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T1136 Create Account

Adversaries may create an account to maintain access to victim systems.2 With a sufficient level of access, creating such accounts may be used to establish secondary credentialed access that do not require persistent remote access tools to be deployed on the system.

Accounts may be created on the local system or within a domain or cloud tenant. In cloud environments, adversaries may create accounts that only have access to specific services, which can reduce the chance of detection.

Item Value
ID T1136
Sub-techniques T1136.001, T1136.002, T1136.003
Tactics TA0003
Platforms Containers, ESXi, IaaS, Identity Provider, Linux, Network Devices, Office Suite, SaaS, Windows, macOS
Version 2.6
Created 14 December 2017
Last Modified 24 October 2025

Procedure Examples

ID Name Description
C0025 2016 Ukraine Electric Power Attack During the 2016 Ukraine Electric Power Attack, Sandworm Team added a login to a SQL Server with sp_addlinkedsrvlogin.6
G0119 Indrik Spider Indrik Spider used wmic.exe to add a new user to the system.2
S1199 LockBit 2.0 LockBit 2.0 has been observed creating accounts for persistence using simple names like “a”.3
G1045 Salt Typhoon Salt Typhoon has created Linux-level users on compromised network devices through modification of /etc/shadow and /etc/passwd.5
G1015 Scattered Spider Scattered Spider creates new user identities within the compromised organization.4

Mitigations

ID Mitigation Description
M1032 Multi-factor Authentication Use multi-factor authentication for user and privileged accounts.
M1030 Network Segmentation Configure access controls and firewalls to limit access to domain controllers and systems used to create and manage accounts.
M1028 Operating System Configuration Protect domain controllers by ensuring proper security configuration for critical servers.
M1026 Privileged Account Management Limit the number of accounts with permissions to create other accounts. Do not allow domain administrator accounts to be used for day-to-day operations that may expose them to potential adversaries on unprivileged systems.

References

  1. Lich, B., Miroshnikov, A. (2017, April 5). 4720(S): A user account was created. Retrieved June 30, 2017. ↩

  2. Symantec Threat Intelligence. (2020, June 25). WastedLocker: Symantec Identifies Wave of Attacks Against U.S. Organizations. Retrieved May 20, 2021. ↩↩

  3. Elsad, A. et al. (2022, June 9). LockBit 2.0: How This RaaS Operates and How to Protect Against It. Retrieved January 24, 2025. ↩

  4. CISA. (2023, November 16). Cybersecurity Advisory: Scattered Spider (AA23-320A). Retrieved March 18, 2024. ↩

  5. Cisco Talos. (2025, February 20). Weathering the storm: In the midst of a Typhoon. Retrieved February 24, 2025. ↩

  6. Joe Slowik. (2018, October 12). Anatomy of an Attack: Detecting and Defeating CRASHOVERRIDE. Retrieved December 18, 2020. ↩