Antivirus Password Dumper Detection

Status: stable
Severity: critical
Log source: category antivirus
Author: Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Arnim Rupp
Source: github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Detects a highly relevant Antivirus alert that reports a password dumper. This event must not be ignored just because the AV has blocked the malware but investigate, how it came there in the first place.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Credential Access	`T1003.001` OS Credential Dumping: LSASS Memory, `T1003.002` OS Credential Dumping: Security Account Manager, `T1558` Steal or Forge Kerberos Tickets

Rule body yaml

title: Antivirus Password Dumper Detection
id: 78cc2dd2-7d20-4d32-93ff-057084c38b93
status: stable
description: |
    Detects a highly relevant Antivirus alert that reports a password dumper.
    This event must not be ignored just because the AV has blocked the malware but investigate, how it came there in the first place.
references:
    - https://www.nextron-systems.com/?s=antivirus
    - https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/5fcda49ee7f202559a6cbbb34edb65c33c9a1e0bde9fa2af06a6f11b55ded619
    - https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/a4edfbd42595d5bddb442c82a02cf0aaa10893c1bf79ea08b9ce576f82749448
author: Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Arnim Rupp
date: 2018-09-09
modified: 2024-11-02
tags:
    - attack.credential-access
    - attack.t1003
    - attack.t1558
    - attack.t1003.001
    - attack.t1003.002
logsource:
    category: antivirus
detection:
    selection:
        - Signature|startswith: 'PWS'
        - Signature|contains:
              - 'Certify'
              - 'DCSync'
              - 'DumpCreds'
              - 'DumpLsass'
              - 'DumpPert'
              - 'HTool/WCE'
              - 'Kekeo'
              - 'Lazagne'
              - 'LsassDump'
              - 'Mimikatz'
              - 'MultiDump'
              - 'Nanodump'
              - 'NativeDump'
              - 'Outflank'
              - 'PShlSpy'
              - 'PSWTool'
              - 'PWCrack'
              - 'PWDump'
              - 'PWS.'
              - 'PWSX'
              - 'pypykatz'
              - 'Rubeus'
              - 'SafetyKatz'
              - 'SecurityTool'
              - 'SharpChrome'
              - 'SharpDPAPI'
              - 'SharpDump'
              - 'SharpKatz'
              - 'SharpS.' # Sharpsploit, e.g. 530ea2ff9049f5dfdfa0a2e9c27c2e3c0685eb6cbdf85370c20a7bfae49f592d
              - 'ShpKatz'
              - 'TrickDump'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Unlikely
level: critical

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

selection

Stage 1: `selection`

selection:
    - Signature|startswith: 'PWS'
    - Signature|contains:
          - 'Certify'
          - 'DCSync'
          - 'DumpCreds'
          - 'DumpLsass'
          - 'DumpPert'
          - 'HTool/WCE'
          - 'Kekeo'
          - 'Lazagne'
          - 'LsassDump'
          - 'Mimikatz'
          - 'MultiDump'
          - 'Nanodump'
          - 'NativeDump'
          - 'Outflank'
          - 'PShlSpy'
          - 'PSWTool'
          - 'PWCrack'
          - 'PWDump'
          - 'PWS.'
          - 'PWSX'
          - 'pypykatz'
          - 'Rubeus'
          - 'SafetyKatz'
          - 'SecurityTool'
          - 'SharpChrome'
          - 'SharpDPAPI'
          - 'SharpDump'
          - 'SharpKatz'
          - 'SharpS.'
          - 'ShpKatz'
          - 'TrickDump'

Indicators

Each row is a field, operator, and value that the rule matches. The corpus column counts how many other rules in the catalog look for the same combination: high numbers point to widely-used, community-vetted indicators. Blank or 1 shows that the indicator is specific to this rule.

Field	Kind	Values
`Signature`	match	`Certify` `DCSync` `DumpCreds` corpus 2 (sigma 2) `DumpLsass` `DumpPert` `HTool/WCE` `Kekeo` `Lazagne` `LsassDump` `Mimikatz` corpus 2 (sigma 2) `MultiDump` `Nanodump` `NativeDump` `Outflank` `PSWTool` corpus 2 (sigma 2) `PShlSpy` corpus 3 (sigma 3) `PWCrack` corpus 2 (sigma 2) `PWDump` corpus 2 (sigma 2) `PWS.` `PWSX` `Rubeus` `SafetyKatz` `SecurityTool` corpus 2 (sigma 2) `SharpChrome` `SharpDPAPI` `SharpDump` corpus 2 (sigma 2) `SharpKatz` `SharpS.` `ShpKatz` `TrickDump` `pypykatz`
`Signature`	starts_with	`PWS`

`j` / `k`	Scroll down / up
`d` / `u`	Half-page down / up
`gg` / `G`	Top / bottom
`h` / `l`	History back / forward
`f`	Follow link (`Shift` = new tab)
`/`	Focus search
`?`	Toggle this help
`↑` / `↓`	Navigate search results
`Enter`	Open highlighted result
`Esc`	Close results / dialog

`type:`	`events` / `rules` / `providers`
`vendor:`	`sigma` / `elastic` / `splunk` / `kusto` / `chronicle` (vendor name alone also works: `sigma:`, `kql:`, `secops:`…)
`tactic:`	TA-id, slug, or name: `credential_access`, `TA0006`
`technique:`	technique or sub-technique ID: `T1003`, `T1003.001` (alias `tech:`)
`severity:`	`critical` / `high` / `medium` / `low` / `informational` (alias `sev:`)
`risk_score`	Numeric comparison on the Elastic risk score (0 to 100): `risk_score>50`, `risk_score<=20`, `risk_score=99` (alias `risk`; Elastic rules only)
`stages:`	Rules with exactly N pipeline stages
`correlation:`	`single_event` / `sequence` / `alternatives` / `alternatives_cross_log` / `all_required` / `correlated`
`with:`	Co-occurrence event-id; stacks (`with:4624 with:4769`) to require all, while a comma list in one occurrence (`with:4624,4769`) is an either-or group. Implies multi-event
`like:`	Structural neighbors of a rule slug (equivalents + subsumption stricter / broader): `like:comsvcs_lsass_memory_dump-splunk-sysmon`
`groupby:`	Entity-grouping substring match against `group_by_keys`: `groupby:user`, `groupby:host`
`uses:`	Rules whose predicate tree touches the field (any kind, any value): `uses:CommandLine`
`excludes:`	Rules with top-level `not()` clauses on the field (FP whitelists): `excludes:ParentImage`
`field:` / `value:`	Predicate search; narrows rule cards to those with a matching leaf and drives the indicator tier. Unquoted = substring, wildcards allowed (`value:mimikatz`)
`indicator:`	Shorthand for `field:F value:V`: `indicator:Image=*\powershell.exe`
`kind:`	Filter by predicate kind. Narrows rule cards to those carrying a matching predicate leaf (`vendor:elastic kind:cidr_match`) and drives the indicator tier: `contains` / `starts_with` / `ends_with` / `regex` / `cidr` / `eq` / `in` … (operator aliases `op:`/`match:`)
`has:` / `no:`	`sample`, `field`, `notes`, `refs`, `trace`, `thirdparty`, `rule`, `pattern`, `timewindow`, `threshold`, `newterms`, `sigma`/`elastic`/`splunk`/`kusto`/`chronicle`
`-op:val`	Exclude matches; works on most operators but not `type:`/`like:`/`has:`/`no:` (use `no:<flag>` to exclude a rule flag): `tactic:execution -vendor:splunk`. Standalone `-kind:`/`-field:`/`-value:` drop every rule carrying a matching predicate leaf (`type:rules -kind:is_null`)
`field:"…"` / `value:"…"`	Quoted value = anchored exact match (also allows spaces): `value:"net user"`
`a,b`	Comma = OR inside one operator (`vendor:sigma,elastic`, `severity:high,critical`); repeating a facet merges the same way. `field:`/`value:` never split (literal commas)
`vendors:` / `stage:`	Singular and plural spellings fold to the canonical operator and value: `tactics:` = `tactic:`, `type:event` = `type:events`, `correlation:sequences` = `correlation:sequence`, `has:thresholds` = `has:threshold`
`"quoted phrase"`	Exact-match a multi-word phrase (free text)

Antivirus Password Dumper Detection

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Rule body yaml

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

Stage 1: `selection`

Indicators

Keyboard shortcuts

Search operators

Antivirus Password Dumper Detection

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Rule body yaml

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

Stage 1: selection

Indicators

Stage 0: `condition`

Stage 1: `selection`