Adversaries may obtain and abuse credentials of a domain account as a means of gaining Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion.(Citation: TechNet Credential Theft) Domain accounts are those managed by Active Directory Domain Services where access and permissions are configured across systems and services that are part of that domain. Domain accounts can cover users, administrators, and services.(Citation: Microsoft AD Accounts)
Adversaries may compromise domain accounts, some with a high level of privileges, through various means such as OS Credential Dumping or password reuse, allowing access to privileged resources of the domain.
View in MITRE ATT&CK®| Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PR.IR-01.05 | Remote access protection | Mitigates | T1078.002 | Domain 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.
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| PR.PS-06.01 | Secure SDLC process | Mitigates | T1078.002 | Domain 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).
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| PR.AA-05.02 | Privileged system access | Mitigates | T1078.002 | Domain Accounts |
Comments
This diagnostic statement protects against Domain Accounts through the use of privileged account management and the use of multi-factor authentication.
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| DE.CM-06.02 | Third-party access monitoring | Mitigates | T1078.002 | Domain Accounts |
Comments
This diagnostic statement protects against Domain 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.
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| PR.PS-01.07 | Cryptographic keys and certificates | Mitigates | T1078.002 | Domain Accounts |
Comments
This diagnostic statement protects against Valid Accounts: Domain 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.
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| PR.AA-05.03 | Service accounts | Mitigates | T1078.002 | Domain 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).
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| DE.CM-03.03 | Privileged account monitoring | Mitigates | T1078.002 | Domain 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.
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| PR.AA-01.02 | Physical and logical access | Mitigates | T1078.002 | Domain 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.
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| PR.AA-03.01 | Authentication requirements | Mitigates | T1078.002 | Domain 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.
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| PR.AA-01.01 | Identity and credential management | Mitigates | T1078.002 | Domain Accounts |
Comments
This diagnostic statement protects against Domain Accounts through the use of hardened access control policies, secure defaults, password complexity requirements, multifactor authentication requirements, and removal of terminated accounts.
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| Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IA-13 | Identity Providers and Authorization Servers | mitigates | T1078.002 | Domain Accounts | |
| CM-06 | Configuration Settings | mitigates | T1078.002 | Domain Accounts | |
| CM-05 | Access Restrictions for Change | mitigates | T1078.002 | Domain Accounts | |
| IA-05 | Authenticator Management | mitigates | T1078.002 | Domain Accounts | |
| IA-12 | Identity Proofing | mitigates | T1078.002 | Domain Accounts | |
| AC-20 | Use of External Systems | mitigates | T1078.002 | Domain Accounts | |
| IA-02 | Identification and Authentication (Organizational Users) | mitigates | T1078.002 | Domain Accounts | |
| SI-04 | System Monitoring | mitigates | T1078.002 | Domain Accounts | |
| AC-02 | Account Management | mitigates | T1078.002 | Domain Accounts | |
| AC-03 | Access Enforcement | mitigates | T1078.002 | Domain Accounts | |
| AC-05 | Separation of Duties | mitigates | T1078.002 | Domain Accounts | |
| AC-06 | Least Privilege | mitigates | T1078.002 | Domain Accounts | |
| AC-07 | Unsuccessful Logon Attempts | mitigates | T1078.002 | Domain Accounts |
| Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| advanced_protection_program | Advanced Protection Program | technique_scores | T1078.002 | Domain Accounts |
Comments
Advanced Protection Program enables the use of a security key for multi-factor authentication. Integrating multi-factor authentication (MFA) as part of organizational policy can greatly reduce the risk of an adversary gaining control of valid credentials that may be used for additional tactics such as initial access, lateral movement, and collecting information.
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| cloud_identity | Cloud Identity | technique_scores | T1078.002 | Domain Accounts |
Comments
This control can be used to mitigate malicious attacks of domain accounts by implementing multi-factor authentication techniques or password policies.
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| Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| aws_single_sign-on | AWS Single Sign-On | technique_scores | T1078.002 | Domain Accounts |
Comments
This control may protect against malicious use of valid accounts by implementing fine grained and least privilege access through use of permission sets (a collection of administrator-defined policies that AWS SSO uses to determine a user's effective permissions to access a given AWS account). The ability to reduce the set of credentials and accounts needed for a user allows for simpler and safer access and privilege management.
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