An adversary may add additional local or domain groups to an adversary-controlled account to maintain persistent access to a system or domain.

On Windows, accounts may use the net localgroup and net group commands to add existing users to local and domain groups.^[1],[2] On Linux, adversaries may use the usermod command for the same purpose.^[3]

For example, accounts may be added to the local administrators group on Windows devices to maintain elevated privileges. They may also be added to the Remote Desktop Users group, which allows them to leverage Remote Desktop Protocol to log into the endpoints in the future.^[4] Adversaries may also add accounts to VPN user groups to gain future persistence on the network.^[5] On Linux, accounts may be added to the sudoers group, allowing them to persistently leverage Sudo and Sudo Caching for elevated privileges.

In Windows environments, machine accounts may also be added to domain groups. This allows the local SYSTEM account to gain privileges on the domain.^[6]

References

1. Microsoft. (2016, August 31). Net Localgroup. Retrieved August 5, 2024.
2. Microsoft. (2016, August 31). Net group. Retrieved August 5, 2024.
3. Man7. (n.d.). Usermod. Retrieved August 5, 2024.
4. Microsoft. (2017, April 9). Allow log on through Remote Desktop Services. Retrieved August 5, 2024.
5. Kaaviya. (n.d.). SuperBlack Actors Exploiting Two Fortinet Vulnerabilities to Deploy Ransomware. Retrieved September 22, 2025.
6. Scarred Monk. (2022, May 6). Real-time detection scenarios in Active Directory environments. Retrieved August 5, 2024.

Ticket collegati

• MITREATTACK -

  © 2026 The MITRE Corporation. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of The MITRE Corporation. https://attack.mitre.org/

  Terms of Use

  LICENSE

  The MITRE Corporation (MITRE) hereby grants you a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use ATT&CK^® for research, development, and commercial purposes. Any copy you make for such purposes is authorized provided that you reproduce MITRE's copyright designation and this license in any such copy.

  "© 2026 The MITRE Corporation. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of The MITRE Corporation."

  DISCLAIMERS

  MITRE does not claim ATT&CK enumerates all possibilities for the types of actions and behaviors documented as part of its adversary model and framework of techniques. Using the information contained within ATT&CK to address or cover full categories of techniques will not guarantee full defensive coverage as there may be undisclosed techniques or variations on existing techniques not documented by ATT&CK.

  ALL DOCUMENTS AND THE INFORMATION CONTAINED THEREIN ARE PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS AND THE CONTRIBUTOR, THE ORGANIZATION HE/SHE REPRESENTS OR IS SPONSORED BY (IF ANY), THE MITRE CORPORATION, ITS BOARD OF TRUSTEES, OFFICERS, AGENTS, AND EMPLOYEES, DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION THEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

  See our FAQ for more information on how to use and represent the ATT&CK name.