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Detection rules › Sigma

Suspicious Kerberos Ticket Request via CLI

Status
experimental
Severity
high
Log source
product windows, category process_creation
Author
Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems)
Source
github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Detects suspicious Kerberos ticket requests via command line using System.IdentityModel.Tokens.KerberosRequestorSecurityToken class. Threat actors may use command line interfaces to request Kerberos tickets for service accounts in order to perform offline password cracking attacks commonly known as Kerberoasting or other Kerberos ticket abuse techniques like silver ticket attacks.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

TacticTechniques
Credential AccessT1558.003 Steal or Forge Kerberos Tickets: Kerberoasting

Event coverage

ProviderEventTitle
SysmonEvent ID 1Process creation

Rule body yaml

title: Suspicious Kerberos Ticket Request via CLI
id: caa9a802-8bd8-4b9e-a5cd-4d6221670219
related:
    - id: a861d835-af37-4930-bcd6-5b178bfb54df
      type: similar
status: experimental
description: |
    Detects suspicious Kerberos ticket requests via command line using System.IdentityModel.Tokens.KerberosRequestorSecurityToken class.
    Threat actors may use command line interfaces to request Kerberos tickets for service accounts in order to
    perform offline password cracking attacks commonly known as Kerberoasting or other Kerberos ticket abuse
    techniques like silver ticket attacks.
references:
    - https://www.huntress.com/blog/gootloader-threat-detection-woff2-obfuscation
    - https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/f339e7da7d05f6057fdfcdd3742bfcf365fee2a9/atomics/T1558.003/T1558.003.md#atomic-test-4---request-a-single-ticket-via-powershell
    - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.identitymodel.tokens.kerberosrequestorsecuritytoken?view=netframework-4.8.1
author: Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems)
date: 2025-11-18
tags:
    - attack.credential-access
    - attack.t1558.003
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection_img:
        - Image|endswith:
              - '\powershell.exe'
              - '\pwsh.exe'
        - OriginalFileName:
              - 'powershell.exe'
              - 'pwsh.dll'
    selection_cli:
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - 'System.IdentityModel.Tokens.KerberosRequestorSecurityToken'
            - '.GetRequest()'
    condition: all of selection_*
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate command line usage by administrators or security tools.
level: high

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

all of selection_*

Stage 1: selection_img

selection_img:
    - Image|endswith:
          - '\powershell.exe'
          - '\pwsh.exe'
    - OriginalFileName:
          - 'powershell.exe'
          - 'pwsh.dll'

Stage 2: selection_cli

selection_cli:
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - 'System.IdentityModel.Tokens.KerberosRequestorSecurityToken'
        - '.GetRequest()'

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.

FieldKindValues
CommandLinematch
  • .GetRequest()
  • System.IdentityModel.Tokens.KerberosRequestorSecurityToken
Imageends_with
  • \powershell.exe corpus 182 (sigma 182)
  • \pwsh.exe corpus 168 (sigma 168)
OriginalFileNameeq
  • powershell.exe corpus 120 (sigma 84, splunk 30, elastic 6)
  • pwsh.dll corpus 112 (sigma 79, splunk 30, elastic 3)