Malicious Restricted Admin Mode Enabled for Pass-the-Hash RDP

ATT&CK techniques

Persistence → Cred Access

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
- T1112Modify Registry
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
- T1112Modify Registry
Cred Access
- T1003.001LSASS Memory
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects the DisableRestrictedAdmin registry value being set to 0 to enable Restricted Admin mode, a modification Huntress observed enabling pass-the-hash authentication over RDP. Attackers turn on this mode so a stolen NTLM hash can be used for interactive remote logon without a plaintext password. Enabling Restricted Admin outside of sanctioned hardening is a strong lateral-movement precursor.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1112 — drag to rearrange

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Suspicious RDP Enablement via fDenyTSConnections Registry Modification

LanmanServer MaxMpxCt Registry Modification for Lateral Movement Preparation

Malicious WDigest UseLogonCredential Enablement for Cleartext Credentials

Suspicious RDP Enablement via fDenyTSConnections Registry Modification [Huntress] #2

Malicious LSASS Memory Dump via Rundll32 and Comsvcs MiniDump

Malicious Restricted Admin Mode Enabled for Pass-the-Hash RDP

Pivot detection · T1112 · 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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