Malicious WDigest UseLogonCredential Enablement for Cleartext Credentials

ATT&CK techniques

Persistence → Defense Evasion

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

What it detects

This rule detects the WDigest UseLogonCredential value being set to 1, which forces Windows to keep cleartext credentials in memory for later theft. This registry modification was used in the pharmacy intrusion to enable plaintext credential harvesting and is almost never legitimate on modern systems.

Reporting behind it

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Malicious WDigest UseLogonCredential Enablement for Cleartext Credentials

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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