T1069 - Permission Groups Discovery

Adversaries may attempt to discover group and permission settings. This information can help adversaries determine which user accounts and groups are available, the membership of users in particular groups, and which users and groups have elevated permissions.

Adversaries may attempt to discover group permission settings in many different ways. This data may provide the adversary with information about the compromised environment that can be used in follow-on activity and targeting.(Citation: CrowdStrike BloodHound April 2018)

Atomic Tests:

Currently, no tests are available for this technique.

Detection

System and network discovery techniques normally occur throughout an operation as an adversary learns the environment. Data and events should not be viewed in isolation, but as part of a chain of behavior that could lead to other activities, such as Lateral Movement, based on the information obtained.

Monitor processes and command-line arguments for actions that could be taken to gather system and network information. Remote access tools with built-in features may interact directly with the Windows API to gather information. Information may also be acquired through Windows system management tools such as Windows Management Instrumentation and PowerShell. Monitor container logs for commands and/or API calls related to listing permissions for pods and nodes, such as kubectl auth can-i.(Citation: K8s Authorization Overview)

Shield Active Defense

Software Manipulation

Make changes to a system’s software properties and functions to achieve a desired effect.

Software Manipulation allows a defender to alter or replace elements of the operating system, file system, or any other software installed and executed on a system.

Opportunity

In an adversary engagement operation, there is an opportunity to impact what an adversary sees when they execute commands on a system.

Use Case

A defender could manipulate a system’s software to alter the results of an adversary enumerating permission group information.

Procedures

Hook the Win32 Sleep() function so that it always performs a Sleep(1) instead of the intended duration. This can increase the speed at which dynamic analysis can be performed when a normal malicious file sleeps for long periods before attempting additional capabilities. Hook the Win32 NetUserChangePassword() and modify it such that the new password is different from the one provided. The data passed into the function is encrypted along with the modified new password, then logged so a defender can get alerted about the change as well as decrypt the new password for use. Alter the output of an adversary’s profiling commands to make newly-built systems look like the operating system was installed months earlier. Alter the output of adversary recon commands to not show important assets, such as a file server containing sensitive data.