Elastic Security Detection Rules

Potential Privileged Escalation via SamAccountName Spoofing

Last updated 5 months ago on 2025-03-20
Created 4 years ago on 2021-12-12

About

Identifies a suspicious computer account name rename event, which may indicate an attempt to exploit CVE-2021-42278 to elevate privileges from a standard domain user to a user with domain admin privileges. CVE-2021-42278 is a security vulnerability that allows potential attackers to impersonate a domain controller via samAccountName attribute spoofing.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: WindowsUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: PersistenceTactic: Privilege EscalationUse Case: Active Directory MonitoringData Source: Active DirectoryUse Case: VulnerabilityData Source: Windows Security Event LogsLanguage: eql
Severity
high
Risk Score
73
MITRE ATT&CK™

Privilege Escalation (TA0004)(opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068)(opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Valid Accounts (T1078)(opens in a new tab or window)

Persistence (TA0003)(opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Account Manipulation (T1098)(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
logs-system.security*logs-windows.forwarded*winlogbeat-*
Related Integrations

system(opens in a new tab or window)

windows(opens in a new tab or window)

Query
iam where event.action == "renamed-user-account" and
  /* machine account name renamed to user like account name */
  winlog.event_data.OldTargetUserName : "*$" and not winlog.event_data.NewTargetUserName : "*$"

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Potential Privileged Escalation via SamAccountName Spoofing 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).