Potential Credential Access via Trusted Developer Utility

Last updated 5 months ago on 2025-03-20
Created 5 years ago on 2020-03-25

About

An instance of MSBuild, the Microsoft Build Engine, loaded DLLs (dynamically linked libraries) responsible for Windows credential management. This technique is sometimes used for credential dumping.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: WindowsUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: Credential AccessTactic: Defense EvasionData Source: Elastic DefendData Source: SysmonLanguage: eql
Severity
high
Risk Score
73
MITRE ATT&CK™

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

Defense Evasion (TA0005)(opens in a new tab or window)

False Positive Examples
The Build Engine is commonly used by Windows developers but use by non-engineers is unusual.
License
Elastic License v2(opens in a new tab or window)

Definition

Rule Type
Event Correlation Rule
Integration Pack
Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Index Patterns
winlogbeat-*logs-endpoint.events.process-*logs-endpoint.events.library-*logs-windows.sysmon_operational-*
Related Integrations

endpoint(opens in a new tab or window)

windows(opens in a new tab or window)

Query
sequence by process.entity_id
 [process where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type == "start" and (process.name : "MSBuild.exe" or process.pe.original_file_name == "MSBuild.exe")]
 [any where host.os.type == "windows" and (event.category == "library" or (event.category == "process" and event.action : "Image loaded*")) and
  (?dll.name : ("vaultcli.dll", "SAMLib.DLL") or file.name : ("vaultcli.dll", "SAMLib.DLL"))]

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Potential Credential Access via Trusted Developer Utility 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(opens in a new tab or window).