Credential Theft: How Attackers Steal & Use Stolen Credentials
Huntress, Thursday, September 10th, 2026
A primer on credential theft techniques and the identity-focused defenses that actually interrupt them.
This primer covers what credential theft is, the main techniques attackers use to obtain credentials, and how identity-focused defenses interrupt credential-based attacks.
It works through infostealers, phishing, adversary-in-the-middle token theft and credential reuse, mapping each to the control that breaks it. The framing around identity rather than endpoint is the useful part, since credential theft increasingly bypasses the endpoint entirely through session token capture.
A reasonable foundational reference for teams building an identity threat programme.