Suspicious Modification of dMSA Managed Account Link Attributes

PremiumReviewedSigma · High · v1
Product
windows
Service
security
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-07-06
Updated
2026-08-28

ATT&CK techniques

Persistence → Defense Evasion
  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Execution

  5. Cred Access

  6. Discovery

  7. Lateral Movement

  8. Collection

  9. C2

  10. Exfiltration

  11. Impact

What it detects

This rule detects directory modifications to the msDS-ManagedAccountPrecededByLink or msDS-DelegatedMSAState attributes of a delegated Managed Service Account. The BadSuccessor attack abuses these dMSA attributes to inherit privileges from a targeted account and escalate in Active Directory. Changes to these attributes outside sanctioned administration indicate an escalation attempt.

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Pivot detection · T1098 · 9 related

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