Adversaries may obtain and abuse credentials of existing accounts as a means of gaining Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion. Compromised credentials may be used to bypass access controls placed on various resources on systems within the network and may even be used for persistent access to remote systems and externally available services, such as VPNs, Outlook Web Access and remote desktop. Compromised credentials may also grant an adversary increased privilege to specific systems or access to restricted areas of the network. Adversaries may choose not to use malware or tools in conjunction with the legitimate access those credentials provide to make it harder to detect their presence.
The overlap of permissions for local, domain, and cloud accounts across a network of systems is of concern because the adversary may be able to pivot across accounts and systems to reach a high level of access (i.e., domain or enterprise administrator) to bypass access controls set within the enterprise. (Citation: TechNet Credential Theft)
View in MITRE ATT&CK®| Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| cloud_asset_inventory | Cloud Asset Inventory | technique_scores | T1078 | Valid Accounts |
Comments
This control may be able to detect when adversaries use valid cloud accounts to elevate privileges through manipulation of IAM or access policies. This monitoring can be fine tuned to specific assets, policies, and organizations.
References
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| identity_aware_proxy | Identity Aware Proxy | technique_scores | T1078 | Valid Accounts |
Comments
IAP applies the relevant IAM policy to check if the user is authorized to access the requested resource. If the user has the IAP-secured Web App User role on the Cloud console project where the resource exists, they're authorized to access the application. This control can mitigate against adversaries that try to obtain credentials of accounts, including cloud accounts.
References
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| resourcemanager | ResourceManager | technique_scores | T1078 | Valid Accounts |
Comments
Adversaries may attempt to obtain credentials of existing account through privilege escalation or defense evasion. IAM audit logging in GCP can be used to determine roles and permissions, along with routinely checking user permissions to ensure only the expected users have the ability to list IAM identities or otherwise discover cloud accounts.
References
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| identityplatform | IdentityPlatform | technique_scores | T1078 | Valid Accounts |
Comments
Identity Platform lets you add Google-grade authentication to your apps and services, making it easier to secure user accounts and securely managing credentials. MFA can provide protection against an adversary that obtains valid credentials by requiring the adversary to complete an additional authentication process before access is permitted.
References
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| anthosconfigmanagement | AnthosConfigManagement | technique_scores | T1078 | Valid Accounts |
Comments
Anthos Config Management lets you create and manage Kubernetes objects across multiple clusters at once. PodSecurityPolicies can be enforced to prevent Pods from using the root Linux user. Based on the medium detection coverage, this was scored as partial.
References
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| cloud_identity | Cloud Identity | technique_scores | T1078 | Valid Accounts |
Comments
This control can be used to mitigate malicious attacks of cloud accounts by implementing multi-factor authentication techniques or password policies.
References
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| endpoint_management | Endpoint Management | technique_scores | T1078 | Valid Accounts |
Comments
This control allows for blocking endpoints that have been compromised from accessing company networks or resources. This control also allows for deletion of any compromised accounts and data from compromised endpoints.
References
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| chronicle | Chronicle | technique_scores | T1078 | Valid Accounts |
Comments
Chronicle is able to trigger an alert based on RDP logons from non-private IP ranges.
This technique was scored as minimal based on low or uncertain detection coverage factor.
https://github.com/chronicle/detection-rules/blob/783e0e5947774785db1c55041b70176deeca6f46/soc_prime_rules/active_directory_security/security/remote_desktop_from_internet__via_audit.yaral
References
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| policy_intelligence | Policy Intelligence | technique_scores | T1078 | Valid Accounts |
Comments
Adversaries may obtain and abuse credentials of a cloud account by gaining access through means of Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion. IAM Recommender helps enforce least privilege principals to ensure that permission levels are properly managed.
References
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| vpc_service_controls | VPC Service Controls | technique_scores | T1078 | Valid Accounts |
Comments
This control is able to mitigate against abuse of compromised valid accounts by restricting access from those accounts to resources contained within the VPC perimeter the account belongs to. Resources and services contained in other VPC networks also cannot be accessed by user accounts that are not within the VPC network perimeter.
References
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| identity_and_access_management | Identity and Access Management | technique_scores | T1078 | Valid Accounts |
Comments
This control may mitigate the impact of compromised valid accounts by enabling fine-grained access policies and implementing least-privilege policies. MFA can provide protection against an adversary that obtains valid credentials by requiring the adversary to complete an additional authentication process before access is permitted.
References
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| identity_and_access_management | Identity and Access Management | technique_scores | T1078 | Valid Accounts |
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| container_registry | Container Registry | technique_scores | T1078 | Valid Accounts |
Comments
Using Container Analysis, Container Registry scans the repository for vulnerabilities that could potentially be used to escalate privileges, such as default accounts with root permissions in Docker containers. Due to the medium threat protection coverage and scan results being available 48 hours after completion, this control was scored as partial.
References
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| Technique ID | Technique Name | Number of Mappings |
|---|---|---|
| T1078.004 | Cloud Accounts | 12 |
| T1078.001 | Default Accounts | 2 |
| T1078.002 | Domain Accounts | 2 |
| T1078.003 | Local Accounts | 1 |