Adversaries may attempt to access detailed information about the password policy used within an enterprise network or cloud environment. Password policies are a way to enforce complex passwords that are difficult to guess or crack through Brute Force. This information may help the adversary to create a list of common passwords and launch dictionary and/or brute force attacks which adheres to the policy (e.g. if the minimum password length should be 8, then not trying passwords such as 'pass123'; not checking for more than 3-4 passwords per account if the lockout is set to 6 as to not lock out accounts).
Password policies can be set and discovered on Windows, Linux, and macOS systems via various command shell utilities such as net accounts (/domain)
, Get-ADDefaultDomainPasswordPolicy
, chage -l
, cat /etc/pam.d/common-password
, and pwpolicy getaccountpolicies
[1] [2]. Adversaries may also leverage a Network Device CLI on network devices to discover password policy information (e.g. show aaa
, show aaa common-criteria policy all
).[3]
Password policies can be discovered in cloud environments using available APIs such as GetAccountPasswordPolicy
in AWS [4].
ID | Name | Description |
---|---|---|
S0521 | BloodHound |
BloodHound can collect password policy information on the target environment.[5] |
G0114 | Chimera |
Chimera has used the NtdsAudit utility to collect information related to accounts and passwords.[6] |
S0488 | CrackMapExec |
CrackMapExec can discover the password policies applied to the target system.[7] |
S0236 | Kwampirs |
Kwampirs collects password policy information with the command |
S0039 | Net |
The |
G0049 | OilRig |
OilRig has used net.exe in a script with |
C0012 | Operation CuckooBees |
During Operation CuckooBees, the threat actors used the |
S0378 | PoshC2 |
PoshC2 can use |
G0010 | Turla |
Turla has used |
ID | Mitigation | Description |
---|---|---|
M1027 | Password Policies |
Ensure only valid password filters are registered. Filter DLLs must be present in Windows installation directory ( |
ID | Data Source | Data Component | Detects |
---|---|---|---|
DS0017 | Command | Command Execution |
Monitor executed commands and arguments for actions that may attempt to access detailed information about the password policy used within an enterprise network or cloud environment. For network devices, monitor executed commands in AAA logs, especially those run by unexpected or unauthorized users. |
DS0009 | Process | Process Creation |
Monitor for newly executed processes that may attempt to access detailed information about the password policy used within an enterprise network or cloud environment. |
DS0002 | User Account | User Account Metadata |
Monitor for contextual data about an account that may attempt to access detailed information about the password policy used within an enterprise network or cloud environment. |