Protected Storage Service Access via SMB

Last updated 8 days ago on 2026-06-26

Created 8 days ago on 2026-06-26

About

Identifies remote access to the Windows Protected Storage Service through the IPC$ share. Attackers may abuse this named pipe to interact with the Protected Storage Service and extract sensitive credentials, certificates, or DPAPI backup keys.

Tags

Domain: EndpointOS: WindowsUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Credential AccessTactic: Lateral MovementUse Case: Active Directory MonitoringData Source: Active DirectoryData Source: Windows Security Event LogsLanguage: kuery

Severity

high

Risk Score

MITRE ATT&CK™

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

↳ Credentials from Password Stores (T1555)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Unsecured Credentials (T1552)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Lateral Movement (TA0008)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Remote Services (T1021)(external, opens in a new tab or window)

License

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

Definition

Rule Type

Query (Kibana Query Language)

Integration Pack

Prebuilt Security Detection Rules

Index Patterns

logs-system.security*logs-windows.forwarded*winlogbeat-*

Related Integrations

system(external, opens in a new tab or window)

windows(external, opens in a new tab or window)

Query

✄𐘗text code block:
✄𐘗host.os.type:windows and event.category:file and event.code:5145 and
  winlog.event_data.ShareName:"\\\\*\\IPC$" and
  winlog.event_data.RelativeTargetName:"protected_storage" and
  not source.ip:("::" or "::1" or "0.0.0.0" or "127.0.0.1")

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Protected Storage Service Access via SMB 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).