Sensitive File Access Via Volume Shadow Copy Backup — Sigma Rule

Rule metadata and linked tags

Author: Max Altgelt (Nextron Systems), Tobias Michalski (Nextron Systems). Source status: test; severity: high. Source dates: 2021-08-09 / 2024-01-18.

{
  "category": "process_creation",
  "product": "windows"
}

Pinned original Sigma rule · Detection Rule License 1.1

Source SHA-256: 5d80fbff5916017984daf1182e4f3315c3aaa38a27cd10b9b0ac0fab83314dec

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: Sensitive File Access Via Volume Shadow Copy Backup
id: f57f8d16-1f39-4dcb-a604-6c73d9b54b3d
status: test
description: |
    Detects a command that accesses the VolumeShadowCopy in order to extract sensitive files such as the Security or SAM registry hives or the AD database (ntds.dit)
references:
    - https://twitter.com/vxunderground/status/1423336151860002816?s=20
    - https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/03e9b8c2e86d6db450e5eceec057d7e369ee2389b9daecaf06331a95410aa5f8/detection
    - https://pentestlab.blog/2018/07/04/dumping-domain-password-hashes/
author: Max Altgelt (Nextron Systems), Tobias Michalski (Nextron Systems)
date: 2021-08-09
modified: 2024-01-18
tags:
    - attack.impact
    - attack.t1490
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection_1:
        # copy \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy1\Windows\NTDS\NTDS.dit C:\temp\ntds.dit 2>&1
        # There is an additional "\" to escape the special "?"
        CommandLine|contains: '\\\\\?\\GLOBALROOT\\Device\\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy'
    selection_2:
        CommandLine|contains:
            - '\\NTDS.dit'
            - '\\SYSTEM'
            - '\\SECURITY'
    condition: all of selection_*
falsepositives:
    - Unlikely
level: high

Original YAML and metadata in JSON

False positives

• Unlikely

Source references

• https://twitter.com/vxunderground/status/1423336151860002816?s=20
• https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/03e9b8c2e86d6db450e5eceec057d7e369ee2389b9daecaf06331a95410aa5f8/detection
• https://pentestlab.blog/2018/07/04/dumping-domain-password-hashes/