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T1547.002 Authentication Package

Adversaries may abuse authentication packages to execute DLLs when the system boots. Windows authentication package DLLs are loaded by the Local Security Authority (LSA) process at system start. They provide support for multiple logon processes and multiple security protocols to the operating system.3

Adversaries can use the autostart mechanism provided by LSA authentication packages for persistence by placing a reference to a binary in the Windows Registry location HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\ with the key value of “Authentication Packages”=<target binary>. The binary will then be executed by the system when the authentication packages are loaded.

Item Value
ID T1547.002
Sub-techniques T1547.001, T1547.002, T1547.003, T1547.004, T1547.005, T1547.006, T1547.007, T1547.008, T1547.009, T1547.010, T1547.012, T1547.013, T1547.014, T1547.015
Tactics TA0003, TA0004
Platforms Windows
Permissions required Administrator
Version 1.0
Created 24 January 2020
Last Modified 20 April 2022

Procedure Examples

ID Name Description
S0143 Flame Flame can use Windows Authentication Packages for persistence.4

Mitigations

ID Mitigation Description
M1025 Privileged Process Integrity Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012 R2, and later versions, may make LSA run as a Protected Process Light (PPL) by setting the Registry key HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa\RunAsPPL, which requires all DLLs loaded by LSA to be signed by Microsoft. 1 2

Detection

ID Data Source Data Component
DS0017 Command Command Execution
DS0011 Module Module Load
DS0024 Windows Registry Windows Registry Key Modification

References

  1. Graeber, M. (2014, October). Analysis of Malicious Security Support Provider DLLs. Retrieved March 1, 2017. ↩

  2. Microsoft. (2013, July 31). Configuring Additional LSA Protection. Retrieved June 24, 2015. ↩

  3. Microsoft. (n.d.). Authentication Packages. Retrieved March 1, 2017. ↩

  4. sKyWIper Analysis Team. (2012, May 31). sKyWIper (a.k.a. Flame a.k.a. Flamer): A complex malware for targeted attacks. Retrieved September 6, 2018. ↩