Unusual Number of Kerberos Service Tickets Requested
The following analytic identifies an unusual number of Kerberos service ticket requests, potentially indicating a kerberoasting attack. It leverages Kerberos Event 4769 and calculates the standard deviation for each…
Description
The following analytic identifies an unusual number of Kerberos service ticket requests, potentially indicating a kerberoasting attack. It leverages Kerberos Event 4769 and calculates the standard deviation for each host, using the 3-sigma rule to detect anomalies. This activity is significant as kerberoasting allows adversaries to request service tickets and crack them offline, potentially gaining privileged access to the domain. If confirmed malicious, this could lead to unauthorized access to sensitive accounts and escalation of privileges within the Active Directory environment.
Detection logic
Detection requirements
- Platform
- Windows
The rule states no platform. This is derived from the ATT&CK technique it maps to.
- Log source category
- windows_event_log_security_4769
Known benign triggers
- An single endpoint requesting a large number of kerberos service tickets is not common behavior. Possible false positive scenarios include but are not limited to vulnerability scanners, administration systems and missconfigured systems.
MITRE ATT&CK mappings
0 exclusive techniques.This is coverage no other published rule has; it is not this rule's total technique count.
References
| Reference | Cited by |
|---|---|
| attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1558/003/ | 3 |
| www.ired.team/offensive-security-experiments/active-directory-kerberos-abuse/t1208-kerberoasting | 7 |
From the source
- At source
- Open at source
- Upstream identifier
- eb3e6702-8936-11ec-98fe-acde48001122
- Tagged by the source as
- Active Directory Kerberos AttacksEndpointendpointSplunk CloudSplunk EnterpriseSplunk Enterprise Securityendpoint
Licence
- Published under
- Apache License 2.0Read the licence
- Attribution
- Required
- Obtained under
- Apache-2.0Read the origin licence
Authorship
- Written by
- Published
- Aug 26, 2026
- Version
- 1