Detect Password Guessing in IBM QRadar
Adversaries with no prior knowledge of legitimate credentials within the system or environment may guess passwords to attempt access to accounts. Without knowledge of the password for an account, an adversary may opt to systematically guess the password using a repetitive or iterative mechanism. An adversary may guess login credentials without prior knowledge of system or environment passwords during an operation by using a list of common passwords. Password guessing may or may not take into account the target's policies on password complexity or use policies that may lock accounts out after a number of failed attempts. Commonly targeted services include SSH, RDP, SMB, LDAP, Kerberos, FTP, MSSQL, MySQL, VNC, and web management portals. Threat actors such as APT28, APT29, Emotet, and tools like CrackMapExec have leveraged this technique extensively.
MITRE ATT&CK
- Tactic
- Credential Access
- Technique
- T1110 Brute Force
- Sub-technique
- T1110.001 Password Guessing
- Canonical reference
- https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1110/001/
QRadar Detection Query
SELECT
DATEFORMAT(MIN(starttime), 'YYYY-MM-dd HH:mm:ss') AS FirstSeen,
DATEFORMAT(MAX(starttime), 'YYYY-MM-dd HH:mm:ss') AS LastSeen,
sourceip AS SourceIP,
destinationip AS DestinationIP,
COUNT(*) AS FailureCount,
UNIQUECOUNT(username) AS DistinctAccounts,
ARRAY(username) AS Accounts,
CASE
WHEN COUNT(*) >= 50 THEN 'High'
WHEN COUNT(*) >= 20 THEN 'Medium'
ELSE 'Low'
END AS Severity,
CASE
WHEN UNIQUECOUNT(username) > 3 THEN 'Password Spray Likely'
ELSE 'Password Guessing'
END AS AttackPattern
FROM events
WHERE LOGSOURCETYPEID IN (12, 13)
AND eventid IN (4625, 4771, 4776)
AND username NOT IN ('', '-', 'ANONYMOUS LOGON')
AND sourceip IS NOT NULL
AND sourceip NOT IN ('127.0.0.1', '0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1')
GROUP BY sourceip, destinationip, TRUNCATE(LONG(starttime) / 600000)
HAVING FailureCount >= 10
ORDER BY FailureCount DESC
LAST 60 MINUTESDetects password guessing by aggregating Windows authentication failure events (Event IDs 4625 logon failure, 4771 Kerberos pre-auth failure, 4776 NTLM credential validation failure) from QRadar Windows log sources in 10-minute buckets, alerting when 10 or more failures are observed from the same source IP to the same destination. Classifies attack pattern as password guessing vs spray based on distinct account count.
Data Sources
Required Tables
False Positives & Tuning
- Backup agents or monitoring software using service accounts whose passwords were rotated without updating the agent configuration, generating periodic authentication failure bursts
- Helpdesk or IT staff testing account lockout policies or conducting authorized credential audits during maintenance windows
- Legacy applications or scheduled tasks configured with stale service account credentials that have not been updated after a password policy enforcement cycle
Other platforms for T1110.001
Testing Methodology
Validate this detection against 5 adversary techniques from Atomic Red Team. Each test below lists the behaviour to exercise and the telemetry you should expect to see. Executable commands and cleanup steps are available with Pro.
- Test 1RDP Password Guessing with Hydra
Expected signal: Windows Security Event ID 4625 (Logon Failure) with LogonType=10 (RemoteInteractive) on the target system, source IP matching the attacker host. Multiple failures in rapid succession. Network flow logs showing repeated TCP connections to port 3389 from attacker IP.
- Test 2SMB Password Guessing with CrackMapExec
Expected signal: Windows Security Event ID 4625 (Logon Failure) with LogonType=3 (Network) and SubStatus 0xC000006A (wrong password) on the target DC/server. Event ID 4776 (NTLM validation failure) may also appear. Sysmon Event ID 3 on the attacker host showing outbound connections to port 445.
- Test 3SSH Password Guessing using Hydra on Linux
Expected signal: Linux syslog/auth.log entries: 'Failed password for <user> from <attacker_ip> port <port> ssh2' and 'Invalid user <user> from <attacker_ip>'. Multiple entries in rapid succession from attacker IP. Possible PAM failure events if auditd is configured.
- Test 4Windows Local Account Password Guessing via Net Use
Expected signal: Windows Security Event ID 4625 (Logon Failure) on the target host with LogonType=3 (Network), SubStatus=0xC000006A (wrong password), and source IP matching the test machine. Sysmon Event ID 1 on the attacker machine showing cmd.exe spawning with 'net use' command line. Security Event ID 4648 (logon with explicit credentials) may also appear.
- Test 5Azure AD / Office 365 Password Guessing via MSOLSpray
Expected signal: Azure AD SigninLogs / AADSignInLogs in Microsoft Sentinel: ResultType = 50126 (invalid username or password) or 50053 (account locked out), with repeated entries from same IP. UserAgent reflecting PowerShell/HTTP client. Office 365 Unified Audit Log: UserLoginFailed operation with ClientInfoString showing legacy auth client.
References (13)
- https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1110/001/
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-protection/auditing/event-4625
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-protection/auditing/event-4771
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-protection/auditing/event-4776
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/threat-protection/auditing/event-4740
- https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/security/blog/2020/09/10/strontium-new-campaign/
- https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/master/atomics/T1110.001/T1110.001.md
- https://github.com/dafthack/MSOLSpray
- https://github.com/byt3bl33d3r/CrackMapExec
- https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/alerts/TA18-086A
- https://web.archive.org/web/20200302085133/https://www.cylance.com/content/dam/cylance/pages/operation-cleaver/Cylance_Operation_Cleaver_Report.pdf
- https://www.trendmicro.com/vinfo/us/security/news/cybercrime-and-digital-threats/emotet-now-spreads-via-wi-fi
- https://www.mandiant.com/resources/blog/apt29-microsoft-365
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