MITRE ATT&CK Technique
Privilege Escalation T1178
Description

The Windows security identifier (SID) is a unique value that identifies a user or group account. SIDs are used by Windows security in both security descriptors and access tokens. (Citation: Microsoft SID) An account can hold additional SIDs in the SID-History Active Directory attribute (Citation: Microsoft SID-History Attribute), allowing inter-operable account migration between domains (e.g., all values in SID-History are included in access tokens). Adversaries may use this mechanism for privilege escalation. With Domain Administrator (or equivalent) rights, harvested or well-known SID values (Citation: Microsoft Well Known SIDs Jun 2017) may be inserted into SID-History to enable impersonation of arbitrary users/groups such as Enterprise Administrators. This manipulation may result in elevated access to local resources and/or access to otherwise inaccessible domains via lateral movement techniques such as [Remote Services](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1021), [Windows Admin Shares](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1077), or [Windows Remote Management](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1028).

Supported Platforms
Windows
Created

April 29, 2026

Last Updated

April 29, 2026

STIX Data
{'created': '2018-01-16T16:13:52.465Z',
 'created_by_ref': 'identity--c78cb6e5-0c4b-4611-8297-d1b8b55e40b5',
 'description': 'The Windows security identifier (SID) is a unique value that '
                'identifies a user or group account. SIDs are used by Windows '
                'security in both security descriptors and access tokens. '
                '(Citation: Microsoft SID) An account can hold additional SIDs '
                'in the SID-History Active Directory attribute (Citation: '
                'Microsoft SID-History Attribute), allowing inter-operable '
                'account migration between domains (e.g., all values in '
                'SID-History are included in access tokens).\n'
                '\n'
                'Adversaries may use this mechanism for privilege escalation. '
                'With Domain Administrator (or equivalent) rights, harvested '
                'or well-known SID values (Citation: Microsoft Well Known SIDs '
                'Jun 2017) may be inserted into SID-History to enable '
                'impersonation of arbitrary users/groups such as Enterprise '
                'Administrators. This manipulation may result in elevated '
                'access to local resources and/or access to otherwise '
                'inaccessible domains via lateral movement techniques such as '
                '[Remote Services](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1021), '
                '[Windows Admin '
                'Shares](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1077), or '
                '[Windows Remote '
                'Management](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1028).',
 'external_references': [{'external_id': 'T1178',
                          'source_name': 'mitre-attack',
                          'url': 'https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1178'},
                         {'description': 'Microsoft. (n.d.). Security '
                                         'Identifiers. Retrieved November 30, '
                                         '2017.',
                          'source_name': 'Microsoft SID',
                          'url': 'https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/desktop/aa379571.aspx'},
                         {'description': 'Microsoft. (n.d.). Active Directory '
                                         'Schema - SID-History attribute. '
                                         'Retrieved November 30, 2017.',
                          'source_name': 'Microsoft SID-History Attribute',
                          'url': 'https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/ms679833.aspx'},
                         {'description': 'Microsoft. (2017, June 23). '
                                         'Well-known security identifiers in '
                                         'Windows operating systems. Retrieved '
                                         'November 30, 2017.',
                          'source_name': 'Microsoft Well Known SIDs Jun 2017',
                          'url': 'https://support.microsoft.com/help/243330/well-known-security-identifiers-in-windows-operating-systems'},
                         {'description': 'Microsoft. (n.d.). Active Directory '
                                         'Cmdlets - Get-ADUser. Retrieved '
                                         'November 30, 2017.',
                          'source_name': 'Microsoft Get-ADUser',
                          'url': 'https://technet.microsoft.com/library/ee617241.aspx'},
                         {'description': 'Metcalf, S. (2015, September 19). '
                                         'Sneaky Active Directory Persistence '
                                         '#14: SID History. Retrieved November '
                                         '30, 2017.',
                          'source_name': 'AdSecurity SID History Sept 2015',
                          'url': 'https://adsecurity.org/?p=1772'},
                         {'description': 'Microsoft. (n.d.). Using '
                                         'DsAddSidHistory. Retrieved November '
                                         '30, 2017.',
                          'source_name': 'Microsoft DsAddSidHistory',
                          'url': 'https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/ms677982.aspx'}],
 'id': 'attack-pattern--1df0326d-2fbc-4d08-a16b-48365f1e742d',
 'kill_chain_phases': [{'kill_chain_name': 'mitre-attack',
                        'phase_name': 'privilege-escalation'}],
 'modified': '2025-10-24T17:48:29.579Z',
 'name': 'SID-History Injection',
 'object_marking_refs': ['marking-definition--fa42a846-8d90-4e51-bc29-71d5b4802168'],
 'revoked': True,
 'spec_version': '2.1',
 'type': 'attack-pattern',
 'x_mitre_attack_spec_version': '3.2.0',
 'x_mitre_contributors': ['Vincent Le Toux',
                          'Alain Homewood, Insomnia Security'],
 'x_mitre_deprecated': False,
 'x_mitre_detection': '',
 'x_mitre_domains': ['enterprise-attack'],
 'x_mitre_is_subtechnique': False,
 'x_mitre_modified_by_ref': 'identity--c78cb6e5-0c4b-4611-8297-d1b8b55e40b5',
 'x_mitre_platforms': ['Windows'],
 'x_mitre_version': '1.1'}
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