Malicious Group Policy Preferences cpassword Discovery via findstr
- Category
- process_creation
- Author
- HuntRule
- Published
- 2026-11-03
- Updated
- 2026-11-03
ATT&CK techniques
Cred AccessRecon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact
What it detects
This rule detects findstr being used to recursively search the domain SYSVOL share for cpassword values stored in Group Policy Preferences XML files as demonstrated in the WithSecure Discovery and Lateral Movement lab. Recovering a GPP cpassword yields a reversible AES encrypted local administrator credential which gives an attacker an easy path to lateral movement and is a strong credential access signal.
Reporting behind it
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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