Windows NTLM authentication events (Event ID 8002)

ATT&CK techniques

Defense Evasion → Lateral Movement

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
- T1550.002Pass the Hash
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
- T1550.002Pass the Hash
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule flags occurrences of NTLM authentication on Windows by matching Microsoft-Windows-NTLM/Operational events with Event ID 8002. NTLM logons can be triggered by legacy systems and may also be used by attackers to authenticate laterally within a network. It relies on Windows NTLM operational telemetry that records NTLM-related authentication activity.

Reporting behind it

Related detections6 linkedT1550.002 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious Registry Modification Disabling RestrictedAdmin Mode (via process_creation)

Suspicious Lateral Movement via Invoke-WMIExec or Invoke-SMBExec (via ps_script)

Windows LsaSrv Events Indicating NTLMv1 Logon Between Client and Server

Windows Pass-the-Hash Activity via Security Event 4624 (LogonType 3 or 9)

Windows Successful Logon Type 9 (NewCredentials) Matching Overpass-the-Hash

Windows Security: Detects RULER workstation using NTLM and login events (Event IDs 4776, 4624/4625)

Windows NTLM authentication events (Event ID 8002)

Pivot detection · T1550.002 · 6 related

Changelog

v2

v2
Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
v1
No changelog recorded for this version.2026-07-30

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.

windows-ntlm-logon-event-id-8002-98c3bcf1

title: Windows NTLM authentication events (Event ID 8002)
id: 01301be9-acf7-4d38-b981-a30e238578f8
status: test
description: This rule flags occurrences of NTLM authentication on Windows by matching Microsoft-Windows-NTLM/Operational events with Event ID 8002. NTLM logons can be triggered by legacy systems and may also be used by attackers to authenticate laterally within a network. It relies on Windows NTLM operational telemetry that records NTLM-related authentication activity.
references:
  - https://twitter.com/JohnLaTwC/status/1004895028995477505
  - https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/master/rules/windows/builtin/ntlm/win_susp_ntlm_auth.yml
author: Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Huntrule Team
date: 2018-06-08
modified: 2024-07-22
tags:
  - attack.lateral-movement
  - attack.t1550.002
logsource:
  product: windows
  service: ntlm
  definition: Requires events from Microsoft-Windows-NTLM/Operational
detection:
  selection:
    EventID: 8002
  condition: selection
falsepositives:
  - Legacy hosts
level: low
license: DRL-1.1
related:
  - id: 98c3bcf1-56f2-49dc-9d8d-c66cf190238b
    type: derived

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