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Windows PowerShell Remote Thread Into lsass.exe Suggesting Credential Dumping

Alerts when PowerShell creates a remote thread into lsass.exe, indicating possible credential dumping on Windows.

FreeReviewedSigma · High · v2
Product
windows
Category
create_remote_thread
Author
oscd.community, Natalia Shornikova (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published
2020-10-06
Updated
2026-07-31
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 Windows systems where a PowerShell process (powershell.exe or pwsh.exe) creates a remote thread targeting lsass.exe. Creating remote threads into lsass.exe is commonly associated with credential access techniques aimed at extracting authentication material. The detection relies on telemetry for remote thread creation events and the process image paths for both the source (PowerShell) and target (lsass.exe).

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1003.001 — drag to rearrange
Malicious Mimikatz Credential Dumping via Command Line Arguments
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)
Suspicious LSASS Credential Access via PowerShell (via process_creation)
Suspicious LSASS Memory Dump via Task Manager After Ivanti Exploitation
Suspicious ProcDump LSASS Memory Dump via process_creation
Malicious Mimikatz Credential Dump Log File Creation (via file_event)
Malicious WDigest UseLogonCredential Enabled for Cleartext Credential Theft (via registry_set)
Windows PowerShell Remote Thread Into lsass.exe Suggesting Credential Dumping
Pivot detection · T1003.001 · 9 related

Changelog

v2
  1. v2
    Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
  2. 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.