Sigma rule: Potential SAM Database Dump

Rule

Title

Potential SAM Database Dump

Status

test

Level

high

Author

Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)

Date

2022-02-11

Modified

2023-01-05

File

rules/windows/file/file_event/file_event_win_sam_dump.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects the creation of files that look like exports of the local SAM (Security Account Manager)

Log source

product

windows

category

file_event

Detection

selection:
    - TargetFilename|endswith:
          - '\Temp\sam'
          - '\sam.sav'
          - '\Intel\sam'
          - '\sam.hive'
          - '\Perflogs\sam'
          - '\ProgramData\sam'
          - '\Users\Public\sam'
          - '\AppData\Local\sam'
          - '\AppData\Roaming\sam'
          - '_ShadowSteal.zip'       # https://github.com/HuskyHacks/ShadowSteal
          - '\Documents\SAM.export'  # https://github.com/n3tsurge/CVE-2021-36934/
          - ':\sam'
    - TargetFilename|contains:
          - '\hive_sam_'             # https://github.com/FireFart/hivenightmare
          - '\sam.save'
          - '\sam.export'
          - '\~reg_sam.save'
          - '\sam_backup'
          - '\sam.bck'
          - '\sam.backup'
condition: selection

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Rare cases of administrative activity

Tags

• attack.credential-access
• attack.t1003.002

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1003.002

References

• https://github.com/search?q=CVE-2021-36934
• https://web.archive.org/web/20210725081645/https://github.com/cube0x0/CVE-2021-36934
• https://www.google.com/search?q=%22reg.exe+save%22+sam
• https://github.com/HuskyHacks/ShadowSteal
• https://github.com/FireFart/hivenightmare

Read on 2026-11-03T00:58:21.399Z under licence sigma-drl-1.1@d5f4c36a from https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/windows/file/file_event/file_event_win_sam_dump.yml