Local Accounts Discovery

Status: test
Severity: low
Log source: product windows, category process_creation
Author: Timur Zinniatullin, Daniil Yugoslavskiy, oscd.community
Source: github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Local accounts, System Owner/User discovery using operating systems utilities

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Discovery	`T1033` System Owner/User Discovery, `T1087.001` Account Discovery: Local Account

Event coverage

Provider	Event	Title
Sysmon	Event ID 1	Process creation

Rule body yaml

title: Local Accounts Discovery
id: 502b42de-4306-40b4-9596-6f590c81f073
status: test
related:
    - id: e28a5a99-da44-436d-b7a0-2afc20a5f413 # Whoami Utility Execution
      type: obsolete
description: Local accounts, System Owner/User discovery using operating systems utilities
references:
    - https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/f339e7da7d05f6057fdfcdd3742bfcf365fee2a9/atomics/T1033/T1033.md
author: Timur Zinniatullin, Daniil Yugoslavskiy, oscd.community
date: 2019-10-21
modified: 2025-10-20
tags:
    - attack.discovery
    - attack.t1033
    - attack.t1087.001
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection_other_img:
        - Image|endswith:
              - '\whoami.exe'
              - '\quser.exe'
              - '\qwinsta.exe'
        - OriginalFileName:
              - 'whoami.exe'
              - 'quser.exe'
              - 'qwinsta.exe'
    selection_other_wmi:
        Image|endswith: '\wmic.exe'
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - 'useraccount'
            - 'get'
    selection_other_cmdkey:
        Image|endswith: '\cmdkey.exe'
        CommandLine|contains: ' /l'
    selection_cmd:
        Image|endswith: '\cmd.exe'
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - ' /c'
            - 'dir '
            - '\Users\'
    filter_cmd:
        CommandLine|contains: ' rmdir ' # don't match on 'dir'   "C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe" /q /c rmdir /s /q "C:\Users\XX\AppData\Local\Microsoft\OneDrive\19.232.1124.0005"
    selection_net:
        Image|endswith:
            - '\net.exe'
            - '\net1.exe'
        CommandLine|contains: 'user'
    filter_net:
        CommandLine|contains:
            - '/domain'       # local account discovery only
            - '/add'          # discovery only
            - '/delete'       # discovery only
            - '/active'       # discovery only
            - '/expires'      # discovery only
            - '/passwordreq'  # discovery only
            - '/scriptpath'   # discovery only
            - '/times'        # discovery only
            - '/workstations' # discovery only
    condition: (selection_cmd and not filter_cmd) or (selection_net and not filter_net) or 1 of selection_other_*
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate administrator or user enumerates local users for legitimate reason
level: low

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

(selection_cmd and not filter_cmd) or (selection_net and not filter_net) or 1 of selection_other_*

Stage 1: `selection_cmd`

selection_cmd:
    Image|endswith: '\cmd.exe'
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - ' /c'
        - 'dir '
        - '\Users\'

Stage 2: `not filter_cmd`

filter_cmd:
    CommandLine|contains: ' rmdir '

Stage 3: `selection_net`

selection_net:
    Image|endswith:
        - '\net.exe'
        - '\net1.exe'
    CommandLine|contains: 'user'

Stage 4: `not filter_net`

filter_net:
    CommandLine|contains:
        - '/domain'
        - '/add'
        - '/delete'
        - '/active'
        - '/expires'
        - '/passwordreq'
        - '/scriptpath'
        - '/times'
        - '/workstations'

Stage 5: `selection_other_img`

selection_other_img:
    - Image|endswith:
          - '\whoami.exe'
          - '\quser.exe'
          - '\qwinsta.exe'
    - OriginalFileName:
          - 'whoami.exe'
          - 'quser.exe'
          - 'qwinsta.exe'

Stage 6: `selection_other_wmi`

selection_other_wmi:
    Image|endswith: '\wmic.exe'
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - 'useraccount'
        - 'get'

Stage 7: `selection_other_cmdkey`

selection_other_cmdkey:
    Image|endswith: '\cmdkey.exe'
    CommandLine|contains: ' /l'

Exclusions

Top-level NOT(...) conjuncts: predicates this rule actively suppresses.

Field	Kind	Excluded values
`CommandLine`	match	`rmdir`
`CommandLine`	match	`/active`
`CommandLine`	match	`/add`
`CommandLine`	match	`/delete`
`CommandLine`	match	`/domain`
`CommandLine`	match	`/expires`
`CommandLine`	match	`/passwordreq`
`CommandLine`	match	`/scriptpath`
`CommandLine`	match	`/times`
`CommandLine`	match	`/workstations`

Indicators

Each row is a field, operator, and value that the rule matches. The corpus column counts how many other rules in the catalog look for the same combination: high numbers point to widely-used, community-vetted indicators. Blank or 1 shows that the indicator is specific to this rule.

Field	Kind	Values
`CommandLine`	match	`/c` corpus 2 (sigma 1, chronicle 1) `/l` corpus 2 (sigma 1, chronicle 1) `\Users\` `dir` corpus 8 (sigma 5, splunk 2, chronicle 1) `get` corpus 5 (sigma 3, splunk 1, chronicle 1) `user` corpus 17 (sigma 11, splunk 4, chronicle 2) `useraccount` corpus 4 (sigma 2, splunk 1, chronicle 1)
`Image`	ends_with	`\cmd.exe` corpus 130 (sigma 130) `\cmdkey.exe` corpus 3 (sigma 3) `\net.exe` corpus 49 (sigma 49) `\net1.exe` corpus 47 (sigma 47) `\quser.exe` corpus 2 (sigma 2) `\qwinsta.exe` corpus 2 (sigma 2) `\whoami.exe` corpus 19 (sigma 19) `\wmic.exe` corpus 60 (sigma 60)
`OriginalFileName`	eq	`quser.exe` corpus 3 (sigma 2, splunk 1) `qwinsta.exe` corpus 2 (sigma 1, splunk 1) `whoami.exe` corpus 9 (sigma 9)

`j` / `k`	Scroll down / up
`d` / `u`	Half-page down / up
`gg` / `G`	Top / bottom
`h` / `l`	History back / forward
`f`	Follow link (`Shift` = new tab)
`/`	Focus search
`?`	Toggle this help
`↑` / `↓`	Navigate search results
`Enter`	Open highlighted result
`Esc`	Close results / dialog

`type:`	`events` / `rules` / `providers`
`vendor:`	`sigma` / `elastic` / `splunk` / `kusto` / `chronicle` (vendor name alone also works: `sigma:`, `kql:`, `secops:`…)
`tactic:`	TA-id, slug, or name: `credential_access`, `TA0006`
`technique:`	technique or sub-technique ID: `T1003`, `T1003.001` (alias `tech:`)
`severity:`	`critical` / `high` / `medium` / `low` / `informational` (alias `sev:`)
`risk_score`	Numeric comparison on the Elastic risk score (0 to 100): `risk_score>50`, `risk_score<=20`, `risk_score=99` (alias `risk`; Elastic rules only)
`stages:`	Rules with exactly N pipeline stages
`correlation:`	`single_event` / `sequence` / `alternatives` / `alternatives_cross_log` / `all_required` / `correlated`
`with:`	Co-occurrence event-id; stacks (`with:4624 with:4769`) to require all, while a comma list in one occurrence (`with:4624,4769`) is an either-or group. Implies multi-event
`like:`	Structural neighbors of a rule slug (equivalents + subsumption stricter / broader): `like:comsvcs_lsass_memory_dump-splunk-sysmon`
`groupby:`	Entity-grouping substring match against `group_by_keys`: `groupby:user`, `groupby:host`
`uses:`	Rules whose predicate tree touches the field (any kind, any value): `uses:CommandLine`
`excludes:`	Rules with top-level `not()` clauses on the field (FP whitelists): `excludes:ParentImage`
`field:` / `value:`	Predicate search; narrows rule cards to those with a matching leaf and drives the indicator tier. Unquoted = substring, wildcards allowed (`value:mimikatz`)
`indicator:`	Shorthand for `field:F value:V`: `indicator:Image=*\powershell.exe`
`kind:`	Filter by predicate kind. Narrows rule cards to those carrying a matching predicate leaf (`vendor:elastic kind:cidr_match`) and drives the indicator tier: `contains` / `starts_with` / `ends_with` / `regex` / `cidr` / `eq` / `in` … (operator aliases `op:`/`match:`)
`has:` / `no:`	`sample`, `field`, `notes`, `refs`, `trace`, `thirdparty`, `rule`, `pattern`, `timewindow`, `threshold`, `newterms`, `sigma`/`elastic`/`splunk`/`kusto`/`chronicle`
`-op:val`	Exclude matches; works on most operators but not `type:`/`like:`/`has:`/`no:` (use `no:<flag>` to exclude a rule flag): `tactic:execution -vendor:splunk`. Standalone `-kind:`/`-field:`/`-value:` drop every rule carrying a matching predicate leaf (`type:rules -kind:is_null`)
`field:"…"` / `value:"…"`	Quoted value = anchored exact match (also allows spaces): `value:"net user"`
`a,b`	Comma = OR inside one operator (`vendor:sigma,elastic`, `severity:high,critical`); repeating a facet merges the same way. `field:`/`value:` never split (literal commas)
`vendors:` / `stage:`	Singular and plural spellings fold to the canonical operator and value: `tactics:` = `tactic:`, `type:event` = `type:events`, `correlation:sequences` = `correlation:sequence`, `has:thresholds` = `has:threshold`
`"quoted phrase"`	Exact-match a multi-word phrase (free text)

Local Accounts Discovery

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Event coverage

Rule body yaml

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

Stage 1: `selection_cmd`

Stage 2: `not filter_cmd`

Stage 3: `selection_net`

Stage 4: `not filter_net`

Stage 5: `selection_other_img`

Stage 6: `selection_other_wmi`

Stage 7: `selection_other_cmdkey`

Exclusions

Indicators

Keyboard shortcuts

Search operators

Local Accounts Discovery

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Event coverage

Rule body yaml

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

Stage 1: selection_cmd

Stage 2: not filter_cmd

Stage 3: selection_net

Stage 4: not filter_net

Stage 5: selection_other_img

Stage 6: selection_other_wmi

Stage 7: selection_other_cmdkey

Exclusions

Indicators

Stage 0: `condition`

Stage 1: `selection_cmd`

Stage 2: `not filter_cmd`

Stage 3: `selection_net`

Stage 4: `not filter_net`

Stage 5: `selection_other_img`

Stage 6: `selection_other_wmi`

Stage 7: `selection_other_cmdkey`