Incident Response

Pass-the-Hash attacks represent the most critical lateral movement vector in Windows environments, turning a single compromised endpoint into domain-wide catastrophe within hours. An attacker dumps NTLM hashes from memory using tools like Mimikatz, then authenticates to remote systems without cracking passwords — bypassing detection mechanisms focused on failed login attempts. Sysmon Event ID 10 provides the definitive detection capability for credential dumping by monitoring process memory access against the Local Security Authority Subsystem Service (LSASS). This guide delivers comprehensive Pass-the-Hash detection with Sysmon: configuration for memory access monitoring, analysis patterns for LSASS interactions, SIEM integration strategies, and incident response workflows that stop lateral movement before attackers achieve domain persistence. ...

Most newly-built SOCs spend twelve months becoming a dashboard wall before they detect their first real intrusion. Here’s how to skip the theatre and ship value from week two. Define the Mission First Before any tool selection, agree on: Scope — what assets, what environments, what hours. Detection vs response split — are you running 24/7 or business hours + on-call? Mandate — does the SOC have authority to isolate hosts, or is it advisory? Reporting line — CISO, CIO, Risk? Without these settled, every tool decision later becomes a politics fight. ...

Memory forensics catches what disk forensics misses — running malware, in-RAM credentials, injected processes, and rootkit hooks. Volatility 3 modernized the framework with Python 3, symbol-driven analysis, and a cleaner plugin model. Here’s how to actually use it. Acquiring Memory Windows: WinPmem, FTK Imager, or DumpIt. Linux: LiME or AVML. Always: ...