M1043: Credential Access Protection
Credential Access Protection focuses on implementing measures to prevent adversaries from obtaining credentials, such as passwords, hashes, tokens, or keys, that could be used for unauthorized access. This involves restricting access to credential storage mechanisms, hardening configurations to block credential dumping methods, and using monitoring tools to detect suspicious credential-related activity. This mitigation can be implemented through the following measures:
Restrict Access to Credential Storage:
- Use Case: Prevent adversaries from accessing the SAM (Security Account Manager) database on Windows systems. - Implementation: Enforce least privilege principles and restrict administrative access to credential stores such as `C:\Windows\System32\config\SAM`.
Use Credential Guard:
- Use Case: Isolate LSASS (Local Security Authority Subsystem Service) memory to prevent credential dumping. - Implementation: Enable Windows Defender Credential Guard on enterprise endpoints to isolate secrets and protect them from unauthorized access.
Monitor for Credential Dumping Tools:
- Use Case: Detect and block known tools like Mimikatz or Windows Credential Editor. - Implementation: Flag suspicious process behavior related to credential dumping.
Disable Cached Credentials:
- Use Case: Prevent adversaries from exploiting cached credentials on endpoints. - Implementation: Configure group policy to reduce or eliminate the use of cached credentials (e.g., set Interactive logon: Number of previous logons to cache to 0).
Enable Secure Boot and Memory Protections:
- Use Case: Prevent memory-based attacks used to extract credentials. - Implementation: Configure Secure Boot and enforce hardware-based security features like DEP (Data Execution Prevention) and ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization).
Security context for executives and security teams
M1043: Credential Access Protection describes Credential Access Protection focuses on implementing measures to prevent adversaries from obtaining credentials, such as passwords, hashes, tokens, or keys, that could be used for unauthorized access. This involves restricting access to credential storage mechanisms, hardening configurations to block credential dumping methods, and using monitoring tools to detect suspicious credential-related activity. This mitigation can be implemented through the following measures: Restrict Access to Credential Storage: - Use C...
Executive priority
M1043: Credential Access Protection is an official MITRE ATT&CK mitigation. Glexia treats it as defensive behavior context for prioritizing monitoring, control validation, and response planning without using the object by itself as an attribution claim.
Technical view
Security teams should validate M1043: Credential Access Protection by reviewing the official ATT&CK relationships, mapped tactics (the mapped ATT&CK tactic context), supported platforms (the platforms named in the official object), and available local telemetry before making detection or mitigation decisions.
Likely telemetry
- Official ATT&CK relationships and object metadata
Detection direction
- Validate whether M1043: Credential Access Protection appears in your detection coverage and tabletop scenarios.
- Use the object to align executive risk language with SOC, incident response, and detection engineering work.
- Do not treat ATT&CK relationship context as attribution without corroborating evidence.
Mitigation priorities
- Map the object to existing controls and identify missing telemetry or response ownership.
- Prioritize mitigations that reduce exposure on the listed platforms and tactics.
- Review adjacent ATT&CK relationships before changing policy, detections, or reporting language.
Additional notes and limits
Baseline Glexia take generated from the official MITRE ATT&CK STIX object, source hash, tactics, platforms, and detection fields. It is safe to replace with a richer model-generated take for the same source hash later.
This baseline take is source-grounded and schema-validated, but it does not include environment-specific telemetry, incident evidence, or threat-intelligence corroboration.
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Credential Access Protection
Credential Access Protection focuses on implementing measures to prevent adversaries from obtaining credentials, such as passwords, hashes, tokens, or keys, that could be used for unauthorized access. This involves restricting access to credential storage mechanisms, hardening configurations to block credential dumping methods, and using monitoring tools to detect suspicious credential-related activity. This mitigation can be implemented through the following measures:
Restrict Access to Credential Storage:
- Use Case: Prevent adversaries from accessing the SAM (Security Account Manager) database on Windows systems. - Implementation: Enforce least privilege principles and restrict administrative access to credential stores such as `C:\Windows\System32\config\SAM`.
Use Credential Guard:
- Use Case: Isolate LSASS (Local Security Authority Subsystem Service) memory to prevent credential dumping. - Implementation: Enable Windows Defender Credential Guard on enterprise endpoints to isolate secrets and protect them from unauthorized access.
Monitor for Credential Dumping Tools:
- Use Case: Detect and block known tools like Mimikatz or Windows Credential Editor. - Implementation: Flag suspicious process behavior related to credential dumping.
Disable Cached Credentials:
- Use Case: Prevent adversaries from exploiting cached credentials on endpoints. - Implementation: Configure group policy to reduce or eliminate the use of cached credentials (e.g., set Interactive logon: Number of previous logons to cache to 0).
Enable Secure Boot and Memory Protections:
- Use Case: Prevent memory-based attacks used to extract credentials. - Implementation: Configure Secure Boot and enforce hardware-based security features like DEP (Data Execution Prevention) and ASLR (Address Space Layout Randomization).
How security teams should use this page
Treat this object as behavior context, not an attribution claim. Validate the related groups, software, data sources, and mitigations against official ATT&CK relationships and your own telemetry before making control-coverage decisions.
Techniques used
This mirrors the MITRE pattern of making group, software, campaign, and technique relationships scannable. Relationship notes come from mirrored ATT&CK relationship text when available.
| Domain | ID | Name | Relationship / procedure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enterprise | T1599.001 | Network Address Translation TraversalSub-technique | Some embedded network devices are capable of storing passwords for local accounts in either plain-text or encrypted formats. Ensure that, where available, local passwords are always encrypted, per vendor recommendations. CitationCisco IOS Software Integrity Assurance - AAA |
| Enterprise | T1547.008 | LSASS DriverSub-technique | On Windows 10 and Server 2016, enable Windows Defender Credential Guard CitationMicrosoft Enable Cred Guard April 2017 to run lsass.exe in an isolated virtualized environment without any device drivers. CitationMicrosoft Credential Guard April 2017 |
| Enterprise | T1003.001 | LSASS MemorySub-technique | With Windows 10, Microsoft implemented new protections called Credential Guard to protect the LSA secrets that can be used to obtain credentials through forms of credential dumping. It is not configured by default and has hardware and firmware system requirements. It also does not protect against all forms of credential dumping.CitationTechNet Credential GuardCitationGitHub SHB Credential Guard |
| Enterprise | T1601.001 | Patch System ImageSub-technique | Some embedded network devices are capable of storing passwords for local accounts in either plain-text or encrypted formats. Ensure that, where available, local passwords are always encrypted, per vendor recommendations. CitationCisco IOS Software Integrity Assurance - Credentials Management |
| Enterprise | T1601.002 | Downgrade System ImageSub-technique | Some embedded network devices are capable of storing passwords for local accounts in either plain-text or encrypted formats. Ensure that, where available, local passwords are always encrypted, per vendor recommendations. CitationCisco IOS Software Integrity Assurance - Credentials Management |
| Enterprise | T1601 | Modify System Image | Some embedded network devices are capable of storing passwords for local accounts in either plain-text or encrypted formats. Ensure that, where available, local passwords are always encrypted, per vendor recommendations. CitationCisco IOS Software Integrity Assurance - Credentials Management |
| Enterprise | T1599 | Network Boundary Bridging | Some embedded network devices are capable of storing passwords for local accounts in either plain-text or encrypted formats. Ensure that, where available, local passwords are always encrypted, per vendor recommendations.CitationCisco IOS Software Integrity Assurance - AAA |
| Enterprise | T1558 | Steal or Forge Kerberos Tickets | On Linux systems, protect resources with Security Enhanced Linux (SELinux) by defining entry points, process types, and file labels.CitationBrining MimiKatz to Unix |
| Enterprise | T1558.005 | Ccache FilesSub-technique | Protect resources with Security Enhanced Linux (SELinux) by defining entry points, process types, and file labels.CitationBrining MimiKatz to Unix |
| Enterprise | T1003 | OS Credential Dumping | With Windows 10, Microsoft implemented new protections called Credential Guard to protect the LSA secrets that can be used to obtain credentials through forms of credential dumping. It is not configured by default and has hardware and firmware system requirements. CitationTechNet Credential Guard It also does not protect against all forms of credential dumping. CitationGitHub SHB Credential Guard |
All related ATT&CK context
Object version and sync metadata
The fields below describe the current mirrored snapshot. When Glexia retains multiple ATT&CK source imports, you can open the table to compare the same object across releases (hashes and MITRE timestamps). For MITRE’s own release notes and roadmap, see ATT&CK resources — Updates.
Imported snapshots across ATT&CK releases(2)
| Release | Bundle imported | Object version | Modified | Status | Raw hash |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19.2 | 1.2 | Current bundle | 298be18ad9aa… | ||
| 19.1 | 1.2 | Older bundle | 298be18ad9aa… |
Mirrored ATT&CK source object
The raw object is retained through the mirrored ATT&CK source bundle and object hash. The raw endpoint returns the exact object from the mirrored bundle when available.
External references and citations
MITRE external references are preserved separately from Glexia analysis so citations remain traceable to their original source records.
- [1]mitre-attackM1043Open source URL
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