SAM Registry Hive Handle Request¶

Metadata¶


id	WIN-190725024610
author	Roberto Rodriguez @Cyb3rWard0g
creation date	2019/07/25
platform	Windows
playbook link	WIN-190625024610

Technical Description¶

Every computer that runs Windows has its own local domain; that is, it has an account database for accounts that are specific to that computer. Conceptually,this is an account database like any other with accounts, groups, SIDs, and so on. These are referred to as local accounts, local groups, and so on. Because computers typically do not trust each other for account information, these identities stay local to the computer on which they were created. Adversaries might use tools like Mimikatz with lsadump::sam commands or scripts such as Invoke-PowerDump to get the SysKey to decrypt Security Account Mannager (SAM) database entries (from registry or hive) and get NTLM, and sometimes LM hashes of local accounts passwords.

In addition, adversaries can use the built-in Reg.exe utility to dump the SAM hive in order to crack it offline.

Additional reading

https://github.com/hunters-forge/ThreatHunter-Playbook/tree/master/docs/library/security_account_manager_database.md
https://github.com/hunters-forge/ThreatHunter-Playbook/tree/master/docs/library/syskey.md

Hypothesis¶

Adversaries might be getting a handle to the SAM database to extract credentials in my environment

Analytics¶

Initialize Analytics Engine¶

from openhunt.mordorutils import *
spark = get_spark()

Download & Process Mordor File¶

mordor_file = "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/hunters-forge/mordor/master/datasets/small/windows/credential_access/empire_mimikatz_lsadump_sam.tar.gz"
registerMordorSQLTable(spark, mordor_file, "mordorTable")

[+] Processing a Spark DataFrame..

[+] Processing Data from Winlogbeat version 6..
[+] DataFrame Returned !

[+] Temporary SparkSQL View: mordorTable

Analytic I¶

FP Rate	Log Channel	Description
Medium	[‘Security’]	Monitor for any handle requested for the SAM registry hive

df = spark.sql(
    '''
SELECT `@timestamp`, computer_name, SubjectUserName, ProcessName, ObjectName, AccessMask
FROM mordorTable
WHERE channel = "Security"
    AND event_id = 4656
    AND ObjectType = "Key"
    AND lower(ObjectName) LIKE "%sam"
    '''
)
df.show(10,False)

+-----------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------------------------------------------------+---------------------+----------+
|@timestamp             |computer_name  |SubjectUserName|ProcessName                                              |ObjectName           |AccessMask|
+-----------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------------------------------------------------+---------------------+----------+
|2019-06-25 10:39:04.376|HR001.shire.com|HR001$         |C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe|\REGISTRY\MACHINE\SAM|0x20019   |
+-----------------------+---------------+---------------+---------------------------------------------------------+---------------------+----------+

Detection Blindspots¶

Hunter Notes¶

Hunt Output¶

Category	Type	Name
signature	SIGMA	win_sam_registry_hive_handle_request
signature	SIGMA	win_sam_registry_hive_dump_via_reg_utility

References¶

http://www.harmj0y.net/blog/activedirectory/remote-hash-extraction-on-demand-via-host-security-descriptor-modification/
https://github.com/gentilkiwi/mimikatz/wiki/module-~-lsadump
https://adsecurity.org/?page_id=1821#LSADUMPSAM

Threat Hunter Playbook