LegacyHive - Registry Hive File Created Outside User Profile Path

Georg Lauenstein@gsec

•updated 5 days ago•0•0•0

Detects creation of Windows registry hive files (ntuser.dat or UsrClass.dat) outside the expected user profile path hierarchy. LegacyHive writes a modified ntuser.dat to a GUID-named staging directory at C:\\ root (e.g. C:\\{GUID}\\ntuser.dat) and copies UsrClass.dat there as well to set up the oplock-based race condition. Any hive file materialising outside C:\\Users\\ or C:\\Windows\\ is a strong indicator of this exploit chain or equivalent offline hive manipulation.