Enumeration for Credentials in Registry

Status: test
Severity: medium
Log source: product windows, category process_creation
Author: frack113
Source: github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

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

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Credential Access	`T1552.002` Unsecured Credentials: Credentials in Registry

Event coverage

Provider	Event	Title
Sysmon	Event ID 1	Process creation
Security-Auditing	Event ID 4688	A new process has been created.

Rule body yaml

title: Enumeration for Credentials in Registry
id: e0b0c2ab-3d52-46d9-8cb7-049dc775fbd1
status: test
description: |
    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
references:
    - https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/f339e7da7d05f6057fdfcdd3742bfcf365fee2a9/atomics/T1552.002/T1552.002.md
author: frack113
date: 2021-12-20
modified: 2022-12-25
tags:
    - attack.credential-access
    - attack.t1552.002
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    reg:
        Image|endswith: '\reg.exe'
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - ' query '
            - '/t '
            - 'REG_SZ'
            - '/s'
    hive:
        - CommandLine|contains|all:
              - '/f '
              - 'HKLM'
        - CommandLine|contains|all:
              - '/f '
              - 'HKCU'
        - CommandLine|contains: 'HKCU\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY\Sessions'
    condition: reg and hive
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: medium

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

reg and hive

Stage 1: `reg`

reg:
    Image|endswith: '\reg.exe'
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - ' query '
        - '/t '
        - 'REG_SZ'
        - '/s'

Stage 2: `hive`

hive:
    - CommandLine|contains|all:
          - '/f '
          - 'HKLM'
    - CommandLine|contains|all:
          - '/f '
          - 'HKCU'
    - CommandLine|contains: 'HKCU\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY\Sessions'

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
`CommandLine`	match	`query` corpus 4 (splunk 3, sigma 1) `/f` corpus 3 (sigma 3) `/s` corpus 8 (sigma 6, splunk 2) `/t` corpus 2 (sigma 2) `HKCU` `HKCU\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY\Sessions` `HKLM` corpus 4 (sigma 3, kusto 1) `REG_SZ`
`Image`	ends_with	`\reg.exe` corpus 58 (sigma 58)

`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)

Enumeration for Credentials in Registry

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Event coverage

Rule body yaml

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

Stage 1: `reg`

Stage 2: `hive`

Indicators

Keyboard shortcuts

Search operators

Enumeration for Credentials in Registry

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Event coverage

Rule body yaml

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

Stage 1: reg

Stage 2: hive

Indicators

Stage 0: `condition`

Stage 1: `reg`

Stage 2: `hive`