Unusual access to the Windows Internal Database on an ADFS server

Synopsis

Field	Value
Activation Period	14 Days
Training Period	30 Days
Test Period	N/A (single event)
Deduplication Period	1 Day
Required Data	XDR Agent with eXtended Threat Hunting (XTH)
ATT&CK Tactic	Credential Access (TA0006)
ATT&CK Technique	Credentials from Password Stores (T1555)
Severity	Informational

Description

The Windows Internal Database (WID) was queried in an unusual way on an ADFS server.

Attacker's Goals

• Attackers can attempt to extract and decrypt the ADFS certificate that is used to sign SAML tokens, and fabricate a new SAML token.

Investigative actions

• See whether this was a legitimate action.
• Follow the causality chain/user/host activities.
• Monitor suspicious LDAP queries to the ADFS container in Active Directory.
• Check the possibility of a compromised ADFS server.
• Check for unusual Azure AD authentications.
• Check for unusual logins.

Variations

Suspicious access to the Windows Internal Database on an ADFS server

Synopsis

Field	Value
ATT&CK Tactic	Credential Access (TA0006)
ATT&CK Technique	Credentials from Password Stores (T1555)
Severity	Low

Description

The Windows Internal Database (WID) was queried in an unusual way on an ADFS server.

Attacker's Goals

• Attackers can attempt to extract and decrypt the ADFS certificate that is used to sign SAML tokens, and fabricate a new SAML token.

Investigative actions

• See whether this was a legitimate action.
• Follow the causality chain/user/host activities.
• Monitor suspicious LDAP queries to the ADFS container in Active Directory.
• Check the possibility of a compromised ADFS server.
• Check for unusual Azure AD authentications.
• Check for unusual logins.