T1136.001 Local Account

T1136.001 Local Account

Sub-technique of: T1136

High-Level Description

Adversaries may create a local account to maintain access to victim systems. Local accounts are those configured by an organization for use by users, remote support, services, or for administration on a single system or service.

For example, with a sufficient level of access, the Windows net user /add command can be used to create a local account. In Linux, the useradd command can be used, while on macOS systems, the dscl -create command can be used. Local accounts may also be added to network devices, often via common Network Device CLI commands such as username, to ESXi servers via esxcli system account add, or to Kubernetes clusters using the kubectl utility.

Adversaries may also create new local accounts on network firewall management consoles – for example, by exploiting a vulnerable firewall management system, threat actors may be able to establish super-admin accounts that could be used to modify firewall rules and gain further access to the network.

Such accounts may be used to establish secondary credentialed access that do not require persistent remote access tools to be deployed on the system.

Kill Chain Phase

• Persistence (TA0003)

Platforms: Linux, macOS, Windows, Network Devices, Containers, ESXi

What to Check

• Identify if Local Account technique is applicable to target environment
• Check Linux systems for indicators of Local Account
• Check macOS systems for indicators of Local Account
• Check Windows systems for indicators of Local Account
• Verify mitigations are bypassed or absent (2 known mitigations)
• Assess detection coverage (1 detection strategies)

How to Test

Atomic Red Team Tests

The following tests are from Atomic Red Team and provide actionable ways to test this technique:

Atomic Test 1: Create a user account on a Linux system

Create a user via useradd

Supported Platforms: linux