Cross-source coverage
T1036.010 / ATT&CK
Masquerading: Masquerade Account Name
1 rule across 1 source.
From MITRE ATT&CK 19.2
Adversaries may match or approximate the names of legitimate accounts to make newly created ones appear benign. This will typically occur during Create Account, although accounts may also be renamed at a later date. This may also coincide with Account Access Removal if the actor first deletes an account before re-creating one with the same name.
Often, adversaries will attempt to masquerade as service accounts, such as those associated with legitimate software, data backups, or container cluster management. They may also give accounts generic, trustworthy names, such as “admin”, “help”, or “root.” Sometimes adversaries may model account names off of those already existing in the system, as a follow-on behavior to Account Discovery.
Note that this is distinct from Impersonation, which describes impersonating specific trusted individuals or organizations, rather than user or service account names.
- Tactics
- Stealth
- Platforms
- Containers · IaaS · Identity Provider · Linux · macOS · Office Suite · SaaS · Windows
- Telemetry
-
WinEventLog:Securitywindows:osqueryauditd:SYSCALLlinux:osqueryazure:auditsaas:oktadocker:daemon
How MITRE says to detect it DET0383
Detection Strategy for Masquerading via Account Name Similarity
Windows Analytic 1077
Detects adversary behavior where a newly created or renamed user account closely resembles existing service or administrator accounts to blend in and avoid detection. Common patterns include prefix/suffix modifications, homoglyphs, or use of names like 'admin1', 'adm1n', or 'backup_help'.
WinEventLog:SecurityEventCode=4720windows:osqueryUser enumeration with creation/last modified timestamps
Linux Analytic 1078
Detects creation or renaming of accounts with names that closely match known service, root, or admin accounts. Behavior often follows account discovery or deletion, attempting to blend into system activity logs using trusted name conventions.
auditd:SYSCALLadduserauditd:SYSCALLusermod, or account rename system callslinux:osqueryListing of /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow metadata
Identity Provider Analytic 1079
Detects adversary creation of cloud or IdP accounts whose names resemble existing privileged or service accounts. May indicate preparation for privilege escalation or defense evasion.
azure:auditAdd userazure:auditRename usersaas:oktaUser lifecycle events
Containers Analytic 1080
Monitors for the creation of accounts inside containers using names that resemble legitimate orchestrator or backup identities to mask adversary persistence.
docker:daemonExecCreate + usermod or useradd
splunk/security_content
1 rule| Detection | Severity | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Windows Builtin Account Name Was Changed | Undefined | SPL |