Malicious DarkGate hVNC Credential Stash via cmdkey

ATT&CK techniques

Lateral Movement

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
- T1021.001Remote Desktop Protocol
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects DarkGate storing hardcoded hidden-VNC credentials with cmdkey using the SafeMode user and the darkgatepassword0 secret. This exact credential string is unique to DarkGate hVNC sessions and reliably identifies the loader establishing covert remote access.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1021.001 — drag to rearrange

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Malicious RDP Tunneling (via rdp)

Suspicious Denied RDP Login with Valid Credentials (via security)

Malicious RDP Session Hijacking via tscon Command Line

Malicious DarkGate hVNC Credential Stash via cmdkey

Pivot detection · T1021.001 · 9 related

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.

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