Applied Cybernetics Group
T1556 — Modify Authentication Process
- Technique
T1556- Tactics
- Defense Impairment, Persistence, Credential Access
- MISP citations
- 0
- KEV CVEs mapped
- 2
- Community rules
- 12
- thrunt rules
- 0
- Upstream
- https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1556
MITRE description
Adversaries may modify authentication mechanisms and processes to access user credentials or enable otherwise unwarranted access to accounts. The authentication process is handled by mechanisms, such as the Local Security Authentication Server (LSASS) process and the Security Accounts Manager (SAM) on Windows, pluggable authentication modules (PAM) on Unix-based systems, and authorization plugins on MacOS systems, responsible for gathering, storing, and validating credentials. By modifying an authentication process, an adversary may be able to authenticate to a service or system without using [Valid Accounts](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1078). Adversaries may maliciously modify a part of this process to either reveal credentials or bypass authentication mechanisms. Compromised credentials or access may be used to bypass access controls placed on various resources on systems within the network and may even be used for persistent access to remote systems and externally available services, such as VPNs, Outlook Web Access and remote desktop.
KEV CVEs mapped to this technique
Per MITRE CTID's hand-curated KEV→ATT&CK mappings — these are the actively-exploited vulnerabilities behind this technique's KEV signal.
Detection coverage
SigmaHQ community rules
- Github High Risk Configuration Disabled (core)
- AWS Identity Center Identity Provider Change (core)
- Disabled MFA to Bypass Authentication Mechanisms (core)
- CA Policy Removed by Non Approved Actor (core)
- CA Policy Updated by Non Approved Actor (core)
- Certificate-Based Authentication Enabled (core)
- New Root Certificate Authority Added (core)
- Change to Authentication Method (core)
- User Added To Group With CA Policy Modification Access (core)
- User Removed From Group With CA Policy Modification Access (core)
- Possible Shadow Credentials Added (core)
- Directory Service Restore Mode(DSRM) Registry Value Tampering (core)