Malicious WDigest UseLogonCredential Enabled for Cleartext Credential Caching

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 WDigest UseLogonCredential registry value being set to 1, forcing Windows to cache plaintext credentials in memory as documented by Huntress. Attackers enable this setting before dumping LSASS so that cleartext passwords are recoverable. This modification undermines credential protection and is a strong precursor to credential harvesting.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1003.001 — drag to rearrange

Malicious WDigest UseLogonCredential Enabled for Cleartext Credential Theft (via registry_set)

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

Malicious WDigest Credential Caching Enabled via Registry (via registry_set)

Malicious WDigest UseLogonCredential Enablement For Credential Theft

Malicious LSASS Credential Dump via Rundll32 Comsvcs MiniDump via Process Creation (via process_creation)

Suspicious LSASS Credential Access via PowerShell (via process_creation)

Suspicious LSASS Memory Dump via Task Manager After Ivanti Exploitation

Suspicious ProcDump LSASS Memory Dump via process_creation

Malicious Mimikatz Credential Dump Log File Creation (via file_event)

Malicious WDigest UseLogonCredential Enabled for Cleartext Credential Caching

Pivot detection · T1003.001 · 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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