T1078 Valid Accounts

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, network devices, and remote desktop.(Citation: volexity_0day_sophos_FW) 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.

In some cases, adversaries may abuse inactive accounts: for example, those belonging to individuals who are no longer part of an organization. Using these accounts may allow the adversary to evade detection, as the original account user will not be present to identify any anomalous activity taking place on their account.(Citation: CISA MFA PrintNightmare)

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®

CRI Profile Mappings

Capability ID Capability Description Mapping Type ATT&CK ID ATT&CK Name Notes
PR.IR-01.05 Remote access protection Mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
Comments
This diagnostic statement implements security controls and restrictions for remote user access to systems. Remote user access control involves managing and securing how users remotely access systems, such as through encrypted connections and account use policies, which help prevent adversary access.
References
    DE.CM-03.03 Privileged account monitoring Mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
    Comments
    This diagnostic statement implements mechanisms and tools to mitigate potential misuse of privileged users and accounts. Continuous monitoring of role and attribute assignments and activity is essential to prevent and detect unauthorized access or misuse.
    References
      PR.PS-06.01 Secure SDLC process Mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
      Comments
      This diagnostic statement provides for secure system development, which includes ensuring that applications do not store sensitive data or valid account credentials insecurely (e.g., plaintext credentials in code, published credentials in repositories, or credentials in public cloud storage).
      References
        PR.AA-05.02 Privileged system access Mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
        Comments
        This diagnostic statement protects against Valid Accounts through the use of privileged account management and the use of multi-factor authentication.
        References
          DE.CM-06.02 Third-party access monitoring Mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
          Comments
          This diagnostic statement protects against Valid Accounts through the use of privileged account management. Employing auditing, privilege access management, and just in time access protects against adversaries trying to obtain illicit access to critical systems.
          References
            PR.AA-02.01 Authentication of identity Mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
            Comments
            This diagnostic statement provides protection from Valid Accounts through the implementation of privileged account management controls to limit account access. Employing limitations to specific accounts, provisioning accounts, access control mechanisms, and auditing the attribution logs provides protection against adversaries attempting to use existing accounts.
            References
              PR.PS-01.07 Cryptographic keys and certificates Mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
              Comments
              This diagnostic statement protects against Valid Accounts through the use of revocation of keys and key management. Employing key protection strategies for key material used as part of multi-factor authentication for valid accounts, limitations to specific accounts along with access control mechanisms provides protection against adversaries attempting to use valid accounts.
              References
                PR.AA-05.03 Service accounts Mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
                Comments
                This diagnostic statement describes how the organization establishes security standards based on industry guidelines to institute strict controls over service account (i.e., accounts used by systems to access other systems).
                References
                  PR.AA-01.02 Physical and logical access Mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
                  Comments
                  This diagnostic statement describes how the organization ensures users are identified and authenticated before accessing systems, applications, and hardware, with logical access controls permitting access only to authorized individuals with legitimate business needs. Logical access controls in relation to systems can refer to the use of MFA, user account management, and other role-based access control mechanisms to enforce policies for authentication and authorization of user accounts.
                  References
                    PR.AA-03.01 Authentication requirements Mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
                    Comments
                    This diagnostic statement describes how the organization implement appropriate authentication requirements, including selecting mechanisms based on risk, utilizing multi-factor authentication where necessary, and safeguarding the storage of authenticators like pins and passwords to protect sensitive access credentials.
                    References
                      PR.AA-05.04 Third-party access management Mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
                      Comments
                      This diagnostic statement includes implementation of controls for third-party access to an organization’s systems. Conditional access policies can be used to block logins from non-compliant devices or from outside defined IP ranges.
                      References
                        PR.AA-01.01 Identity and credential management Mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
                        Comments
                        This diagnostic statement protects against Valid Accounts through the use of hardened access control policies, secure defaults, password complexity requirements, multifactor authentication requirements, and removal of terminated accounts.
                        References
                          PR.PS-06.07 Development and operational process alignment Mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
                          Comments
                          This diagnostic statement protects against Valid Accounts through the use of DevSecOps, secure development lifecycle, and application developer guidance. Exploitable weaknesses can be mitigated through secure code, reduced vulnerabilities, and secure design principles.
                          References

                            NIST 800-53 Mappings

                            Capability ID Capability Description Mapping Type ATT&CK ID ATT&CK Name Notes
                            CA-07 Continuous Monitoring mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
                            CM-06 Configuration Settings mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
                            CM-05 Access Restrictions for Change mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
                            IA-05 Authenticator Management mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
                            SA-10 Developer Configuration Management mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
                            IA-12 Identity Proofing mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
                            SA-11 Developer Testing and Evaluation mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
                            SA-15 Development Process, Standards, and Tools mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
                            SA-17 Developer Security and Privacy Architecture and Design mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
                            SA-03 System Development Life Cycle mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
                            SA-04 Acquisition Process mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
                            IA-13 Identity Providers and Authorization Servers mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
                            CA-03 Information Exchange mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
                            SC-28 Protection of Information at Rest mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
                            RA-05 Vulnerability Monitoring and Scanning mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
                            SC-43 Usage Restrictions mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
                            SA-08 Security and Privacy Engineering Principles mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
                            IA-02 Identification and Authentication (Organizational Users) mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
                            CM-07 Least Functionality mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
                            SI-04 System Monitoring mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
                            AC-02 Account Management mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
                            AC-03 Access Enforcement mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
                            AC-05 Separation of Duties mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
                            AC-06 Least Privilege mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts
                            SC-07 Boundary Protection mitigates T1078 Valid Accounts

                            VERIS Mappings

                            Capability ID Capability Description Mapping Type ATT&CK ID ATT&CK Name Notes
                            action.hacking.variety.Backdoor Hacking action that creates a backdoor for use. related-to T1078 Valid Accounts
                            action.hacking.variety.Use of stolen creds Use of stolen or default authentication credentials (including credential stuffing) related-to T1078 Valid Accounts
                            action.hacking.vector.Backdoor Hacking actions taken through a backdoor. C2 is only used by malware. related-to T1078 Valid Accounts

                            Azure Mappings

                            Capability ID Capability Description Mapping Type ATT&CK ID ATT&CK Name Notes
                            microsoft_sentinel Microsoft Sentinel technique_scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            This control provides partial coverage for all of this technique's sub-techniques and a number of its procedures, resulting in an overall score of Partial.
                            References
                            defender_for_storage Microsoft Defender for Cloud: Defender for Storage technique_scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            This control provides minimal detection for its procedure examples. Additionally, it is able to detect only one of its sub-techniques (Cloud Accounts) resulting in a Minimal Coverage score and consequently an overall score of Minimal.
                            References
                            advanced_threat_protection_for_azure_sql_database Advanced Threat Protection for Azure SQL Database technique_scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            This control only provides alerts for a set of Azure database offerings. Databases that have been deployed to endpoints within Azure or third-party databases deployed to Azure do not generate alerts for this control.
                            References
                            ai_security_recommendations Microsoft Defender for Cloud: AI Security Recommendations technique_scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            This control's recommendations about removing deprecated and external accounts with sensitive permissions from your subscription can lead to mitigating the Cloud Accounts sub-technique of this technique. Because this is a recommendation and has low coverage, it is assessed as Minimal.
                            References
                            alerts_for_azure_cosmos_db Alerts for Azure Cosmos DB technique_scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            This control's detection is specific to the Cosmos DB and therefore provides minimal overall detection coverage for Valid Accounts resulting in a Minimal score. A relevant alert is "Access from an unusual location to a Cosmos DB account".
                            References
                            alerts_for_windows_machines Alerts for Windows Machines technique_scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            This control is able to detect some of this technique's sub-techniques resulting in a Partial Coverage score and consequently an overall score of Partial.
                            References
                            azure_policy Azure Policy technique_scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            azure_role_based_access_control Azure Role-Based Access Control technique_scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            This control only provides protection for one of this technique's sub-techniques while not providing any protection for its procedure examples (due to being specific to Azure AD) nor its remaining sub-technqiues. Consequently its coverage score factor is Minimal, resulting in a Minimal score.
                            References
                            defender_for_azure_sql_databases Microsoft Defender for Azure SQL Databases technique_scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            This control can protect against abuse of valid accounts.
                            References

                            GCP Mappings

                            Capability ID Capability Description Mapping Type ATT&CK ID ATT&CK Name Notes
                            artifact_analysis Artifact Analysis technique_scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            Artifact Analysis scans container images uploaded to Artifact Registry or Container Registry (deprecated) 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
                            mandiant_digital_threatmon Mandiant Digital Threat Monitoring technique_scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            Mandiant Digital Threat Monitoring continually monitors for compromised credentials and data leaks on both the open and dark web. This control may protect against credential abuse by alerting on leaked credentials. Since this control must depend on accessible sources for dumps, it does not protect against credentials that have been collected for a campaign but never posted, so the score is partial.
                            References
                            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
                            cloud_endpoints Cloud Endpoints technique_scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            The Cloud Endpoints capability provides support for multiple authentication methods, including API keys and Google ID tokens. Implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA) across account types, including local, domain, and cloud accounts, can prevent unauthorized access even if credentials are compromised.
                            References
                            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
                            gke_enterprise GKE Enterprise technique_scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            GKE Enterprise incorporates the Anthos Config Management feature to 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
                            google_secops Google Security Operations technique_scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            Google Security Ops 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
                            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
                            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
                            identity_platform Identity Platform 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
                            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. Policy Intelligence role recommendations generated by IAM Recommender help enforce least privilege principals to ensure that permission levels are properly managed.
                            References
                            resource_manager Resource Manager 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
                            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

                            AWS Mappings

                            Capability ID Capability Description Mapping Type ATT&CK ID ATT&CK Name Notes
                            amazon_cognito Amazon Cognito technique_scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            amazon_guardduty Amazon GuardDuty technique_scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            GuardDuty implements a finding that flags occurrences unattended behavior from an IAM User in the Account. PenTest:IAMUser/KaliLinux, PenTest:IAMUser/ParrotLinux, PenTest:IAMUser/PentooLinux, Policy:IAMUser/RootCredentialUsage, PrivilegeEscalation:IAMUser/AdministrativePermissions, UnauthorizedAccess:IAMUser/ConsoleLogin, UnauthorizedAccess:IAMUser/ConsoleLoginSuccess.B, UnauthorizedAccess:IAMUser/MaliciousIPCaller, UnauthorizedAccess:IAMUser/MaliciousIPCaller.Custom, UnauthorizedAccess:IAMUser/TorIPCaller, Policy:S3/AccountBlockPublicAccessDisabled, Policy:S3/BucketAnonymousAccessGranted, Policy:S3/BucketBlockPublicAccessDisabled, Policy:S3/BucketPublicAccessGranted, CredentialAccess:IAMUser/AnomalousBehavior, DefenseEvasion:IAMUser/AnomalousBehavior, Discovery:IAMUser/AnomalousBehavior, Exfiltration:IAMUser/AnomalousBehavior, Impact:IAMUser/AnomalousBehavior, Persistence:IAMUser/AnomalousBehavior, Recon:IAMUser/MaliciousIPCaller, Recon:IAMUser/MaliciousIPCaller.Custom, UnauthorizedAccess:IAMUser/InstanceCredentialExfiltration
                            References
                            aws_config AWS Config technique_scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            This control provides significant coverage for one of this technique's sub-techniques, resulting in an overall score of Minimal.
                            References
                            aws_identity_and_access_management AWS Identity and Access Management technique_scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            aws_identity_and_access_management AWS Identity and Access Management technique_scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            aws_iot_device_defender AWS IoT Device Defender technique_scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            aws_iot_device_defender AWS IoT Device Defender technique_scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            aws_organizations AWS Organizations technique_scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            This control may protect against malicious use of cloud accounts but may not mitigate exploitation of local, domain, or default accounts present within deployed resources.
                            References
                            aws_security_hub AWS Security Hub technique_scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            AWS Security Hub detects suspicious activity by AWS accounts which could indicate valid accounts being leveraged by an adversary. AWS Security Hub provides these detections with the following managed insights. AWS principals with suspicious access key activity Credentials that may have leaked AWS resources with unauthorized access attempts IAM users with suspicious activity AWS Security Hub also performs checks from the AWS Foundations CIS Benchmark and PCI-DSS security standard that, if implemented, would help towards detecting the misuse of valid accounts. AWS Security Hub provides these detections with the following checks. 3.1 Ensure a log metric filter and alarm exist for unauthorized API calls 3.2 Ensure a log metric filter and alarm exist for Management Console sign-in without MFA 3.3 Ensure a log metric filter and alarm exist for usage of "root" account 3.4 Ensure a log metric filter and alarm exist for IAM policy changes 3.6 Ensure a log metric filter and alarm exist for AWS Management Console authentication failures [PCI.CW.1] A log metric filter and alarm should exist for usage of the "root" user By monitoring the root account, activity where accounts make unauthorized API calls, and changes to IAM permissions among other things, it may be possible to detect valid accounts that are being misused and are potentially compromised. This is scored as Minimal because it only supports a subset of the sub-techniques.
                            References
                            aws_single_sign-on AWS Single Sign-On technique_scores T1078 Valid Accounts

                            M365 Mappings

                            Capability ID Capability Description Mapping Type ATT&CK ID ATT&CK Name Notes
                            EID-CA-E3 Conditional Access Technique Scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            Multiple conditions along can be combined to create fine-grained and specific policies that partially enforce access controls to account resources that adversaries may attempt to abuse: conditional access to Cloud APIs, blocking legacy authentication, requiring multi-factor authentication for users, block access by location, block access to unsupported devices, failed login attempts, account lockout policies, etc.. These features may require Microsoft Entra ID P2.
                            References
                            EID-CA-E3 Conditional Access Technique Scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            This control only provides minimal protection for this technique's procedure examples along and also only protects one of its sub-techniques resulting in an overall Minimal score.
                            References
                            EID-CA-E3 Conditional Access Technique Scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            This control only provides minimal protection for this technique's procedure examples along and also only protects one of its sub-techniques resulting in an overall Minimal score.
                            References
                            EID-CA-E3 Conditional Access Technique Scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            This control only protects cloud accounts and therefore its overall coverage is minimal resulting in a Minimal respond score for this technique.
                            References
                            EID-CA-E3 Conditional Access Technique Scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            This control only protects cloud accounts and therefore its overall coverage is minimal resulting in a Minimal respond score for this technique.
                            References
                            EID-CAE-E3 Continuous Access Evaluation Technique Scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            Entra ID's continuous access evaluation is a security control implemented by enabling services to subscribe to critical Microsoft Entra events. Those events can then be evaluated and enforced near real time. This process enables tenant users lose access to organizational SharePoint Online files, email, calendar, or tasks, and Teams from Microsoft 365 client apps within minutes after a critical event is detected. The following events are currently evaluated: User Account is deleted or disabled Password for a user is changed or reset Multifactor authentication is enabled for the user Administrator explicitly revokes all refresh tokens for a user High user risk detected by Microsoft Entra ID Protection License Requirements: Continuous access evaluation will be included in all versions of Microsoft 365.
                            References
                            PUR-AUS-E5 Audit Solutions Technique Scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            Microsoft Purview auditing solutions provide an integrated solution to help organizations effectively respond to security events, forensic investigations, internal investigations, and compliance obligations. Thousands of user and admin operations performed in dozens of Microsoft 365 services and solutions are captured, recorded, and retained in your organization's unified audit log. Audit records for these events are searchable by security ops, IT admins, insider risk teams, and compliance and legal investigators in your organization. This capability provides visibility into the activities performed across your Microsoft 365 organization. Microsoft's Audit Solutions protects from Valid Account attacks due to Audit Solutions providing the visibility to allow admins to regularly audit user accounts for activity and deactivate or remove any that are no longer needed. License Requirements: Microsoft 365 E3 and E5
                            References
                            DEF-SECA-E3 Security Alerts Technique Scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            Microsoft Defender security alerts explain the suspicious activities detected by Defender for Identity sensors on your network, and the actors and computers involved in each threat. Alert evidence lists contain direct links to the involved users and computers, to help make your investigations easy and direct. Defender security alerts are divided into the following categories or phases, like the phases seen in a typical cyber-attack kill chain. Learn more about each phase, the alerts designed to detect each attack, and how to use the alerts to help protect your network using the following links: Reconnaissance and discovery alerts Persistence and privilege escalation alerts Credential access alerts Lateral movement alerts Other alerts License: A Microsoft 365 security product license entitles customer use of Microsoft Defender XDR.
                            References
                            DEF-CAPP-E5 Defender for Cloud Apps Technique Scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            This control can identify anomalous behavior such as geographically impossible logins and out-of-character activity. Relevant alerts include "Activity from anonymous IP address" , "Activity from infrequent country", "Activity from suspicious IP address", "Impossible Travel", and "Activity performed by terminated user".
                            References
                            DEF-SSCO-E3 Secure Score Technique Scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            Microsoft Secure Score is a measurement of an organization's security posture, with a higher number indicating more recommended actions taken. It can be found at Microsoft Secure Score in the Microsoft Defender portal. Following the Secure Score recommendations can protect your organization from threats. From a centralized dashboard in the Microsoft Defender portal, organizations can monitor and work on the security of their Microsoft 365 identities, apps, and devices. Your score is updated in real time to reflect the information presented in the visualizations and recommended action pages. Secure Score also syncs daily to receive system data about your achieved points for each action. To help you find the information you need more quickly, Microsoft recommended actions are organized into groups: Identity (Microsoft Entra accounts & roles) Device (Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, known as Microsoft Secure Score for Devices) Apps (email and cloud apps, including Office 365 and Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps) Data (through Microsoft Information Protection)
                            References
                            EID-IDPR-E5 ID Protection Technique Scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            EID-IDSS-E3 Identity Secure Score Technique Scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            This control provides recommendations that can lead to protecting against the malicious usage of valid cloud accounts but does not provide recommendations for the remaining sub-techniques Additionally, it provides limited protection for this technique's procedure examples. Consequently, its overall protection coverage score is minimal.
                            References
                            EID-IDSS-E3 Identity Secure Score Technique Scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            This control provides recommendations that can lead to the detection of the malicious usage of valid cloud accounts but does not provide recommendations for the remaining sub-techniques Additionally, it provides limited detection for this technique's procedure examples. Consequently, its overall detection coverage score is minimal.
                            References
                            DEF-AIR-E5 Automated Investigation and Response Technique Scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            Microsoft Defender for Office 365 includes powerful automated investigation and response (AIR) capabilities that can save your security operations team time and effort. As alerts are triggered, it's up to your security operations team to review, prioritize, and respond to those alerts. Keeping up with the volume of incoming alerts can be overwhelming. Automating some of those tasks can help. AIR enables your security operations team to operate more efficiently and effectively. AIR capabilities include automated investigation processes in response to well-known threats that exist today. Appropriate remediation actions await approval, enabling your security operations team to respond effectively to detected threats. With AIR, your security operations team can focus on higher-priority tasks without losing sight of important alerts that are triggered. Examples include: Soft delete email messages or clusters, Block URL (time-of-click), Turn off external mail forwarding, Turn off delegation, etc. Required licenses E5 or Microsoft Defender for Office 365 Plan 2 licenses.
                            References
                            DEF-IR-E5 Incident Response Technique Scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            An incident in Microsoft Defender XDR is a collection of correlated alerts and associated data that make up the story of an attack. Microsoft 365 services and apps create alerts when they detect a suspicious or malicious event or activity. Individual alerts provide valuable clues about a completed or ongoing attack. Attacks typically employ various techniques against different types of entities, such as devices, users, and mailboxes. The result of this is multiple alerts for multiple entities in your tenant. Piecing the individual alerts together to gain insight into an attack can be challenging and time-consuming, Microsoft Defender XDR automatically aggregates the alerts and their associated information into an incident. A typical Incident Response workflow in Microsoft Defender XDR begins with a triage action, next is the investigate action, and finally is the response action. Microsoft 365 Defender Incident Response responds to valid account attacks due to Incident Response monitoring for newly constructed logon behavior that may obtain and abuse credentials of existing accounts. License Requirements: Microsoft Defender XDR
                            References
                            PUR-PAM-E5 Privileged Access Management Technique Scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            Microsoft Purview Privileged Access Management allows granular access control over privileged admin tasks in Office 365. It can help protect your organization from breaches that use existing privileged admin accounts with standing access to sensitive data or access to critical configuration settings. Privileged access management requires users to request just-in-time access to complete elevated and privileged tasks through a highly scoped and time-bounded approval workflow. This configuration gives users just-enough-access to perform the task at hand, without risking exposure of sensitive data or critical configuration settings. Microsoft 365 configuration settings. When used with Microsoft Entra Privileged Identity Management, these two features provide access control with just-in-time access at different scopes. (e.g., Encryption, RBAC, Conditional Access, JIT, Just Enough Access (with Approval). License requirements: M365 E5 customers.
                            References
                            EID-RBAC-E3 Role Based Access Control Technique Scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            The RBAC control can be used to implement the principle of least privilege for account management, reducing the potential actions that can be taken with Valid Default and Cloud Accounts. Although RBAC can limit the actions the adversary can take if a Valid Account has been compromised, it does not protect against different variations of the technique's procedure. Due to overall Minimal coverage, it receives an overall score of Minimal. License Requirements: ME-ID Built-in Roles (Free) License Requirements: ME-ID Built-in Roles (Free)
                            References
                            DEF-ATH-E5 Advanced Threat Hunting Technique Scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            Advanced hunting is a query-based threat hunting tool that lets you explore up to 30 days of raw data. Advanced hunting in Microsoft Defender XDR allows you to proactively hunt for threats across: Devices managed by Microsoft Defender for Endpoint, Emails processed by Microsoft 365, Cloud app activities, authentication events, and domain controller activities. With this level of visibility, you can quickly hunt for threats that traverse sections of your network, including sophisticated intrusions that arrive on email or the web, elevate local privileges, acquire privileged domain credentials, and move laterally to across your devices. Advanced hunting supports two modes, guided and advanced. Users use advanced mode if they are comfortable using Kusto Query Language (KQL) to create queries from scratch. Advanced Threat Hunting Detects Valid Account attacks due to the IdentityLogonEvents table in the advanced hunting schema which contains information about all authentication activities related to Microsoft online services captured by Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps which monitors for newly constructed logon behavior. License Requirements: Microsoft Defender XDR, Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps, Microsoft Defender for Office 365 plan 2
                            References
                            DEF-LM-E5 Lateral Movements Technique Scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            Defender for Identity LMPs are visual guides that help you quickly understand and identify exactly how attackers can move laterally inside your network. The purpose of lateral movements within the cyber-attack kill chain are for attackers to gain and compromise your sensitive accounts using non-sensitive accounts. Compromising your sensitive accounts gets them another step closer to their ultimate goal, domain dominance. To stop these attacks from being successful, Defender for Identity LMPs give you easy to interpret, direct visual guidance on your most vulnerable, sensitive accounts.
                            References
                            DEF-APGV-E5 App Governance Technique Scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            App governance in Defender for Cloud Apps is a set of security and policy management capabilities designed for OAuth-enabled apps registered on Microsoft Entra ID, Google, and Salesforce. App governance delivers visibility, remediation, and governance into how these apps and their users access, use, and share sensitive data in Microsoft 365 and other cloud platforms through actionable insights and automated policy alerts and actions. App governance also enables you to see which user-installed OAuth applications have access to data on Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and Salesforce. It tells you what permissions the apps have and which users have granted access to their accounts. App governance insights enable you to make informed decisions around blocking or restricting apps that present significant risk to your organization App Governance Detects Valid Account attacks due to App Governance monitoring aggregated sign-in activity for each app and tracking all risky sign-in's. License Requirements: Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps
                            References
                            EID-MFA-E3 Multifactor Authentication Technique Scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            This control only protects cloud accounts and therefore its overall protection coverage is Minimal.
                            References
                            EID-PWP-E3 Password Policy Technique Scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            Accounts should have complex and unique passwords across all systems on the network. Passwords and access keys should be rotated regularly. License Requirements: Microsoft Entra ID Free, Microsoft Entra ID P1, or Microsoft Entra ID P2
                            References
                            EID-PWPR-E3 Password Protection Technique Scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            Accounts should have complex and unique passwords across all systems on the network. When a password is changed or reset for any user in a Microsoft Entra tenant, the current version of the global banned password list is used to validate the strength of the password. This validation check results in stronger passwords for all Microsoft Entra customers. License Requirements: Microsoft Entra ID Free, Microsoft Entra ID P1, or Microsoft Entra ID P2
                            References
                            EID-PIM-E5 Privileged Identity Management Technique Scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            This control only provides protection for one of this technique's sub-techniques while not providing any protection for the remaining and therefore its coverage score is Minimal, resulting in a Minimal score.
                            References
                            EID-PIM-E5 Privileged Identity Management Technique Scores T1078 Valid Accounts
                            Comments
                            The PIM control supports an Access Review feature, which can partially be used to avoid stale role assignment for Valid Accounts: Cloud Accounts. The control does not protect against this technique's other sub-techniques, resulting in a Minimal coverage score, for an overall score of Minimal. License Requirements: Microsoft Entra ID P2 or Microsoft Entra ID Governance
                            References

                            ATT&CK Subtechniques

                            Technique ID Technique Name Number of Mappings
                            T1078.001 Default Accounts 33
                            T1078.002 Domain Accounts 30
                            T1078.004 Cloud Accounts 83
                            T1078.003 Local Accounts 31