Device Administrator Permissions
Where this stands
No Sigma rule can address this — the telemetry MITRE names has no Sigma logsource behind it.
Sigma has no logsource taxonomy for mobile platforms. MITRE's telemetry here is mobile EDR and device APIs, which no Sigma rule can address.
What the technique is
Adversaries may abuse Android’s device administration API to obtain a higher degree of control over the device. By abusing the API, adversaries can perform several nefarious actions, such as resetting the device’s password for Endpoint Denial of Service, factory resetting the device for File Deletion and to delete any traces of the malware, disabling all the device’s cameras, or to make it more difficult to uninstall the app. Device administrators must be approved by the user at runtime, with a system popup showing which actions have been requested by the app. In conjunction with other techniques, such as Input Injection, an app can programmatically grant itself administrator permissions without any user input.
Read it on attack.mitre.orgWhat MITRE says you would watch
- AN1701
Correlates (1) activation of Device Administrator privileges by an application, (2) absence or mismatch of legitimate user interaction during the approval flow, and (3) immediate execution of administrator-level control actions (e.g., password reset, device lock, policy enforcement, prevention of uninstall). The defender observes a causal chain where an application transitions into a privileged device control role and rapidly exercises those capabilities outside expected user-driven patterns. Application vetting services can check for the string BIND_DEVICE_ADMIN in the application’s manifest.
Technique names and descriptions © MITRE ATT&CK®, CC BY 4.0. Not endorsed by MITRE.