NTDS or SAM Database File Copied

Identifies a copy operation of the Active Directory Domain Database (ntds.dit) or Security Account Manager (SAM) files. These 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: 5m

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: 6

Rule authors:

Elastic
Austin Songer

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Investigation guide

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## Config

If enabling an EQL rule on a non-elastic-agent index (such as beats) for versions <8.2, events will not define `event.ingested` and default fallback for EQL rules was not added until 8.2, so you will need to add a custom pipeline to populate `event.ingested` to @timestamp for this rule to work.

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*")

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/
Sub-technique:
- Name: Security Account Manager
- ID: T1003.002
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1003/002/

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