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T1078.001 Default Accounts

Adversaries may obtain and abuse credentials of a default account as a means of gaining Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion. Default accounts are those that are built-into an OS, such as the Guest or Administrator accounts on Windows systems. Default accounts also include default factory/provider set accounts on other types of systems, software, or devices, including the root user account in AWS, the root user account in ESXi, and the default service account in Kubernetes.325

Default accounts are not limited to client machines; rather, they also include accounts that are preset for equipment such as network devices and computer applications, whether they are internal, open source, or commercial. Appliances that come preset with a username and password combination pose a serious threat to organizations that do not change it post installation, as they are easy targets for an adversary. Similarly, adversaries may also utilize publicly disclosed or stolen Private Keys or credential materials to legitimately connect to remote environments via Remote Services.4

Default accounts may be created on a system after initial setup by connecting or integrating it with another application. For example, when an ESXi server is connected to a vCenter server, a default privileged account called vpxuser is created on the ESXi server. If a threat actor is able to compromise this account’s credentials (for example, via Exploitation for Credential Access on the vCenter host), they will then have access to the ESXi server.16

Item Value
ID T1078.001
Sub-techniques T1078.001, T1078.002, T1078.003, T1078.004
Tactics TA0005, TA0003, TA0004, TA0001
Platforms Containers, ESXi, IaaS, Identity Provider, Linux, Network Devices, Office Suite, SaaS, Windows, macOS
Version 1.5
Created 13 March 2020
Last Modified 24 October 2025

Procedure Examples

ID Name Description
G1003 Ember Bear Ember Bear has abused default user names and passwords in externally-accessible IP cameras for initial access.12
G1016 FIN13 FIN13 has leveraged default credentials for authenticating myWebMethods (WMS) and QLogic web management interface to gain initial access.10
C0038 HomeLand Justice During HomeLand Justice, threat actors used the built-in administrator account to move laterally using RDP and Impacket.13
S0537 HyperStack HyperStack can use default credentials to connect to IPC$ shares on remote machines.8
G0059 Magic Hound Magic Hound enabled and used the default system managed account, DefaultAccount, via "powershell.exe" /c net user DefaultAccount /active:yes to connect to a targeted Exchange server over RDP.11
S0603 Stuxnet Stuxnet infected WinCC machines via a hardcoded database server password.9
G1048 UNC3886 UNC3886 has harvested and used vCenter Server service accounts.1

Mitigations

ID Mitigation Description
M1032 Multi-factor Authentication Implement multi-factor authentication (MFA) for default accounts whenever possible to prevent unauthorized access, even if credentials for these accounts are compromised. MFA adds an additional layer of security that requires more than just a username and password, making it significantly harder for adversaries to exploit these accounts for initial access or lateral movement.
M1027 Password Policies Applications and appliances that utilize default username and password should be changed immediately after the installation, and before deployment to a production environment. 7

References

  1. Alexander Marvi, Brad Slaybaugh, Ron Craft, and Rufus Brown. (2023, June 13). VMware ESXi Zero-Day Used by Chinese Espionage Actor to Perform Privileged Guest Operations on Compromised Hypervisors. Retrieved March 26, 2025. ↩↩

  2. Amazon. (n.d.). AWS Account Root User. Retrieved April 5, 2021. ↩

  3. Microsoft. (2018, December 9). Local Accounts. Retrieved February 11, 2019. ↩

  4. undefined. (n.d.). Retrieved April 12, 2019. ↩

  5. Weizman, Y. (2020, April 2). Threat Matrix for Kubernetes. Retrieved March 30, 2021. ↩

  6. Yuval Lazar. (2022, March 29). Mitigating VMware vCenter Information Disclosure. Retrieved March 26, 2025. ↩

  7. US-CERT. (n.d.). Risks of Default Passwords on the Internet. Retrieved April 12, 2019. ↩

  8. Accenture. (2020, October). Turla uses HyperStack, Carbon, and Kazuar to compromise government entity. Retrieved December 2, 2020. ↩

  9. Nicolas Falliere, Liam O Murchu, Eric Chien 2011, February W32.Stuxnet Dossier (Version 1.4) Retrieved November 17, 2024. ↩

  10. Sygnia Incident Response Team. (2022, January 5). TG2003: ELEPHANT BEETLE UNCOVERING AN ORGANIZED FINANCIAL-THEFT OPERATION. Retrieved February 9, 2023. ↩

  11. DFIR Report. (2021, November 15). Exchange Exploit Leads to Domain Wide Ransomware. Retrieved January 5, 2023. ↩

  12. US Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency et al. (2024, September 5). Russian Military Cyber Actors Target U.S. and Global Critical Infrastructure. Retrieved September 6, 2024. ↩

  13. MSTIC. (2022, September 8). Microsoft investigates Iranian attacks against the Albanian government. Retrieved August 6, 2024. ↩