Rogue Domain Controller T1207
Tactic: Defense Impairment
Adversaries may register a rogue Domain Controller to enable manipulation of Active Directory data. DCShadow may be used to create a rogue Domain Controller (DC). DCShadow is a method of manipulating Active Directory (AD) data, including objects and schemas, by registering (or reusing an inactive registration) and simulating the behavior of a DC. Once registered, a rogue DC may be able to inject and replicate changes into AD infrastructure for any domain object, including credentials and keys.
Events covered
8 catalog events are tagged with this technique by at least one rule.
| Provider | Event | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Security-Auditing | Event ID 4624 | An account was successfully logged on. |
| Security-Auditing | Event ID 4662 | An operation was performed on an object. |
| Security-Auditing | Event ID 4741 | A computer account was created. |
| Security-Auditing | Event ID 4742 | A computer account was changed. |
| Security-Auditing | Event ID 4743 | A computer account was deleted. |
| Security-Auditing | Event ID 5136 | A directory service object was modified. |
| Security-Auditing | Event ID 5137 | A directory service object was created. |
| Security-Auditing | Event ID 5141 | A directory service object was deleted. |
Authoring guide
Patterns shared across the 13 rules above: which fields they filter on, what specific values they look for, and what they exclude. The catalog normalizes field names across vendors so Sigma's Image, Elastic's process.name, and Splunk's process_name collapse into one row. Each rule contributes at most once per row.
Fields filtered most (19 distinct)
The fields most rules look at when detecting this technique. The How column shows the operators authors use (eq, wildcard, regex_match, match) and how often each appears. Sample values are concrete examples to start from, not an exhaustive list.
Top indicator values (34 distinct)
Specific (field, operator, value) combinations the rules check for, ranked by how many rules under this technique use each one. The Corpus reach column counts how many rules across the entire catalog (any technique) check the same combination. High numbers point to widely-used indicators that are likely noisy on their own; combine them with another condition for useful signal. Blank means the combination is specific to rules under this technique. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that use it.
Exclusions (2 distinct)
Field/operator/value combinations excluded by rules under this technique (top-level not() clauses), sorted by how many rules exclude each. These are the false-positive paths the community has learned to filter out. A new rule that ignores the high-count entries here will likely fire on the same noisy paths. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that exclude it.
Rules under this technique
Every rule in the catalog tagged with this technique, grouped by vendor. Click a rule title for its full predicates, exclusions, and indicators.
Sigma 3 rules
- Account accessed to attributes related to DCshadow
- Add or Remove Computer from DC
- Possible DC Shadow Attack
Splunk 6 rules
- Windows AD DCShadow Privileges ACL Addition
- Windows AD Domain Controller Promotion
- Windows AD Replication Service Traffic
- Windows AD Rogue Domain Controller Network Activity
- Windows AD Short Lived Domain Controller SPN Attribute
- Windows AD Short Lived Server Object