Dumping Account Hashes via Built-In Commands

Last updated 9 months ago on 2025-03-18

Created 5 years ago on 2021-01-25

About

Identifies the execution of macOS built-in commands used to dump user account hashes. Adversaries may attempt to dump credentials to obtain account login information in the form of a hash. These hashes can be cracked or leveraged for lateral movement.

Tags

Domain: EndpointOS: macOSUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Credential AccessData Source: Elastic DefendLanguage: eql

Severity

high

Risk Score

MITRE ATT&CK™

Credential Access (TA0006)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

↳ OS Credential Dumping (T1003)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

License

Elastic License v2(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Definition

Rule Type: Event Correlation Rule
Integration Pack: Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Index Patterns: logs-endpoint.events.*
Related Integrations: endpoint(external, opens in a new tab or window)
Query

✄𐘗text code block:
✄𐘗process where host.os.type == "macos" and event.type in ("start", "process_started") and
 process.name in ("defaults", "mkpassdb") and process.args like~ ("ShadowHashData", "-dump")

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Dumping Account Hashes via Built-In Commands in the Elastic Security detection engine by installing this rule into your Elastic Stack.

To setup this rule, check out the installation guide for Prebuilt Security Detection Rules(external, opens in a new tab or window).