Kerberoasting Activity - Initial Query — Sigma Rule

Rule metadata and linked tags

Author: @kostastsale. Source status: test; severity: medium. Source dates: 2022-01-21 / 2025-10-19.

{
  "product": "windows",
  "service": "security"
}

Pinned original Sigma rule · Detection Rule License 1.1

Source SHA-256: cec0c81991d59e93a2acefefbea2fd3a0efec40e9c93acaa882c17b6dbbf641b

Detection logic

Original source YAML. Source-tag agreement is not proof of complete semantic coverage. This rule has not been compiled for a SIEM backend or validated against live telemetry here.

title: Kerberoasting Activity - Initial Query
id: d04ae2b8-ad54-4de0-bd87-4bc1da66aa59
status: test
description: |
    This rule will collect the data needed to start looking into possible kerberoasting activity.
    Further analysis or computation within the query is needed focusing on requests from one specific host/IP towards multiple service names within a time period of 5 seconds.
    You can then set a threshold for the number of requests and time between the requests to turn this into an alert.
references:
    - https://www.trustedsec.com/blog/art_of_kerberoast/
    - https://adsecurity.org/?p=3513
author: '@kostastsale'
date: 2022-01-21
modified: 2025-10-19
tags:
    - attack.credential-access
    - attack.t1558.003
logsource:
    product: windows
    service: security
detection:
    selection:
        EventID: 4769
        Status: '0x0' # Translated as status from failure code field. Query only for successes
        TicketEncryptionType: '0x17' # RC4 ticket encryption type
    filter_main_krbtgt:
        ServiceName|endswith:
            - 'krbtgt' # Ignore requests for the krbtgt service
            - '$' # Ignore requests from service names that end with $ which are associated with genuine kerberos traffic
    filter_main_machine_accounts:
        TargetUserName|contains: '$@' # Ignore requests from machines
    condition: selection and not 1 of filter_main_*
falsepositives:
    - Legacy applications.
level: medium

Original YAML and metadata in JSON

False positives

• Legacy applications.

Source references

• https://www.trustedsec.com/blog/art_of_kerberoast/
• https://adsecurity.org/?p=3513