Use Alternate Authentication Material: Pass the Hash T1550.002

Tactic: Lateral Movement

Adversaries may “pass the hash” using stolen password hashes to move laterally within an environment, bypassing normal system access controls. Pass the hash (PtH) is a method of authenticating as a user without having access to the user's cleartext password. This method bypasses standard authentication steps that require a cleartext password, moving directly into the portion of the authentication that uses the password hash.

Events covered

14 catalog events are tagged with this technique by at least one rule.

Authoring guide

Patterns shared across the 16 rules above: which fields they filter on, what specific values they look for, and what they exclude. The catalog normalizes field names across vendors so Sigma's Image, Elastic's process.name, and Splunk's process_name collapse into one row. Each rule contributes at most once per row.

Fields filtered most (29 distinct)

The fields most rules look at when detecting this technique. The How column shows the operators authors use (eq, wildcard, regex_match, match) and how often each appears. Sample values are concrete examples to start from, not an exhaustive list.

FieldRulesHowSample values
EventID5eq 54688, 1, 12, 13, 4103
LogonType5eq 5NewCredentials, Network
LogonProcessName4eq 4seclogo, NtLmSsp
event.category3eq 3process, authentication
AuthenticationPackageName2eq 2Negotiate
ScriptBlockText2eq 2, in 10x4e,0x54,0x20,0x4c,0x4d, 0x4e,0x54,0x4c,0x4d,0x53,0x53,0x50, 0x53,0x4d,0x42,0x20,0x32, cert_system_store_local_machine, crypto::certificates
event.type2eq 1, in 1change, process_started, start
Authentication_Package1eq 1NTLM
CommandLine1contains 1-encodedcommand
Details1eq 10x00000001, 1
EfectiveCommand1regex_match 1regexEmpire
EventData1contains 1-encodedcommand, powershell.exe, powershell_ise.exe
EventType1eq 1logged-in
KeyLength1eq 10
Provider_Name1eq 1LsaSrv

Top indicator values (78 distinct)

Specific (field, operator, value) combinations the rules check for, ranked by how many rules under this technique use each one. The Corpus reach column counts how many rules across the entire catalog (any technique) check the same combination. High numbers point to widely-used indicators that are likely noisy on their own; combine them with another condition for useful signal. Blank means the combination is specific to rules under this technique. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that use it.

FieldKindValueRules (here)Corpus reach
LogonProcessNameeq
seclogo
45
LogonProcessNameeq
NtLmSsp
12
LogonTypeeq
NewCredentials
48
LogonTypeeq
Network
240
AuthenticationPackageNameeq
Negotiate
24
EventIDeq
4688
2313
EventIDeq
1
1237
EventIDeq
12
19
EventIDeq
13
122
EventIDeq
4103
1105
EventIDeq
4104
1268
EventIDeq
4624
125
EventIDeq
4657
117
event.categoryeq
process
2128
Authentication_Packageeq
NTLM
13
CommandLinecontains
-encodedcommand
13
Detailseq
0x00000001
163
Detailseq
1
113
EfectiveCommandregex_match
regexEmpire
1
EventDatacontains
-encodedcommand
1
EventDatacontains
powershell.exe
1
EventDatacontains
powershell_ise.exe
1
EventDatacontains
pwsh.exe
1
EventTypeeq
logged-in
18
KeyLengtheq
0
1
Provider_Nameeq
LsaSrv
1
ScriptBlockTexteq
0x4e,0x54,0x20,0x4c,0x4d
1
ScriptBlockTexteq
0x4e,0x54,0x4c,0x4d,0x53,0x53,0x50
1
ScriptBlockTexteq
0x53,0x4d,0x42,0x20,0x32
1
ScriptBlockTexteq
0x81,0xbb,0x7a,0x36,0x44,0x98,0xf1,0x35,0xad,0x32,0x98,0xf0,0x38
1

Exclusions (14 distinct)

Field/operator/value combinations excluded by rules under this technique (top-level not() clauses), sorted by how many rules exclude each. These are the false-positive paths the community has learned to filter out. A new rule that ignores the high-count entries here will likely fire on the same noisy paths. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that exclude it.

FieldKindValueRules excluding
EventDatacontains
gc_service.exe
1
EventDatacontains
gc_worker.exe
1
Imagewildcard
\device\harddiskvolume*\system32\deviceenroller.exe
1
Imagewildcard
\device\harddiskvolume*\system32\omadmclient.exe
1
Imagewildcard
\device\harddiskvolume*\uus\amd64\mousocoreworker.exe
1
Imagewildcard
\device\harddiskvolume*\uus\packages\preview\amd64\mousocoreworker.exe
1
Imagewildcard
c:\windows\system32\deviceenroller.exe
1
Imagewildcard
c:\windows\system32\omadmclient.exe
1
Imagewildcard
c:\windows\uus\amd64\mousocoreworker.exe
1
Imagewildcard
c:\windows\uus\packages\preview\amd64\mousocoreworker.exe
1
ParentImagecontains
gc_service.exe
1
ParentImagecontains
gc_worker.exe
1
TargetUserNameeq
ANONYMOUS LOGON
1
file.directoryeq
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection\Downloads
1

Rules under this technique

Every rule in the catalog tagged with this technique, grouped by vendor. Click a rule title for its full predicates, exclusions, and indicators.

Platform (all)
Domain (all)

Sigma 6 rules

Elastic 5 rules

Splunk 4 rules

Kusto 1 rule