T1552.002 Credentials in Registry
Adversaries may search the Registry on compromised systems for insecurely stored credentials. The Windows Registry stores configuration information that can be used by the system or other programs. Adversaries may query the Registry looking for credentials and passwords that have been stored for use by other programs or services. Sometimes these credentials are used for automatic logons.
Example commands to find Registry keys related to password information: 1
- Local Machine Hive:
reg query HKLM /f password /t REG_SZ /s
- Current User Hive:
reg query HKCU /f password /t REG_SZ /s
Item | Value |
---|---|
ID | T1552.002 |
Sub-techniques | T1552.001, T1552.002, T1552.003, T1552.004, T1552.005, T1552.006, T1552.007, T1552.008 |
Tactics | TA0006 |
Platforms | Windows |
Permissions required | Administrator, User |
Version | 1.0 |
Created | 04 February 2020 |
Last Modified | 07 February 2020 |
Procedure Examples
ID | Name | Description |
---|---|---|
S0331 | Agent Tesla | Agent Tesla has the ability to extract credentials from the Registry.3 |
G0050 | APT32 | APT32 used Outlook Credential Dumper to harvest credentials stored in Windows registry.67 |
S1022 | IceApple | IceApple can harvest credentials from local and remote host registries.2 |
S0194 | PowerSploit | PowerSploit has several modules that search the Windows Registry for stored credentials: Get-UnattendedInstallFile , Get-Webconfig , Get-ApplicationHost , Get-SiteListPassword , Get-CachedGPPPassword , and Get-RegistryAutoLogon .1 |
S0075 | Reg | Reg may be used to find credentials in the Windows Registry.1 |
S0266 | TrickBot | TrickBot has retrieved PuTTY credentials by querying the Software\SimonTatham\Putty\Sessions registry key 5 |
S0476 | Valak | Valak can use the clientgrabber module to steal e-mail credentials from the Registry.4 |
Mitigations
ID | Mitigation | Description |
---|---|---|
M1047 | Audit | Proactively search for credentials within the Registry and attempt to remediate the risk. |
M1027 | Password Policies | Do not store credentials within the Registry. |
M1026 | Privileged Account Management | If it is necessary that software must store credentials in the Registry, then ensure the associated accounts have limited permissions so they cannot be abused if obtained by an adversary. |
Detection
ID | Data Source | Data Component |
---|---|---|
DS0017 | Command | Command Execution |
DS0009 | Process | Process Creation |
DS0024 | Windows Registry | Windows Registry Key Access |
References
-
netbiosX. (2017, April 19). Stored Credentials. Retrieved April 6, 2018. ↩↩↩
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CrowdStrike. (2022, May). ICEAPPLE: A NOVEL INTERNET INFORMATION SERVICES (IIS) POST-EXPLOITATION FRAMEWORK. Retrieved June 27, 2022. ↩
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Walter, J. (2020, August 10). Agent Tesla | Old RAT Uses New Tricks to Stay on Top. Retrieved December 11, 2020. ↩
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Reaves, J. and Platt, J. (2020, June). Valak Malware and the Connection to Gozi Loader ConfCrew. Retrieved August 31, 2020. ↩
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Llimos, N., Pascual, C.. (2019, February 12). Trickbot Adds Remote Application Credential-Grabbing Capabilities to Its Repertoire. Retrieved March 12, 2019. ↩
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Dahan, A. (2017, May 24). OPERATION COBALT KITTY: A LARGE-SCALE APT IN ASIA CARRIED OUT BY THE OCEANLOTUS GROUP. Retrieved November 5, 2018. ↩
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Dahan, A. (2017). Operation Cobalt Kitty. Retrieved December 27, 2018. ↩