Suspicious Local Administrator Account Addition via net localgroup
- Product
- windows
- Category
- process_creation
- Author
- HuntRule
- Published
- 2026-09-30
- Updated
- 2026-09-30
ATT&CK techniques
Initial Access → Defense EvasionRecon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact
What it detects
This rule detects use of net or net1 to add an account to the local Administrators group, observed during a Huntress-tracked Bomgar exploitation campaign where attackers escalated privileges before ransomware deployment. Adding accounts to privileged groups from a command line is a common persistence and privilege-escalation technique. While administrators occasionally perform this manually, it should be corroborated with the initiating process context.
Reporting behind it
- huntress.comhttps://www.huntress.com/blog/uptick-bomgar-exploitation
- attack.mitre.orghttps://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1098/
- thedfirreport.comhttps://thedfirreport.com/2025/02/24/confluence-exploit-leads-to-lockbit-ransomware/
- attack.mitre.orghttps://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1136/001/
- huntress.comhttps://www.huntress.com/blog/attacking-mssql-servers-pt-ii
- nccgroup.comhttps://www.nccgroup.com/research/handy-guide-to-a-new-fivehands-ransomware-variant/
- blog.talosintelligence.comhttps://blog.talosintelligence.com/uat-5918-targets-critical-infra-in-taiwan/
- unit42.paloaltonetworks.comhttps://unit42.paloaltonetworks.com/rare-possible-gelsemium-attack-targets-se-asia/
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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