MITRE ATT&CK Technique
Defense Evasion
T1078.003
Description
Adversaries may obtain and abuse credentials of a local account as a means of gaining Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion. Local accounts are those configured by an organization for use by users, remote support, services, or for administration on a single system or service. Local Accounts may also be abused to elevate privileges and harvest credentials through [OS Credential Dumping](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1003). Password reuse may allow the abuse of local accounts across a set of machines on a network for the purposes of Privilege Escalation and Lateral Movement.
Supported Platforms
Linux
macOS
Windows
Containers
Network Devices
ESXi
Created
April 29, 2026
Last Updated
April 29, 2026
STIX Data
{'created': '2020-03-13T20:26:46.695Z',
'created_by_ref': 'identity--c78cb6e5-0c4b-4611-8297-d1b8b55e40b5',
'description': 'Adversaries may obtain and abuse credentials of a local '
'account as a means of gaining Initial Access, Persistence, '
'Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion. Local accounts are '
'those configured by an organization for use by users, remote '
'support, services, or for administration on a single system '
'or service.\n'
'\n'
'Local Accounts may also be abused to elevate privileges and '
'harvest credentials through [OS Credential '
'Dumping](https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1003). Password '
'reuse may allow the abuse of local accounts across a set of '
'machines on a network for the purposes of Privilege '
'Escalation and Lateral Movement. ',
'external_references': [{'external_id': 'T1078.003',
'source_name': 'mitre-attack',
'url': 'https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1078/003'}],
'id': 'attack-pattern--fdc47f44-dd32-4b99-af5f-209f556f63c2',
'kill_chain_phases': [{'kill_chain_name': 'mitre-attack',
'phase_name': 'defense-evasion'},
{'kill_chain_name': 'mitre-attack',
'phase_name': 'persistence'},
{'kill_chain_name': 'mitre-attack',
'phase_name': 'privilege-escalation'},
{'kill_chain_name': 'mitre-attack',
'phase_name': 'initial-access'}],
'modified': '2025-10-24T17:49:39.874Z',
'name': 'Local Accounts',
'object_marking_refs': ['marking-definition--fa42a846-8d90-4e51-bc29-71d5b4802168'],
'revoked': False,
'spec_version': '2.1',
'type': 'attack-pattern',
'x_mitre_attack_spec_version': '3.2.0',
'x_mitre_deprecated': False,
'x_mitre_detection': '',
'x_mitre_domains': ['enterprise-attack'],
'x_mitre_is_subtechnique': True,
'x_mitre_modified_by_ref': 'identity--c78cb6e5-0c4b-4611-8297-d1b8b55e40b5',
'x_mitre_platforms': ['Linux',
'macOS',
'Windows',
'Containers',
'Network Devices',
'ESXi'],
'x_mitre_version': '1.5'}