Suspicious Domain User Account Created via Net Command

ATT&CK techniques

Persistence

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
- T1136.001Local Account
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects use of net.exe to create a new domain user account, observed during CrushFTP post-exploitation by Huntress where an account named vmadmin was added. Adversaries create backup credentials to persist and blend into normal administration. New account creation from interactive shells on servers is an important persistence indicator that should be correlated with the initiating process chain.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1136.001 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious Local Account Creation Named DefaultService

ScreenConnect Administrator Provisioning XML Written to Temp Directory (CWE-288)

Suspicious Rogue VeeamBkp Account Creation by Estate Ransomware

Malicious Account Added to Domain Admins via net localgroup

Suspicious Miner Operator Account Creation Named samsungmid

Suspicious Local Account Creation Matching Hunters International Naming

Suspicious Rogue Administrator Account Creation Named System32 (via process_creation)

Suspicious Local Account Creation via Net User in Pre-Ransomware Phase

Suspicious Hidden Local Account Creation via Net User by UAT-8099

Suspicious Domain User Account Created via Net Command

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.

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