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Windows LSASS Process Clone Execution Observed

Alerts on process creation where LSASS creates a new LSASS clone, which may indicate credential dumping activity.

FreeReviewedSigma · Critical · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Samir Bousseaden (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published
2021-11-27
Updated
2026-07-30
AnalysisDetection

ATT&CK techniques

Cred Access

  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Execution

  5. Persistence

  6. Priv Esc

  7. Defense Evasion

  8. Cred Access

  9. Discovery

  10. Lateral Movement

  11. Collection

  12. C2

  13. Exfiltration

  14. Impact

What it detects

This rule flags process creation events where both the parent process image and the new process image are lsass.exe from System32, indicating an LSASS process clone. Such cloning can be used to access or manipulate credential material and is a known tactic to support credential dumping workflows. The detection relies on Windows process creation telemetry that includes the parent process image and the process image path ending in \Windows\System32\lsass.exe.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1003.001 — drag to rearrange
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Windows PUA: MemProcFS memory dump mounting via -device
Antivirus Credential Dumping Signature Match (Password Dumpers/Stealers)
Malicious Credential Extraction via Volatility Memory Analysis (via process_creation)
Suspicious Physical Memory Acquisition via WinPmem (via process_creation)
Malicious LSASS Credential Dump via Rundll32 Comsvcs MiniDump via Process Creation (via process_creation)
Malicious NTDS Credential Dump via Ntdsutil IFM Snapshot (via process_creation)
Suspicious LSASS Credential Access via PowerShell (via process_creation)
Suspicious LSASS Memory Dump via Task Manager After Ivanti Exploitation
Windows LSASS Process Clone Execution Observed
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.