Additional Local or Domain Groups (T1098.007)

Tactic: Persistence, Privilege Escalation

Tactics
Persistence , Privilege Escalation
Platforms
Windows, macOS, Linux
Reference
attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1098.007

Description

An adversary may add additional local or domain groups to an adversary-controlled account to maintain persistent access to a system or domain.

On Windows, accounts may use the net localgroup and net group commands to add existing users to local and domain groups.(Citation: Microsoft Net Localgroup)(Citation: Microsoft Net Group) On Linux, adversaries may use the usermod command for the same purpose.(Citation: Linux Usermod)

For example, accounts may be added to the local administrators group on Windows devices to maintain elevated privileges. They may also be added to the Remote Desktop Users group, which allows them to leverage Remote Desktop Protocol to log into the endpoints in the future.(Citation: Microsoft RDP Logons) Adversaries may also add accounts to VPN user groups to gain future persistence on the network.(Citation: Cyber Security News) On Linux, accounts may be added to the sudoers group, allowing them to persistently leverage Sudo and Sudo Caching for elevated privileges.

In Windows environments, machine accounts may also be added to domain groups. This allows the local SYSTEM account to gain privileges on the domain.(Citation: RootDSE AD Detection 2022)

How GTK Cyber trains on this

GTK Cyber's Threat Hunting with Data Science course teaches you to build machine-learning detections for techniques like this across the MITRE ATT&CK framework, including the Persistence, Privilege Escalation tactic this technique falls under. Practitioner-led, focused on real detections, not memorizing technique IDs.

Threat Hunting with Data Science → · All training courses

Related techniques

Train your team to detect attacks like this.

GTK Cyber's Threat Hunting with Data Science course is taught by practitioners who detect this stuff for a living.

Explore Threat Hunting Training