Detection: Detect Activity Related to Pass the Hash Attacks

REMOVED DETECTION

This detection has been removed from the Splunk Threat Research content library and is no longer maintained or supported.

Reason: Detection deprecated as it no longer effectively identifies the intended malicious activity

Removed in version: 5.2.0

If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to us at research@splunk.com.

Updated Date: 2026-05-13 ID: f5939373-8054-40ad-8c64-cec478a22a4b Author: Bhavin Patel, Patrick Bareiss, Splunk Type: Hunting Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

This search looks for specific authentication events from the Windows Security Event logs to detect potential attempts at using the Pass-the-Hash technique. This search is DEPRECATED as it is possible for event code 4624 to generate a high level of noise, as legitimate logon events may also trigger this event code. This can be especially true in environments with high levels of user activity, such as those with many concurrent logons or frequent logon attempts.

Search

1`wineventlog_security` EventCode=4624 (Logon_Type=3 Logon_Process=NtLmSsp NOT AccountName="ANONYMOUS LOGON") OR (Logon_Type=9 Logon_Process=seclogo) 
2| fillnull 
3| stats count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime by EventCode, Logon_Type, WorkstationName, user, dest 
4| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
5| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
6| `detect_activity_related_to_pass_the_hash_attacks_filter`

Data Source

Name	Platform	Sourcetype	Source
Windows Event Log Security 4624	Windows	`'XmlWinEventLog'`	`'XmlWinEventLog:Security'`

Macros Used

Name	Value
wineventlog_security	`eventtype="wineventlog_security" OR Channel="security" OR source="XmlWinEventLog:Security" OR source="WinEventLog:Security"`
detect_activity_related_to_pass_the_hash_attacks_filter	``

detect_activity_related_to_pass_the_hash_attacks_filter is an empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.

Annotations

- MITRE ATT&CK

+ Kill Chain Phases

+ NIST

+ CIS

- Threat Actors

ID	Technique	Tactic
T1550.002

Default Configuration

This detection is configured by default in Splunk Enterprise Security to run with the following settings:

Setting	Value
Disabled	true
Cron Schedule	`N/A`
Earliest Time	`N/A`
Latest Time	`N/A`
Schedule Window	`N/A`
Creates Finding (Notable)	No
Creates Intermediate Finding (Risk Event)	No

Hunting detections do not generate a Finding (Notable) or Intermediate Findings (Risk Events).

Implementation

To successfully implement this search, you must ingest your Windows Security Event logs and leverage the latest TA for Windows.

Known False Positives

Legitimate logon activity by authorized NTLM systems may be detected by this search. Please investigate as appropriate.

Associated Analytic Story

Detection Testing

Test Type	Status	Dataset	Source	Sourcetype
Validation	Not Applicable	N/A	N/A	N/A
Unit	Not Applicable	N/A	`N/A`	`N/A`

Replay any dataset to Splunk Enterprise by using our replay.py tool or the UI. Alternatively you can replay a dataset into a Splunk Attack Range

Source: GitHub |

Version: 10