Suspicious SYSVOL Group Policy Preferences Access via Share Audit
- Product
- windows
- Service
- security
- Author
- HuntRule
- Published
- 2026-05-23
- Updated
- 2026-08-28
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 a user account reading machine level Group Policy Preferences files under the SYSVOL policies path through Windows detailed file share auditing as described in the WithSecure lab where GPP XML files were targeted for stored credentials. Interactive user access to machine policy XML files under SYSVOL frequently indicates hunting for cpassword secrets which is an early credential access and discovery 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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