Possible Privilege Escalation using Delegated MSA account

Cortex XSIAM Analytics Alert Reference by Alert name

Product
Cortex XSIAM
Last date published
2025-12-01
Category
Analytics Alert Reference
Index by
Alert name

Synopsis

Activation Period

14 Days

Training Period

30 Days

Test Period

1 Hour

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

Detector Tags

ATT&CK Tactic

Privilege Escalation (TA0004)

ATT&CK Technique

Account Manipulation (T1098)

Severity

Informational

Description

An attacker might abuse dMSA account to escalate its privileges.

Attacker's Goals

Attackers may leverage dMSA account migration process to escalate privileges.

Investigative actions

  • Confirm that the user is authorized to create and modify dMSA accounts in the domain.
  • Verify the user should have permissions on the OU under which the dMSA account was created.
  • Validate that the dMSA account should be created under the OU that appeared in the log (use the GUID).
  • Verify that the user superseded an account, with the dMSA account, that should have superseded.
  • Check the GUID of the dMSA object to get the account itself (can be viewed also in computer account creation event).
  • Check what is the superseded account in the attribute 'msDS-ManagedAccountPrecededByLink' of the dMSA object.
  • Investigate the host that initiated the dMSA account migration process for malicious activity.

Variations

Possible Privilege Escalation using Delegated MSA account attempt

Synopsis

ATT&CK Tactic

Privilege Escalation (TA0004)

ATT&CK Technique

Account Manipulation (T1098)

Severity

Medium

Description

An attacker might abuse dMSA account to escalate its privileges.

Attacker's Goals

Attackers may leverage dMSA account migration process to escalate privileges.

Investigative actions

  • Confirm that the user is authorized to create and modify dMSA accounts in the domain.
  • Verify the user should have permissions on the OU under which the dMSA account was created.
  • Validate that the dMSA account should be created under the OU that appeared in the log (use the GUID).
  • Verify that the user superseded an account, with the dMSA account, that should have superseded.
  • Check the GUID of the dMSA object to get the account itself (can be viewed also in computer account creation event).
  • Check what is the superseded account in the attribute 'msDS-ManagedAccountPrecededByLink' of the dMSA object.
  • Investigate the host that initiated the dMSA account migration process for malicious activity.