it is possible that an administrator created the account. verifying activity with an administrator is advised. accounts created on domain controllers will trigger this too. exclude if it becomes too noisy. this analytic is set to anomaly to allow for risk to be added. filter and tune as needed. restrict to critical infrastructure to reduce any volume.

Techniques

T1136.001

Sample rules

Windows Create Local Account

source: splunk
technicques:
- T1136.001

Description

The following analytic detects the creation of a new local user account on a Windows system. It leverages Windows Security Audit logs, specifically event ID 4720, to identify this activity. Monitoring the creation of local accounts is crucial for a SOC as it can indicate unauthorized access or lateral movement within the network. If confirmed malicious, this activity could allow an attacker to establish persistence, escalate privileges, or gain unauthorized access to sensitive systems and data.

Detection logic


| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` 
  values(All_Changes.result_id) as result_id 
  count min(_time) as firstTime 
        max(_time) as lastTime 
from datamodel=Change where 
All_Changes.result_id=4720 
by All_Changes.user All_Changes.dest All_Changes.result All_Changes.action

| `drop_dm_object_name("All_Changes")`

| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`

| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`

| `windows_create_local_account_filter`