Enumeration of Administrator Accounts

Last updated 5 months ago on 2025-03-20
Created 5 years ago on 2020-12-04

About

Identifies instances of lower privilege accounts enumerating Administrator accounts or groups using built-in Windows tools.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: WindowsUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: DiscoveryData Source: Elastic EndgameData Source: Elastic DefendData Source: Windows Security Event LogsData Source: Microsoft Defender for EndpointData Source: CrowdstrikeLanguage: eql
Severity
low
Risk Score
21
MITRE ATT&CK™

Discovery (TA0007)(opens in a new tab or window)

License
Elastic License v2(opens in a new tab or window)

Definition

Rule Type
Event Correlation Rule
Integration Pack
Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Index Patterns
endgame-*logs-crowdstrike.fdr*logs-endpoint.events.process-*logs-m365_defender.event-*logs-system.security*logs-windows.forwarded*winlogbeat-*
Related Integrations

endpoint(opens in a new tab or window)

windows(opens in a new tab or window)

system(opens in a new tab or window)

m365_defender(opens in a new tab or window)

crowdstrike(opens in a new tab or window)

Query
process where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type == "start" and
(
  (
    (
      (process.name : "net.exe" or ?process.pe.original_file_name == "net.exe") or
      ((process.name : "net1.exe" or ?process.pe.original_file_name == "net1.exe") and not process.parent.name : "net.exe")
    ) and
    process.args : ("group", "user", "localgroup") and
    process.args : ("*admin*", "Domain Admins", "Remote Desktop Users", "Enterprise Admins", "Organization Management")
    and not process.args : ("/add", "/delete")
  ) or
  (
    (process.name : "wmic.exe" or ?process.pe.original_file_name == "wmic.exe") and
    process.args : ("group", "useraccount")
  )
) and not user.id : ("S-1-5-18", "S-1-5-19", "S-1-5-20")

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Enumeration of Administrator Accounts in the Elastic Security detection engine by installing this rule into your Elastic Stack.

To setup this rule, check out the installation guide for Prebuilt Security Detection Rules(opens in a new tab or window).