Suspicious sAMAccountName change

Synopsis

Field	Value
Activation Period	14 Days
Training Period	30 Days
Test Period	N/A (single event)
Deduplication Period	1 Day
Required Data	Requires one of the following data sources: Windows Event Collector OR XDR Agent with eXtended Threat Hunting (XTH)
Detection Modules	Identity Analytics
ATT&CK Tactic	Privilege Escalation (TA0004), Persistence (TA0003)
ATT&CK Technique	Account Manipulation (T1098), Valid Accounts (T1078)
Severity	Low

Description

The name of a machine account was changed to a sAMAccountName with a missing trailing dollar sign.

Attacker's Goals

Elevate privileges from standard domain user to domain admin.

Investigative actions

• Check if the domain controller is patched or vulnerable to the attack.
• Check if any associated TGTs or service tickets were granted.
• Follow actions by the account and if it performed a DCSync.

Variations

Suspicious sAMAccountName change to DC hostname

Synopsis

Field	Value
ATT&CK Tactic	Privilege Escalation (TA0004), Persistence (TA0003)
ATT&CK Technique	Account Manipulation (T1098), Valid Accounts (T1078)
Severity	Medium

Description

The name of a machine account was changed to a sAMAccountName with a missing trailing dollar sign.

Attacker's Goals

Elevate privileges from standard domain user to domain admin.

Investigative actions

• Check if the domain controller is patched or vulnerable to the attack.
• Check if any associated TGTs or service tickets were granted.
• Follow actions by the account and if it performed a DCSync.