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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
Version 1.2
Created 04 February 2020
Last Modified 24 October 2025

Procedure Examples

ID Name Description
S0331 Agent Tesla Agent Tesla has the ability to extract credentials from the Registry.8
G0050 APT32 APT32 used Outlook Credential Dumper to harvest credentials stored in Windows registry.910
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
G1039 RedCurl RedCurl used LaZagne to obtain passwords in the Registry.1112
S0075 Reg Reg may be used to find credentials in the Windows Registry.1
S1183 StrelaStealer StrelaStealer enumerates the registry key HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Profiles\Outlook\9375CFF0413111d3B88A00104B2A6676\ to identify the values for “IMAP User,” “IMAP Server,” and “IMAP Password” associated with the Outlook email application.345
S0266 TrickBot TrickBot has retrieved PuTTY credentials by querying the Software\SimonTatham\Putty\Sessions registry key 6
S0476 Valak Valak can use the clientgrabber module to steal e-mail credentials from the Registry.7

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.

References

  1. netbiosX. (2017, April 19). Stored Credentials. Retrieved April 6, 2018. ↩↩↩

  2. CrowdStrike. (2022, May). ICEAPPLE: A NOVEL INTERNET INFORMATION SERVICES (IIS) POST-EXPLOITATION FRAMEWORK. Retrieved June 27, 2022. ↩

  3. DCSO CyTec Blog. (2022, November 8). #ShortAndMalicious: StrelaStealer aims for mail credentials. Retrieved December 31, 2024. ↩

  4. Fortgale. (2023, September 18). StrelaStealer Malware Analysis. Retrieved December 31, 2024. ↩

  5. Golo Mühr, Joe Fasulo & Charlotte Hammond, IBM X-Force. (2024, November 12). Strela Stealer: Today’s invoice is tomorrow’s phish. Retrieved December 31, 2024. ↩

  6. Llimos, N., Pascual, C.. (2019, February 12). Trickbot Adds Remote Application Credential-Grabbing Capabilities to Its Repertoire. Retrieved March 12, 2019. ↩

  7. Reaves, J. and Platt, J. (2020, June). Valak Malware and the Connection to Gozi Loader ConfCrew. Retrieved August 31, 2020. ↩

  8. Walter, J. (2020, August 10). Agent Tesla | Old RAT Uses New Tricks to Stay on Top. Retrieved December 11, 2020. ↩

  9. Dahan, A. (2017, May 24). OPERATION COBALT KITTY: A LARGE-SCALE APT IN ASIA CARRIED OUT BY THE OCEANLOTUS GROUP. Retrieved November 5, 2018. ↩

  10. Dahan, A. (2017). Operation Cobalt Kitty. Retrieved December 27, 2018. ↩

  11. Group-IB. (2020, August). RedCurl: The Pentest You Didn’t Know About. Retrieved August 9, 2024. ↩

  12. Group-IB. (2021, November). RedCurl: The Awakening. Retrieved August 14, 2024. ↩