splunk-security_content/stories/credential_dumping.yml

name: Credential Dumping
id: 854d78bf-d0e2-4f4e-b05c-640905f86d7a
version: 4
creation_date: '2019-10-16'
modification_date: '2026-05-13'
author: Rico Valdez, Splunk
status: production
description: Uncover activity consistent with credential dumping, a technique wherein attackers compromise systems and attempt to obtain and exfiltrate passwords. The threat actors use these pilfered credentials to further escalate privileges and spread throughout a target environment. The included searches in this Analytic Story are designed to identify attempts to credential dumping.
narrative: 'Credential dumping—gathering credentials from a target system, often hashed or encrypted—is a common attack technique. Even though the credentials may not be in plain text, an attacker can still exfiltrate the data and set to cracking it offline, on their own systems. The threat actors target a variety of sources to extract them, including the Security Accounts Manager (SAM), Local Security Authority (LSA), NTDS from Domain Controllers, or the Group Policy Preference (GPP) files.

    Once attackers obtain valid credentials, they use them to move throughout a target network with ease, discovering new systems and identifying assets of interest. Credentials obtained in this manner typically include those of privileged users, which may provide access to more sensitive information and system operations.

    The detection searches in this Analytic Story monitor access to the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS) process, the usage of shadowcopies for credential dumping and some other techniques for credential dumping.'
references:
    - https://attack.mitre.org/wiki/Technique/T1003
    - https://cyberwardog.blogspot.com/2017/03/chronicles-of-threat-hunter-hunting-for.html
category:
    - Adversary Tactics
product:
    - Splunk Enterprise
    - Splunk Enterprise Security
    - Splunk Cloud
usecase: Advanced Threat Detection