T1401: Device Administrator Permissions
Adversaries may request device administrator permissions to perform malicious actions.
By abusing the device administration API, adversaries can perform several nefarious actions, such as resetting the device’s password for Device Lockout, factory resetting the device to Delete Device Data and any traces of the malware, disabling all of the device’s cameras, or make it more difficult to uninstall the app.[1]
Device administrators must be approved by the user at runtime, with a system popup showing which of the actions have been requested by the app. In conjunction with other techniques, such as Input Injection, an app can programmatically grant itself administrator permissions without any user input.
This ATT&CK object is revoked or deprecated in the current MITRE ATT&CK release.
It remains available for historical context and inbound links. Use current ATT&CK relationships and replacement guidance before basing detection or reporting work on this page.
Analyst summary pending validation
Glexia publishes ATT&CK takes only after source-hash and schema validation. Until then, use the official MITRE definition below and the defensive relationship context on this page.
Device Administrator Permissions
Adversaries may request device administrator permissions to perform malicious actions.
By abusing the device administration API, adversaries can perform several nefarious actions, such as resetting the device’s password for Device Lockout, factory resetting the device to Delete Device Data and any traces of the malware, disabling all of the device’s cameras, or make it more difficult to uninstall the app.[1]
Device administrators must be approved by the user at runtime, with a system popup showing which of the actions have been requested by the app. In conjunction with other techniques, such as Input Injection, an app can programmatically grant itself administrator permissions without any user input.
How security teams should use this page
Treat this object as behavior context, not an attribution claim. Validate the related groups, software, data sources, and mitigations against official ATT&CK relationships and your own telemetry before making control-coverage decisions.
Related techniques
This mirrors the MITRE pattern of making group, software, campaign, and technique relationships scannable. Relationship notes come from mirrored ATT&CK relationship text when available.
| Domain | ID | Name | Relationship / procedure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mobile | T1626.001 | Device Administrator Permissions Sub-technique | This object revoked by Device Administrator Permissions. |
All related ATT&CK context
Object version and sync metadata
The fields below describe the current mirrored snapshot. When Glexia retains multiple ATT&CK source imports, you can open the table to compare the same object across releases (hashes and MITRE timestamps). For MITRE’s own release notes and roadmap, see ATT&CK resources — Updates .
Imported snapshots across ATT&CK releases (1)
| Release | Bundle imported | Object version | Modified | Status | Raw hash |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19.1 | 2.0 | Current bundle Revoked | 28b43be512f2… |
Mirrored ATT&CK source object
The raw object is retained through the mirrored ATT&CK source bundle and object hash. The raw endpoint returns the exact object from the mirrored bundle when available.
External references and citations
MITRE external references are preserved separately from Glexia analysis so citations remain traceable to their original source records.
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[1]
Android DeviceAdminInfo
Google. (n.d.). DeviceAdminInfo. Retrieved November 20, 2020.
Open source URL -
[2]
NIST Mobile Threat Catalogue APP-22Open source URL
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[3]
mitre-attack T1401Open source URL
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