PowerShell Create Local User

Status: test
Severity: medium
Log source: category ps_script, product windows
Author: @ROxPinTeddy
Source: github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Detects creation of a local user via PowerShell

Known false positives

Legitimate user creation

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Execution	`T1059.001` Command and Scripting Interpreter: PowerShell
Persistence	`T1136.001` Create Account: Local Account

Telemetry coverage

Provider	Record / event type
PowerShell	Event ID 4104: Creating Scriptblock text (MessageNumber of MessageTotal).

Rule body

title: PowerShell Create Local User
id: 243de76f-4725-4f2e-8225-a8a69b15ad61
status: test
description: Detects creation of a local user via PowerShell
references:
    - https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/f339e7da7d05f6057fdfcdd3742bfcf365fee2a9/atomics/T1136.001/T1136.001.md
author: '@ROxPinTeddy'
date: 2020-04-11
modified: 2022-12-25
tags:
    - attack.execution
    - attack.t1059.001
    - attack.persistence
    - attack.t1136.001
logsource:
    product: windows
    category: ps_script
    definition: 'Requirements: Script Block Logging must be enabled'
detection:
    selection:
        ScriptBlockText|contains: 'New-LocalUser'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate user creation
level: medium

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

selection

Stage 1: `selection`

selection:
    ScriptBlockText|contains: 'New-LocalUser'

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

Field	Kind	Values	Search
`ScriptBlockText`	match	`New-LocalUser` corpus 2 (sigma 2)	`field:"ScriptBlockText" kind:match value:"New-LocalUser"`

PowerShell Create Local User

Known false positives

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Telemetry coverage

Rule body

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

Stage 1: selection

Indicators

Stage 0: `condition`

Stage 1: `selection`