Adversaries may obtain and abuse credentials of a local account as a means of gaining Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion. Local accounts are those configured by an organization for use by users, remote support, services, or for administration on a single system or service.
Local Accounts may also be abused to elevate privileges and harvest credentials through OS Credential Dumping. Password reuse may allow the abuse of local accounts across a set of machines on a network for the purposes of Privilege Escalation and Lateral Movement.
View in MITRE ATT&CK®| Capability ID | Capability Description | Mapping Type | ATT&CK ID | ATT&CK Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| alerts_for_windows_machines | Alerts for Windows Machines | technique_scores | T1078.003 | Local Accounts |
Comments
This control may detect suspicious activity from existing Windows accounts and logons from suspicious IP addresses. The following alerts may be generated: "A logon from a malicious IP has been detected", "A logon from a malicious IP has been detected. [seen multiple times]".
References
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| azure_sentinel | Azure Sentinel | technique_scores | T1078.003 | Local Accounts |
Comments
The following Azure Sentinel Hunting queries can identify potential compromise of local accounts based on access attempts and/or account usage: "Suspicious Windows Login outside normal hours", "User Login IP Address Teleportation", "User account added or removed from a security group by an unauthorized user", "User Account added to Built in Domain Local or Global Group", "User added to SQL Server SecurityAdmin Group", "User Role altered on SQL Server", "User made Owner of multiple teams", "Tracking Privileged Account Rare Activity", and "Anomalous Login to Devices".
The following Azure Sentinel Analytics queries can identify potential compromise of local accounts based on access attempts and/or account usage: "User account enabled and disabled within 10 mins", "Long lookback User Account Created and Deleted within 10mins", "Explicit MFA Deny", "Hosts with new logons", "Inactive or new account signins", "Anomalous SSH Login Detection", and "Anomalous RDP Login Detections".
References
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| azure_ad_identity_secure_score | Azure AD Identity Secure Score | technique_scores | T1078.003 | Local Accounts |
Comments
This control's "Protect and manage local admin passwords with Microsoft LAPS" recommendation recommends periodically running and reviewing the Microsoft LAPS usage report that identifies all Windows based devices not protected by Microsoft LAPS. This can help reduce the compromise of local administrator accounts.
Because this is a recommendations and not actually enforced coupled with being limited to sensitive accounts, the assessed score is Minimal.
References
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