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Every technique
T1136.002Detection written

Domain Account

PersistenceLinux, macOS, Windows

Where this stands

One published detection covers this technique. Every one is unverified — no rule on Siemphony has been executed against real telemetry.

What the technique is

Adversaries may create a domain account to maintain access to victim systems. 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 user, administrator, and service accounts. With a sufficient level of access, the net user /add /domain command can be used to create a domain account. Such accounts may be used to establish secondary credentialed access that do not require persistent remote access tools to be deployed on the system.

Read it on attack.mitre.org

What MITRE says you would watch

  • AN0006

    Adversary uses built-in tools such as 'net user /add /domain' or PowerShell to create a domain user account. The behavior chain includes: (1) suspicious process execution on a domain controller followed by (2) user account creation event (Event ID 4720) on the same host.

  • AN0007

    Adversary with access to domain management tools (e.g., realmd, samba-tool, ldapmodify) creates a new domain user via command-line utilities. Behavior chain: LDAP command or script triggers → user entry added in AD via Kerberos/LDAP traffic.

  • AN0008

    macOS clients joined to AD via LDAP may script account provisioning via dsconfigad, dscl, or LDAP scripts. Detection occurs when such tools run on a domain-joined system, followed by authentication attempts by a previously unseen account.

Technique names and descriptions © MITRE ATT&CK®, CC BY 4.0. Not endorsed by MITRE.