Adversaries may interrupt availability of system and network resources by inhibiting access to accounts utilized by legitimate users. Accounts may be deleted, locked, or manipulated (ex: changed credentials) to remove access to accounts. Adversaries may also subsequently log off and/or perform a System Shutdown/Reboot to set malicious changes into place.[1][2]
In Windows, Net utility, Set-LocalUser and Set-ADAccountPassword PowerShell cmdlets may be used by adversaries to modify user accounts. In Linux, the passwd utility may be used to change passwords. Accounts could also be disabled by Group Policy.
Adversaries who use ransomware or similar attacks may first perform this and other Impact behaviors, such as Data Destruction and Defacement, in order to impede incident response/recovery before completing the Data Encrypted for Impact objective.
| ID | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| G1024 | Akira |
Akira deletes administrator accounts in victim networks prior to encryption.[3] |
| S1134 | DEADWOOD |
DEADWOOD changes the password for local and domain users via |
| G1004 | LAPSUS$ |
LAPSUS$ has removed a targeted organization's global admin accounts to lock the organization out of all access.[5] |
| S0372 | LockerGoga |
LockerGoga has been observed changing account passwords and logging off current users.[1][2] |
| S0576 | MegaCortex |
MegaCortex has changed user account passwords and logged users off the system.[6] |
| S0688 | Meteor |
Meteor has the ability to change the password of local users on compromised hosts and can log off users.[7] |
This type of attack technique cannot be easily mitigated with preventive controls since it is based on the abuse of system features.
| ID | Data Source | Data Component | Detects |
|---|---|---|---|
| DS0026 | Active Directory | Active Directory Object Modification |
Monitor for changes made to AD settings for unexpected modifications to user accounts, such as deletions or potentially malicious changes to user attributes (credentials, status, etc.). Analytic 1 - Unusual password change operations
|
| DS0002 | User Account | User Account Deletion |
Monitor for unexpected deletions of user accounts. Windows event logs may designate activity associated with an adversary's attempt to remove an account (ex: Event ID 4726 - A user account was deleted). Alerting on these Event IDs may generate a high degree of false positives, so compare against baseline knowledge for how systems are typically used and correlate modification events with other indications of malicious activity where possible. |
| User Account Modification |
Monitor for changes made to user accounts for unexpected modification of properties, such as passwords or status (enabled/disabled). Windows event logs may designate activity associated with an adversary's attempt to remove access to an account:Event ID 4723 - An attempt was made to change an account's passwordEvent ID 4724 - An attempt was made to reset an account's passwordEvent ID 4725 - A user account was disabled Alerting on these Event IDs may generate a high degree of false positives, so compare against baseline knowledge for how systems are typically used and correlate modification events with other indications of malicious activity where possible. |