Capture Credentials with Rpcping.exe

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

Detects using Rpcping.exe to send a RPC test connection to the target server (-s) and force the NTLM hash to be sent in the process.

Known false positives

Unlikely

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Credential Access	`T1003` OS Credential Dumping

Telemetry coverage

Provider	Record / event type
Sysmon	Event ID 1: Process creation

Rule body

title: Capture Credentials with Rpcping.exe
id: 93671f99-04eb-4ab4-a161-70d446a84003
status: test
description: Detects using Rpcping.exe to send a RPC test connection to the target server (-s) and force the NTLM hash to be sent in the process.
references:
    - https://lolbas-project.github.io/lolbas/Binaries/Rpcping/
    - https://twitter.com/vysecurity/status/974806438316072960
    - https://twitter.com/vysecurity/status/873181705024266241
    - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2012-r2-and-2012/hh875578(v=ws.11)
author: Julia Fomina, oscd.community
date: 2020-10-09
modified: 2025-10-31
tags:
    - attack.credential-access
    - attack.t1003
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection_main_img:
        - Image|endswith: '\RpcPing.exe'
        - OriginalFileName: '\RpcPing.exe'
    selection_main_flag:
        CommandLine|contains|windash: '-s'
    selection_cli_ntlm:
        CommandLine|contains|windash: '-u'
        CommandLine|contains: 'NTLM'
    selection_cli_ncacn:
        CommandLine|contains|windash: '-t'
        CommandLine|contains: 'ncacn_np'
    condition: all of selection_main_* and 1 of selection_cli_*
falsepositives:
    - Unlikely
level: medium

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

all of selection_main_* and 1 of selection_cli_*

Stage 1: `selection_main_img`

selection_main_img:
    - Image|endswith: '\RpcPing.exe'
    - OriginalFileName: '\RpcPing.exe'

Stage 2: `selection_main_flag`

selection_main_flag:
    CommandLine|contains|windash: '-s'

Stage 3: `selection_cli_ntlm`

selection_cli_ntlm:
    CommandLine|contains|windash: '-u'
    CommandLine|contains: 'NTLM'

Stage 4: `selection_cli_ncacn`

selection_cli_ncacn:
    CommandLine|contains|windash: '-t'
    CommandLine|contains: 'ncacn_np'

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

Field	Kind	Values	Search
`CommandLine`	match	`-s` transforms: `windash` corpus 10 (sigma 4, kusto 4, elastic 1, splunk 1) `-t` transforms: `windash` corpus 3 (sigma 2, splunk 1) `-u` transforms: `windash` corpus 6 (sigma 5, splunk 1) `NTLM` `ncacn_np`	`field:"CommandLine" kind:match`
`Image`	ends_with	`\RpcPing.exe`	`field:"Image" kind:ends_with value:"\RpcPing.exe"`
`OriginalFileName`	eq	`\RpcPing.exe`	`field:"OriginalFileName" kind:eq value:"\RpcPing.exe"`

Capture Credentials with Rpcping.exe

Known false positives

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Telemetry coverage

Rule body

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

Stage 1: selection_main_img

Stage 2: selection_main_flag

Stage 3: selection_cli_ntlm

Stage 4: selection_cli_ncacn

Indicators

Stage 0: `condition`

Stage 1: `selection_main_img`

Stage 2: `selection_main_flag`

Stage 3: `selection_cli_ntlm`

Stage 4: `selection_cli_ncacn`