T1484: Domain Policy Modification
| View on MITRE ATT&CK | T1484 |
|---|---|
| Tactic(s) | Defense Evasion, Privilege Escalation |
Data from MITRE ATT&CK®:
Adversaries may modify the configuration settings of a domain to evade defenses and/or escalate privileges in domain environments. Domains provide a centralized means of managing how computer resources (ex: computers, user accounts) can act, and interact with each other, on a network. The policy of the domain also includes configuration settings that may apply between domains in a multi-domain/forest environment. Modifications to domain settings may include altering domain Group Policy Objects (GPOs) or changing trust settings for domains, including federation trusts.
With sufficient permissions, adversaries can modify domain policy settings. Since domain configuration settings control many of the interactions within the Active Directory (AD) environment, there are a great number of potential attacks that can stem from this abuse. Examples of such abuse include modifying GPOs to push a malicious Scheduled Task to computers throughout the domain environment(Citation: ADSecurity GPO Persistence 2016)(Citation: Wald0 Guide to GPOs)(Citation: Harmj0y Abusing GPO Permissions) or modifying domain trusts to include an adversary controlled domain where they can control access tokens that will subsequently be accepted by victim domain resources.(Citation: Microsoft - Customer Guidance on Recent Nation-State Cyber Attacks) Adversaries can also change configuration settings within the AD environment to implement a Rogue Domain Controller.
Adversaries may temporarily modify domain policy, carry out a malicious action(s), and then revert the change to remove suspicious indicators.
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Cyber Threat Graph Context
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Mitigations for this technique
MITRE ATT&CK Mitigations
User Account Management
Manage the creation, modification, use, and permissions associated to user accounts.Privileged Account Management
Manage the creation, modification, use, and permissions associated to privileged accounts, including SYSTEM and root.Audit
Perform audits or scans of systems, permissions, insecure software, insecure configurations, etc. to identify potential weaknesses.How to detect this technique
MITRE ATT&CK Data Components
Active Directory Object Creation (Active Directory)
Initial construction of a new active directory object (ex: Windows EID 5137)Active Directory Object Modification (Active Directory)
Changes made to an active directory object (ex: Windows EID 5163 or 5136)Active Directory Object Deletion (Active Directory)
Removal of an active directory object (ex: Windows EID 5141)Command Execution (Command)
The execution of a line of text, potentially with arguments, created from program code (e.g. a cmdlet executed via powershell.exe, interactive commands like >dir, shell executions, etc. )Sigma Detections for this Technique
SP800-53 Controls
See which controls can help protect against this MITRE ATT&CK technique. This is based on mappings to associated SP800-53 controls produced by the MITRE Engenuity Center for Threat-Informed Defense.