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Potential Shadow Credentials added to AD Object

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Potential Shadow Credentials added to AD Object

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Identify the modification of the msDS-KeyCredentialLink attribute in an Active Directory Computer or User Object. Attackers can abuse control over the object and create a key pair, append to raw public key in the attribute, and obtain persistent and stealthy access to the target user or computer object.

Rule type: query

Rule indices:

winlogbeat-*
logs-system.*

Severity: high

Risk score: 73

Runs every: 5 minutes

Searches indices from: now-9m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References:

Tags:

Elastic
Host
Windows
Threat Detection
Credential Access
Active Directory

Version: 101 (version history)

Added (Elastic Stack release): 8.1.0

Last modified (Elastic Stack release): 8.6.0

Rule authors: Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Potential false positives

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Modifications in the msDS-KeyCredentialLink attribute can be done legitimately by the Azure AD Connect synchronization account or the ADFS service account. These accounts can be added as Exceptions.

Investigation guide

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Rule query

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event.action:"Directory Service Changes" and event.code:"5136" and
winlog.event_data.AttributeLDAPDisplayName:"msDS-KeyCredentialLink"
and winlog.event_data.AttributeValue :B\:828*

Threat mapping

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Framework: MITRE ATT&CK^TM

Tactic:
- Name: Credential Access
- ID: TA0006
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0006/
Technique:
- Name: Modify Authentication Process
- ID: T1556
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1556/

Rule version history

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Version 101 (8.6.0 release)

Updated query, changed from:

event.action:"Directory Service Changes" and event.code:"5136" and
winlog.event_data.AttributeLDAPDisplayName:"msDS-KeyCredentialLink"

Version 100 (8.5.0 release)

Formatting only

Version 4 (8.4.0 release)

Formatting only

Version 2 (8.2.0 release)

Formatting only

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