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T1087.001 Local Account

Adversaries may attempt to get a listing of local system accounts. This information can help adversaries determine which local accounts exist on a system to aid in follow-on behavior.

Commands such as net user and net localgroup of the Net utility and id and groupson macOS and Linux can list local users and groups. On Linux, local users can also be enumerated through the use of the /etc/passwd file. On macOS the dscl . list /Users command can be used to enumerate local accounts.

Item Value
ID T1087.001
Sub-techniques T1087.001, T1087.002, T1087.003, T1087.004
Tactics TA0007
Platforms Linux, Windows, macOS
Version 1.4
Created 21 February 2020
Last Modified 13 April 2023

Procedure Examples

ID Name Description
G0018 admin@338 admin@338 actors used the following commands following exploitation of a machine with LOWBALL malware to enumerate user accounts: net user >> %temp%\download net user /domain >> %temp%\download45
S0331 Agent Tesla Agent Tesla can collect account information from the victim’s machine.30
G0006 APT1 APT1 used the commands net localgroup,net user, and net group to find accounts on the system.52
G0022 APT3 APT3 has used a tool that can obtain info about local and global group users, power users, and administrators.14
G0050 APT32 APT32 enumerated administrative users using the commands net localgroup administrators.47
S0239 Bankshot Bankshot gathers domain and account names/information through process monitoring.24
S0534 Bazar Bazar can identify administrator accounts on an infected host.11
S0570 BitPaymer BitPaymer can enumerate the sessions for each user logged onto the infected host.21
S0521 BloodHound BloodHound can identify users with local administrator rights.7
G0114 Chimera Chimera has used net user for account discovery.48
S0244 Comnie Comnie uses the net user command.36
S0038 Duqu The discovery modules used with Duqu can collect information on accounts and permissions.38
S0081 Elise Elise executes net user after initial communication is made to the remote server.12
S0363 Empire Empire can acquire local and domain user account information.6
S0091 Epic Epic gathers a list of all user accounts, privilege classes, and time of last logon.29
G0117 Fox Kitten Fox Kitten has accessed ntuser.dat and UserClass.dat on compromised hosts.50
S0049 GeminiDuke GeminiDuke collects information on local user accounts from the victim.17
S0537 HyperStack HyperStack can enumerate all account names on a remote share.31
S0260 InvisiMole InvisiMole has a command to list account information on the victim’s machine.32
S0265 Kazuar Kazuar gathers information on local groups and members on the victim’s machine.23
G0004 Ke3chang Ke3chang performs account discovery using commands such as net localgroup administrators and net group “REDACTED” /domain on specific permissions groups.46
S0236 Kwampirs Kwampirs collects a list of accounts with the command net users.20
S1015 Milan Milan has run C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe /c cmd /c dir c:\users\ /s 2>&1 to discover local accounts.28
S0084 Mis-Type Mis-Type may create a file containing the results of the command cmd.exe /c net user {Username}.15
G1009 Moses Staff Moses Staff has collected the administrator username from a compromised host.49
S0233 MURKYTOP MURKYTOP has the capability to retrieve information about users on remote hosts.40
S0039 Net Commands under net user can be used in Net to gather information about and manipulate user accounts.8
G0049 OilRig OilRig has run net user, net user /domain, net group “domain admins” /domain, and net group “Exchange Trusted Subsystem” /domain to get account listings on a victim.51
C0012 Operation CuckooBees During Operation CuckooBees, the threat actors used the net user command to gather account information.53
S0165 OSInfo OSInfo enumerates local and domain users14
S0598 P.A.S. Webshell P.A.S. Webshell can display the /etc/passwd file on a compromised host.25
S0453 Pony Pony has used the NetUserEnum function to enumerate local accounts.39
G0033 Poseidon Group Poseidon Group searches for administrator accounts on both the local victim machine and the network.44
S0378 PoshC2 PoshC2 can enumerate local and domain user account information.9
S0194 PowerSploit PowerSploit‘s Get-ProcessTokenGroup Privesc-PowerUp module can enumerate all SIDs associated with its current token.45
S0223 POWERSTATS POWERSTATS can retrieve usernames from compromised hosts.22
S0196 PUNCHBUGGY PUNCHBUGGY can gather user names.16
S0192 Pupy Pupy uses PowerView and Pywerview to perform discovery commands such as net user, net group, net local group, etc.3
S0241 RATANKBA RATANKBA uses the net user command.13
S0125 Remsec Remsec can obtain a list of users.37
S0085 S-Type S-Type has run the command net user on a victim.15
S0063 SHOTPUT SHOTPUT has a command to retrieve information about connected users.33
S0649 SMOKEDHAM SMOKEDHAM has used net.exe user and net.exe users to enumerate local accounts on a compromised host.10
S0516 SoreFang SoreFang can collect usernames from the local system via net.exe user.35
S0603 Stuxnet Stuxnet enumerates user accounts of the local host.26
G0027 Threat Group-3390 Threat Group-3390 has used net user to conduct internal discovery of systems.43
S0266 TrickBot TrickBot collects the users of the system.1819
G0010 Turla Turla has used net user to enumerate local accounts on the system.4142
S0452 USBferry USBferry can use net user to gather information about local accounts.34
S0476 Valak Valak has the ability to enumerate local admin accounts.27

Mitigations

ID Mitigation Description
M1028 Operating System Configuration Prevent administrator accounts from being enumerated when an application is elevating through UAC since it can lead to the disclosure of account names. The Registry key is located at HKLM\ SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\CredUI\EnumerateAdministrators. It can be disabled through GPO: Computer Configuration > [Policies] > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Credential User Interface: Enumerate administrator accounts on elevation.2

Detection

ID Data Source Data Component
DS0017 Command Command Execution
DS0022 File File Access
DS0036 Group Group Enumeration
DS0009 Process OS API Execution

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