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 Enablement For Credential Theft

Malicious LSASS Credential Dump via ProcDump (via process_creation)

Suspicious Remote Desktop Enabled via fDenyTSConnections Registry by Sandworm

Malicious LSASS Memory Dump via comsvcs.dll by Salt Typhoon

Malicious Gh0stBins RAT Registry Marker HHClient

Suspicious PebbleDash C2 Configuration Stored Under WMI Security Key (via registry_set)

Suspicious WDigest UseLogonCredential Enablement for Plaintext Credential Theft (via registry_set)

Malicious LSASS Dump via Process Access (via process_access)

Malicious LSASS Credential Dump with LSASSY - Process (via process_creation)

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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