IMPORTANT: No additional bug fixes or documentation updates will be released for this version. For the latest information, see the current release documentation.

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NTDS or SAM Database File Copied

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NTDS or SAM Database File Copied

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Identifies a copy operation of the Active Directory Domain Database (ntds.dit) or Security Account Manager (SAM) files. Those files contain sensitive information including hashed domain and/or local credentials.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

winlogbeat-*
logs-endpoint.events.*
logs-windows.*

Severity: high

Risk score: 73

Runs every: 5 minutes

Searches indices from: now-9m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum alerts per execution: 33

References:

Tags:

Elastic
Host
Windows
Threat Detection
Credential Access

Version: 8 (version history)

Added (Elastic Stack release): 7.11.0

Last modified (Elastic Stack release): 8.4.0

Rule authors: Elastic, Austin Songer

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Investigation guide

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Rule query

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process where event.type in ("start", "process_started") and (
(process.pe.original_file_name in ("Cmd.Exe", "PowerShell.EXE",
"XCOPY.EXE") and process.args : ("copy", "xcopy", "Copy-Item",
"move", "cp", "mv") ) or (process.pe.original_file_name :
"esentutl.exe" and process.args : ("*/y*", "*/vss*", "*/d*")) ) and
process.args : ("*\\ntds.dit", "*\\config\\SAM",
"\\*\\GLOBALROOT\\Device\\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy*\\*",
"*/system32/config/SAM*")

Threat mapping

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Framework: MITRE ATT&CK^TM

Tactic:
- Name: Credential Access
- ID: TA0006
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0006/
Technique:
- Name: OS Credential Dumping
- ID: T1003
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1003/

Rule version history

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Version 8 (8.4.0 release)

Formatting only

Version 6 (8.2.0 release)

Formatting only

Version 5 (7.16.0 release)

Formatting only

Version 4 (7.15.0 release)

Updated query, changed from:

process where event.type in ("start", "process_started") and
process.pe.original_file_name in ("Cmd.Exe", "PowerShell.EXE",
"XCOPY.EXE") and process.args : ("copy", "xcopy", "Copy-Item",
"move", "cp", "mv") and process.args : ("*\\ntds.dit",
"*\\config\\SAM",
"\\*\\GLOBALROOT\\Device\\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy*\\*")

Version 3 (7.12.0 release)

Formatting only

Version 2 (7.11.2 release)

Formatting only

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