Sigma rule: User Added to Local Administrator Group

Rule

Title

User Added to Local Administrator Group

Status

stable

Level

medium

Author

Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)

Date

2017-03-14

Modified

2021-01-17

File

rules/windows/builtin/security/win_security_user_added_to_local_administrators.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects the addition of a new member to the local administrator group, which could be legitimate activity or a sign of privilege escalation activity

Log source

product

windows

service

security

Detection

selection_eid:
    EventID: 4732
selection_group:
    - TargetUserName|startswith: 'Administr'
    - TargetSid: 'S-1-5-32-544'
filter_main_computer_accounts:
    SubjectUserName|endswith: '$'
condition: all of selection_* and not 1 of filter_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Legitimate administrative activity

Tags

• attack.initial-access
• attack.privilege-escalation
• attack.stealth
• attack.t1078
• attack.persistence
• attack.t1098

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1078
• T1098

References

• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-10/security/threat-protection/auditing/event-4732
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/identity/ad-ds/manage/understand-security-identifiers

Read on 2026-11-03T00:58:21.399Z under licence sigma-drl-1.1@d5f4c36a from https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/windows/builtin/security/win_security_user_added_to_local_administrators.yml