Masquerading Machine-Like Local Admin Account Creation Ending With Dollar Sign (via process_creation)

PremiumReviewedSigma · Medium · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-06-28
Updated
2026-08-28

ATT&CK techniques

Persistence → Defense Evasion
  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Execution

  5. Priv Esc

  6. Defense Evasion

  7. Cred Access

  8. Discovery

  9. Lateral Movement

  10. Collection

  11. C2

  12. Exfiltration

  13. Impact

What it detects

This rule detects creation of a local account whose name ends with a dollar sign, a masquerading technique from the Truesec intrusion where operators created admin accounts mimicking machine accounts to blend into directory listings. Adversaries use dollar-suffixed names to hide backdoor accounts, making creation of such an account a focused persistence indicator.

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Masquerading Machine-Like Local Admin Account Creation Ending With Dollar Sign (via process_creation)
Pivot detection · T1136.001 · 9 related

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.