), the New Zealand National Cyber Security Centre (NZ NCSC), CERT New Zealand, the UK National Cyber Security Centre (UK NCSC) and the US National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC). (2018, October 11). Joint report on publicly available hacking tools. Retrieved March 11, 2019. ↩

  13. Nicolas Verdier. (n.d.). Retrieved January 29, 2018. ↩

  14. Zanni, A. (n.d.). The LaZagne Project !!!. Retrieved December 14, 2018. ↩

  15. byt3bl33d3r. (2018, September 8). SMB: Command Reference. Retrieved July 17, 2020. ↩

  16. F-Secure Labs. (2015, September 17). The Dukes: 7 years of Russian cyberespionage. Retrieved December 10, 2015. ↩

  17. Villeneuve, N., Bennett, J. T., Moran, N., Haq, T., Scott, M., & Geers, K. (2014). OPERATION “KE3CHANG”: Targeted Attacks Against Ministries of Foreign Affairs. Retrieved November 12, 2014. ↩

  18. Smallridge, R. (2018, March 10). APT15 is alive and strong: An analysis of RoyalCli and RoyalDNS. Retrieved April 4, 2018. ↩

  19. Symantec Security Response. (2018, July 25). Leafminer: New Espionage Campaigns Targeting Middle Eastern Regions. Retrieved August 28, 2018. ↩

  20. PwC and BAE Systems. (2017, April). Operation Cloud Hopper: Technical Annex. Retrieved April 13, 2017. ↩

  21. Twi1ight. (2015, July 11). AD-Pentest-Script - wmiexec.vbs. Retrieved June 29, 2017. ↩

  22. Dell SecureWorks Counter Threat Unit Threat Intelligence. (2015, August 5). Threat Group-3390 Targets Organizations for Cyberespionage. Retrieved August 18, 2018. ↩

  23. Counter Threat Unit Research Team. (2017, June 27). BRONZE UNION Cyberespionage Persists Despite Disclosures. Retrieved July 13, 2017. ↩

  24. US-CERT. (2018, March 16). Alert (TA18-074A): Russian Government Cyber Activity Targeting Energy and Other Critical Infrastructure Sectors. Retrieved June 6, 2018. ↩

  25. Core Security. (n.d.). Impacket. Retrieved November 2, 2017. ↩

  26. Unit 42. (2017, December 15). Unit 42 Playbook Viewer. Retrieved December 20, 2017. ↩

  27. Davis, S. and Caban, D. (2017, December 19). APT34 - New Targeted Attack in the Middle East. Retrieved December 20, 2017. ↩

  28. Mandiant. (2018). Mandiant M-Trends 2018. Retrieved July 9, 2018. ↩

  29. Bromiley, M., et al.. (2019, July 18). Hard Pass: Declining APT34’s Invite to Join Their Professional Network. Retrieved August 26, 2019. ↩

  30. Lancaster, T.. (2017, November 14). Muddying the Water: Targeted Attacks in the Middle East. Retrieved March 15, 2018. ↩

  31. Symantec DeepSight Adversary Intelligence Team. (2018, December 10). Seedworm: Group Compromises Government Agencies, Oil & Gas, NGOs, Telecoms, and IT Firms. Retrieved December 14, 2018. ↩

  32. Security Response attack Investigation Team. (2019, March 27). Elfin: Relentless Espionage Group Targets Multiple Organizations in Saudi Arabia and U.S.. Retrieved April 10, 2019. ↩

  33. Ackerman, G., et al. (2018, December 21). OVERRULED: Containing a Potentially Destructive Adversary. Retrieved January 17, 2019. ↩

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