Sigma rule: Dumping of Sensitive Hives Via Reg.EXE

Rule

Title

Dumping of Sensitive Hives Via Reg.EXE

Status

test

Level

high

Author

Teymur Kheirkhabarov, Endgame, JHasenbusch, Daniil Yugoslavskiy, oscd.community, frack113

Date

2019-10-22

Modified

2023-12-13

File

rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_reg_dumping_sensitive_hives.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects the usage of "reg.exe" in order to dump sensitive registry hives. This includes SAM, SYSTEM and SECURITY hives.

Log source

product

windows

category

process_creation

Detection

selection_img:
    - Image|endswith: '\reg.exe'
    - OriginalFileName: 'reg.exe'
selection_cli_flag:
    CommandLine|contains:
        - ' save '
        - ' export '
        - ' ˢave '
        - ' eˣport '
selection_cli_hklm:
    CommandLine|contains:
        - 'hklm'
        - 'hk˪m'
        - 'hkey_local_machine'
        - 'hkey_˪ocal_machine'
        - 'hkey_loca˪_machine'
        - 'hkey_˪oca˪_machine'
selection_cli_hive:
    CommandLine|contains:
        - '\system'
        - '\sam'
        - '\security'
        - '\ˢystem'
        - '\syˢtem'
        - '\ˢyˢtem'
        - '\ˢam'
        - '\ˢecurity'
condition: all of selection_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Dumping hives for legitimate purpouse i.e. backup or forensic investigation

Tags

• attack.credential-access
• attack.t1003.002
• attack.t1003.004
• attack.t1003.005
• car.2013-07-001

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1003.002
• T1003.004
• T1003.005

Related rules

• 038cd51c-3ad8-41c5-ba8f-5d1c92f3cc1e (obsolete)
• 4d6c9da1-318b-4edf-bcea-b6c93fa98fd0 (obsolete)

References

• https://www.slideshare.net/heirhabarov/hunting-for-credentials-dumping-in-windows-environment
• https://eqllib.readthedocs.io/en/latest/analytics/aed95fc6-5e3f-49dc-8b35-06508613f979.html
• https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/f339e7da7d05f6057fdfcdd3742bfcf365fee2a9/atomics/T1003/T1003.md
• https://www.wietzebeukema.nl/blog/windows-command-line-obfuscation
• https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/f339e7da7d05f6057fdfcdd3742bfcf365fee2a9/atomics/T1003.002/T1003.002.md#atomic-test-1---registry-dump-of-sam-creds-and-secrets

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/process_creation/proc_creation_win_reg_dumping_sensitive_hives.yml