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MITRE ATT&CK® Technique

T1098: Account Manipulation

Adversaries may manipulate accounts to maintain and/or elevate access to victim systems. Account manipulation may consist of any action that preserves or modifies adversary access to a compromised account, such as modifying credentials or permission groups.[1] These actions could also include account activity designed to subvert security policies, such as performing iterative password updates to bypass password duration policies and preserve the life of compromised credentials.

In order to create or manipulate accounts, the adversary must already have sufficient permissions on systems or the domain. However, account manipulation may also lead to privilege escalation where modifications grant access to additional roles, permissions, or higher-privileged Valid Accounts.

EnterpriseT1098TechniqueObject v2.8Modified
Glexia's Take · Automated analysis

Security context for executives and security teams

Automation confidenceMedium

T1098: Account Manipulation describes Adversaries may manipulate accounts to maintain and/or elevate access to victim systems. Account manipulation may consist of any action that preserves or modifies adversary access to a compromised account, such as modifying credentials or permission groups.(Citation: FireEye SMOKEDHAM June 2021) These actions could also include account activity designed to subvert security policies, such as performing iterative password updates to bypass password duration policies and preserve the life of compromised credentials. I...

Executive priority

T1098: Account Manipulation is an official MITRE ATT&CK technique. 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 T1098: Account Manipulation by reviewing the official ATT&CK relationships, mapped tactics (persistence, privilege-escalation), supported platforms (Containers, ESXi, IaaS, Identity Provider), and available local telemetry before making detection or mitigation decisions.

Likely telemetry

  • Official ATT&CK relationships and object metadata
  • Identity, privilege, and authentication events
  • Cloud control-plane, SaaS audit, and container platform logs
  • Network, endpoint, and security-tool telemetry

Detection direction

  • Validate whether T1098: Account Manipulation 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.

Official MITRE ATT&CK definition

Account Manipulation

Adversaries may manipulate accounts to maintain and/or elevate access to victim systems. Account manipulation may consist of any action that preserves or modifies adversary access to a compromised account, such as modifying credentials or permission groups.[1] These actions could also include account activity designed to subvert security policies, such as performing iterative password updates to bypass password duration policies and preserve the life of compromised credentials.

In order to create or manipulate accounts, the adversary must already have sufficient permissions on systems or the domain. However, account manipulation may also lead to privilege escalation where modifications grant access to additional roles, permissions, or higher-privileged Valid Accounts.

View the same entry on attack.mitre.org (MITRE-hosted reference; in-page links above use the Glexia ATT&CK library.)

Glexia analysis

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.

ATT&CK relationship table

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.

7 rows
DomainIDNameRelationship / procedure
EnterpriseT1098.003Additional Cloud RolesSub-techniqueAdditional Cloud Roles subtechnique of this object.
EnterpriseT1098.006Additional Container Cluster RolesSub-techniqueAdditional Container Cluster Roles subtechnique of this object.
EnterpriseT1098.007Additional Local or Domain GroupsSub-techniqueAdditional Local or Domain Groups subtechnique of this object.
EnterpriseT1098.004SSH Authorized KeysSub-techniqueSSH Authorized Keys subtechnique of this object.
EnterpriseT1098.005Device RegistrationSub-techniqueDevice Registration subtechnique of this object.
EnterpriseT1098.001Additional Cloud CredentialsSub-techniqueAdditional Cloud Credentials subtechnique of this object.
EnterpriseT1098.002Additional Email Delegate PermissionsSub-techniqueAdditional Email Delegate Permissions subtechnique of this object.
Associated objects

Groups, software, and campaigns

GroupEnterprise

G0125: HAFNIUM

HAFNIUM is a likely state-sponsored cyber espionage group operating out of China that has been active since at least January 2021. HAFNIUM primarily targets entities in the US across a number of industry sectors, including infectious disease researchers, law firms, higher education institutions, defense contractors, policy think tanks, and NGOs. HAFNIUM has targeted remote management tools and cloud software for intial access and has demonstrated an ability to quickly operationalize exploits for identified vulnerabilities in edge devices.[1][2][3]

GroupEnterprise

G1015: Scattered Spider

Scattered Spider is a native English-speaking cybercriminal group active since at least 2022. [1] [2] The group initially targeted customer relationship management (CRM) providers, business process outsourcing (BPO) firms, and telecommunications and technology companies before expanding in 2023 to gaming, hospitality, retail, managed service provider (MSP), manufacturing, and financial sectors. [2] Scattered Spider relies heavily on social engineering, including impersonating IT and help-desk staff, to gain initial access, bypass multi-factor authentication (MFA), and compromise enterprise networks. The group has adapted its tooling to evade endpoint detection and response (EDR) defenses and used ransomware for financial gain. [3] [4] [5] Scattered Spider had expanded into hybrid cloud and identity environments, using help-desk impersonation and MFA bypass to obtain administrator access in Okta, AWS, and Office 365. [6]

GroupEnterprise

G0032: Lazarus Group

Lazarus Group is a North Korean state-sponsored cyber threat group attributed to the Reconnaissance General Bureau (RGB). [1] [2] Lazarus Group has been active since at least 2009 and is reportedly responsible for the November 2014 destructive wiper attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment, identified by Novetta as part of Operation Blockbuster. Malware used by Lazarus Group correlates to other reported campaigns, including Operation Flame, Operation 1Mission, Operation Troy, DarkSeoul, and Ten Days of Rain.[3]

North Korea’s cyber operations have shown a consistent pattern of adaptation, forming and reorganizing units as national priorities shift. These units frequently share personnel, infrastructure, malware, and tradecraft, making it difficult to attribute specific operations with high confidence. Public reporting often uses “Lazarus Group” as an umbrella term for multiple North Korean cyber operators conducting espionage, destructive attacks, and financially motivated campaigns.[4][5][6]

GroupEnterprise

G1055: VOID MANTICORE

VOID MANTICORE is a threat group assessed to operate on behalf of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS).[1] Active since at least mid-2022, VOID MANTICORE has targeted government entities, critical infrastructure, and private sector organizations across Albania, Israel, and the United States.[1][2] VOID MANTICORE conducts destructive cyber operations, combining wiper attacks with hack-and-leak campaigns. The group has operated under multiple public-facing personas, including HomeLand Justice in operations against Albania, Karma and Karma Below in campaigns targeting Israeli organizations, and Handala Hack, its current primary persona, which has claimed activity against Israeli and U.S. entities, including a March 2026 attack against Stryker Corporation.[1][3] VOID MANTICORE has been observed collaborating with Scarred Manticore, which has been linked to initial access operations preceding VOID MANTICORE’s activity.[4]

GroupEnterprise

G1056: TeamPCP

TeamPCP is a financially-motivated, cloud-native threat group that has been active since at least September 2025. Initially focused on ransomware and cryptocurrency theft, TeamPCP shifted in early 2026 to systematic, worm-driven credential theft and software supply chain attacks targeting Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) workflows. TeamPCP has monetized access through extortion and through partnerships with ransomware actors including Vect and CipherForce.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

MalwareEnterprise

S9008: Shai-Hulud

Shai-Hulud is a supply chain worm, first reported in September 2025, that spreads through code repositories, including GitHub and NPM packages. It exploits CI/CD pipeline dependencies to propagate to victims and poisons the supply chain by publishing malicious packages. Once inside a victim environment, Shai-Hulud steals credentials and access tokens from compromised repository accounts and exfiltrates them to attacker-controlled servers via encoded GitHub Actions workflows.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7]

LinuxSaaSWindows
ToolEnterprise

S0002: Mimikatz

Mimikatz is a credential dumper capable of obtaining plaintext Windows account logins and passwords, along with many other features that make it useful for testing the security of networks. [1] [2]

Windows
Relationship explorer

All related ATT&CK context

uses · CampaignC0025: 2016 Ukraine Electric Power AttackEnterprisemitigates · MitigationM1028: Operating System ConfigurationEnterprisemitigates · MitigationM1030: Network SegmentationEnterprisemitigates · MitigationM1018: User Account ManagementEnterprisemitigates · MitigationM1022: Restrict File and Directory PermissionsEnterprisemitigates · MitigationM1026: Privileged Account ManagementEnterprisemitigates · MitigationM1032: Multi-factor AuthenticationEnterprisemitigates · MitigationM1042: Disable or Remove Feature or ProgramEnterpriseuses · GroupG0125: HAFNIUMEnterpriseuses · GroupG1015: Scattered SpiderEnterpriseuses · GroupG0032: Lazarus GroupEnterpriseuses · GroupG1055: VOID MANTICOREEnterpriseuses · MalwareS0274: CalistoEnterpriseuses · MalwareS9008: Shai-HuludEnterpriseuses · ToolS0002: MimikatzEnterpriseuses · GroupG1056: TeamPCPEnterprisesubtechnique of · TechniqueT1098.003: Additional Cloud RolesEnterprisesubtechnique of · TechniqueT1098.006: Additional Container Cluster RolesEnterprisesubtechnique of · TechniqueT1098.007: Additional Local or Domain GroupsEnterprisesubtechnique of · TechniqueT1098.004: SSH Authorized KeysEnterprisesubtechnique of · TechniqueT1098.005: Device RegistrationEnterprisesubtechnique of · TechniqueT1098.001: Additional Cloud CredentialsEnterprisedetects · Detection StrategyDET0096: Account Manipulation Behavior Chain DetectionEnterprisesubtechnique of · TechniqueT1098.002: Additional Email Delegate PermissionsEnterprise
Mitigations

Mitigation direction

Change history

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.

ATT&CK release
19.2
Object version
2.8
Created
Modified
Raw hash
f22b2fa1a4aa6df5...
Imported snapshots across ATT&CK releases(2)
ReleaseBundle importedObject versionModifiedStatusRaw hash
19.22.8Current bundlef22b2fa1a4aa…
19.12.8Older bundlef22b2fa1a4aa…
Raw source

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.

Source references

External references and citations

MITRE external references are preserved separately from Glexia analysis so citations remain traceable to their original source records.

  1. [1]
    FireEye SMOKEDHAM June 2021

    FireEye. (2021, June 16). Smoking Out a DARKSIDE Affiliate’s Supply Chain Software Compromise. Retrieved September 22, 2021.

    Open source URL
  2. [2]
    GitHub Mimikatz Issue 92 June 2017

    Warren, J. (2017, June 22). lsadump::changentlm and lsadump::setntlm work, but generate Windows events #92. Retrieved December 4, 2017.

    Open source URL
  3. [3]
    InsiderThreat ChangeNTLM July 2017

    Warren, J. (2017, July 11). Manipulating User Passwords with Mimikatz. Retrieved December 4, 2017.

    Open source URL
  4. [4]
    Microsoft Security Event 4670

    Franklin Smith, R. (n.d.). Windows Security Log Event ID 4670. Retrieved November 4, 2019.

    Open source URL
  5. [5]
    Microsoft User Modified Event

    Lich, B., Miroshnikov, A. (2017, April 5). 4738(S): A user account was changed. Retrieved June 30, 2017.

    Open source URL
  6. [6]
    mitre-attackT1098
    Open source URL
Source and licensing

Source: MITRE ATT&CK®. © 2026 The MITRE Corporation. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of The MITRE Corporation. MITRE ATT&CK and ATT&CK are registered trademarks of The MITRE Corporation. Glexia is not affiliated with or endorsed by MITRE.