Official Description

Adversaries may obtain and abuse credentials of a domain account as a means of gaining Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion.(Citation: TechNet Credential Theft) Domain accounts are those managed by Active Directory Domain Services where access and permissions are configured across systems and services that are part of that domain. Domain accounts can cover users, administrators, and services.(Citation: Microsoft AD Accounts)

Adversaries may compromise domain accounts, some with a high level of privileges, through various means such as [OS Credential Dumping](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1003) or password reuse, allowing access to privileged resources of the domain.
Tactics
Stealth, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, Initial Access
Platforms
ESXi, Linux, macOS, Windows
Parent Technique
T1078 · Valid Accounts
MITRE Version
2.0
Last Modified
May 12, 2026

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