Detection: Windows AD Same Domain SID History Addition

Updated Date: 2025-05-02 ID: 5fde0b7c-df7a-40b1-9b3a-294c00f0289d Author: Dean Luxton Type: TTP Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

The following analytic detects changes to the sIDHistory attribute of user or computer objects within the same domain. It leverages Windows Security Event Codes 4738 and 4742 to identify when the sIDHistory attribute is modified. This activity is significant because the sIDHistory attribute can be abused by adversaries to grant unauthorized access by inheriting permissions from another account. If confirmed malicious, this could allow attackers to maintain persistent access or escalate privileges within the domain, posing a severe security risk.

Search

 1`wineventlog_security` (EventCode=4742 OR EventCode=4738) NOT SidHistory IN ("%%1793", -) 
 2| rex field=SidHistory "(^%{
 3|^)(?P<SidHistoryMatch>.*)(\-
 4|\\\)" 
 5| rex field=TargetSid "^(?P<TargetSidmatch>.*)(\-
 6|\\\)" 
 7| where SidHistoryMatch=TargetSidmatch OR SidHistoryMatch=TargetDomainName 
 8| rename TargetSid as userSid, TargetDomainName as userDomainName 
 9| table _time action status host user userSid userDomainName SidHistory Logon_ID src_user dest 
10| `windows_ad_same_domain_sid_history_addition_filter`

Data Source

Name	Platform	Sourcetype	Source
Windows Event Log Security 4738	Windows	`'xmlwineventlog'`	`'XmlWinEventLog:Security'`
Windows Event Log Security 4742	Windows	`'xmlwineventlog'`	`'XmlWinEventLog:Security'`

Macros Used

Name	Value
wineventlog_security	`eventtype="wineventlog_security" OR Channel="security" OR source="XmlWinEventLog:Security" OR source="WinEventLog:Security"`
windows_ad_same_domain_sid_history_addition_filter	`search *`

windows_ad_same_domain_sid_history_addition_filter is an empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.

Annotations

- MITRE ATT&CK

+ Kill Chain Phases

+ NIST

+ CIS

- Threat Actors

ID	Technique	Tactic
T1134.005	SID-History Injection	Defense Evasion

Exploitation

DE.CM

CIS 10

Default Configuration

This detection is configured by default in Splunk Enterprise Security to run with the following settings:

Setting	Value
Disabled	true
Cron Schedule	`0 * * * *`
Earliest Time	`-70m@m`
Latest Time	`-10m@m`
Schedule Window	`auto`
Creates Notable	Yes
Rule Title	`%name%`
Rule Description	`%description%`
Notable Event Fields	user, dest
Creates Risk Event	True

This configuration file applies to all detections of type TTP. These detections will use Risk Based Alerting and generate Notable Events.

Implementation

To successfully implement this search, you need to be ingesting eventcodes 4738 and 4742. The Advanced Security Audit policy settings Audit User Account Management and Audit Computer Account Management within Account Management all need to be enabled. SID resolution is not required..

Known False Positives

Unknown

Associated Analytic Story

Risk Based Analytics (RBA)

Risk Message:

Active Directory SID History Attribute was added to $user$ by $src_user$

Risk Object	Risk Object Type	Risk Score	Threat Objects
src_user	user	100	No Threat Objects
user	user	100	No Threat Objects

References

Detection Testing

Test Type	Status	Dataset	Source	Sourcetype
Validation	✅ Passing	N/A	N/A	N/A
Unit	✅ Passing	Dataset	`XmlWinEventLog:Security`	`XmlWinEventLog`
Integration	✅ Passing	Dataset	`XmlWinEventLog:Security`	`XmlWinEventLog`

Replay any dataset to Splunk Enterprise by using our replay.py tool or the UI. Alternatively you can replay a dataset into a Splunk Attack Range

Source: GitHub | Version: 9