DC0071: Active Directory Object Access
Object access refers to activities where AD objects (e.g., user accounts, groups, policies) are accessed or queried. Example: Windows Event ID 4661 logs object access attempts. Examples:
- Attribute Access: e.g., `userPassword`, `memberOf`, `securityDescriptor`. - Group Enumeration: Enumerating critical group members (e.g., Domain Admins). - User Attributes: Commonly accessed attributes like `samAccountName`, `lastLogonTimestamp`. - Policy Access: Accessing GPOs to understand security settings.
*Data Collection Measures:*
- Audit Policies: - Enable "Audit Directory Service Access" under Advanced Audit Policies (Success and Failure). - Path: `Computer Configuration > Policies > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Advanced Audit Policy Configuration > Audit Policies > Object AccessEnable: Audit Directory Service Access` (Success and Failure). - Captured Events: IDs 4661, 4662. - Event Forwarding: Use WEF to centralize logs for SIEM analysis. - SIEM Integration: Collect and parse logs (e.g., 4661, 4662) using tools like Splunk or Azure Sentinel. - Log Filtering: - Focus on sensitive objects/attributes like: - `Domain Admins` group. - `userPassword`, `ntSecurityDescriptor`. - Enable EDR Monitoring: - Detect processes accessing sensitive AD objects (e.g., samAccountName, securityDescriptor). - Log all attempts to enumerate critical groups (e.g., "Domain Admins").
Security context for executives and security teams
DC0071: Active Directory Object Access describes Object access refers to activities where AD objects (e.g., user accounts, groups, policies) are accessed or queried. Example: Windows Event ID 4661 logs object access attempts. Examples: - Attribute Access: e.g., `userPassword`, `memberOf`, `securityDescriptor`. - Group Enumeration: Enumerating critical group members (e.g., Domain Admins). - User Attributes: Commonly accessed attributes like `samAccountName`, `lastLogonTimestamp`. - Policy Access: Accessing GPOs to understand security settings. *Data Collection Mea...
Executive priority
DC0071: Active Directory Object Access is an official MITRE ATT&CK data component. Glexia treats it as defensive behavior context for prioritizing monitoring, control validation, and response planning without using the object by itself as an attribution claim.
Technical view
Security teams should validate DC0071: Active Directory Object Access by reviewing the official ATT&CK relationships, mapped tactics (the mapped ATT&CK tactic context), supported platforms (the platforms named in the official object), and available local telemetry before making detection or mitigation decisions.
Likely telemetry
- Official ATT&CK relationships and object metadata
Detection direction
- Validate whether DC0071: Active Directory Object Access appears in your detection coverage and tabletop scenarios.
- Use the object to align executive risk language with SOC, incident response, and detection engineering work.
- Do not treat ATT&CK relationship context as attribution without corroborating evidence.
Mitigation priorities
- Map the object to existing controls and identify missing telemetry or response ownership.
- Prioritize mitigations that reduce exposure on the listed platforms and tactics.
- Review adjacent ATT&CK relationships before changing policy, detections, or reporting language.
Additional notes and limits
Baseline Glexia take generated from the official MITRE ATT&CK STIX object, source hash, tactics, platforms, and detection fields. It is safe to replace with a richer model-generated take for the same source hash later.
This baseline take is source-grounded and schema-validated, but it does not include environment-specific telemetry, incident evidence, or threat-intelligence corroboration.
Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.
Active Directory Object Access
Object access refers to activities where AD objects (e.g., user accounts, groups, policies) are accessed or queried. Example: Windows Event ID 4661 logs object access attempts. Examples:
- Attribute Access: e.g., `userPassword`, `memberOf`, `securityDescriptor`. - Group Enumeration: Enumerating critical group members (e.g., Domain Admins). - User Attributes: Commonly accessed attributes like `samAccountName`, `lastLogonTimestamp`. - Policy Access: Accessing GPOs to understand security settings.
*Data Collection Measures:*
- Audit Policies: - Enable "Audit Directory Service Access" under Advanced Audit Policies (Success and Failure). - Path: `Computer Configuration > Policies > Windows Settings > Security Settings > Advanced Audit Policy Configuration > Audit Policies > Object AccessEnable: Audit Directory Service Access` (Success and Failure). - Captured Events: IDs 4661, 4662. - Event Forwarding: Use WEF to centralize logs for SIEM analysis. - SIEM Integration: Collect and parse logs (e.g., 4661, 4662) using tools like Splunk or Azure Sentinel. - Log Filtering: - Focus on sensitive objects/attributes like: - `Domain Admins` group. - `userPassword`, `ntSecurityDescriptor`. - Enable EDR Monitoring: - Detect processes accessing sensitive AD objects (e.g., samAccountName, securityDescriptor). - Log all attempts to enumerate critical groups (e.g., "Domain Admins").
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.
All related ATT&CK context
No relationships are available in the current normalized data for this object.
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(3)
| Release | Bundle imported | Object version | Modified | Status | Raw hash |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20.0 | 2.0 | Older bundle | de5afd166af6… | ||
| 19.2 | 2.0 | Current bundle | de5afd166af6… | ||
| 19.1 | 2.0 | Older bundle | de5afd166af6… |
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.
- [1]mitre-attackDC0071Open source URL
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