Potential Admin Group Account Addition

Identifies attempts to add an account to the admin group via the command line. This could be an indication of privilege escalation activity.

Rule type: query

Rule indices:

• auditbeat-*
• logs-endpoint.events.*

Severity: medium

Risk score: 47

Runs every: 5m

Searches indices from: now-9m (https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/reference/current/common-options.html#date-math[Date Math format], see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References:

• https://managingosx.wordpress.com/2010/01/14/add-a-user-to-the-admin-group-via-command-line-3-0/

Tags:

• Elastic
• Host
• macOS
• Threat Detection
• Privilege Escalation

Version: 101

Rule authors:

• Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

event.category:process and event.type:(start or process_started) and
 process.name:(dscl or dseditgroup) and process.args:(("/Groups/admin" or admin) and ("-a" or "-append"))

Framework: MITRE ATT&CKTM

• Tactic:

  • Name: Privilege Escalation
  • ID: TA0004
  • Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0004/

• Technique:

  • Name: Valid Accounts
  • ID: T1078
  • Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1078/

• Sub-technique:

  • Name: Local Accounts
  • ID: T1078.003
  • Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1078/003/