MITRE ATT&CKsub-technique
T1098.005 Device Registration
- Domain
- enterprise
- Tactics
- Persistence, Privilege Escalation
- Platforms
- Windows, Identity Provider
- Version
- 1.4
- Created
- 2022-03-04
Description
Adversaries may register a device to an adversary-controlled account. Devices may be registered in a multifactor authentication (MFA) system, which handles authentication to the network, or in a device management system, which handles device access and compliance.
MFA systems, such as Duo or Okta, allow users to associate devices with their accounts in order to complete MFA requirements. An adversary that compromises a user’s credentials may enroll a new device in order to bypass initial MFA requirements and gain persistent access to a network. In some cases, the MFA self-enrollment process may require only a username and password to enroll the account's first device or to enroll a device to an inactive account.
Similarly, an adversary with existing access to a network may register a device or a virtual machine to Entra ID and/or its device management system, Microsoft Intune, in order to access sensitive data or resources while bypassing conditional access policies.
Devices registered in Entra ID may be able to conduct Internal Spearphishing campaigns via intra-organizational emails, which are less likely to be treated as suspicious by the email client. Additionally, an adversary may be able to perform a Service Exhaustion Flood on an Entra ID tenant by registering a large number of devices.
Related
Subtechnique of · MITRE ATT&CK (1)
- T1098 Account Manipulation technique
Referenced by MITRE ATT&CK · mitigates (1)
- M1032 Multi-factor Authentication mitigation
Referenced by MITRE ATT&CK · uses (4)
Referenced by Compliance · mitigates (8)
- CIS-6.5 Require MFA for Administrative Access CIS Safeguard v8.1
- NIST-AC-2 Account Management NIST 800-53 control
- NIST-AC-20 Use of External Systems NIST 800-53 control
- NIST-AC-3 Access Enforcement NIST 800-53 control
- NIST-AC-5 Separation of Duties NIST 800-53 control
- NIST-AC-6 Least Privilege NIST 800-53 control
- NIST-CM-5 Access Restrictions for Change NIST 800-53 control
- NIST-CM-6 Configuration Settings NIST 800-53 control
References
- https://expel.com/blog/observing-atlas-lion-part-one/ Expel Atlas Lion 2025
- https://www.cisa.gov/uscert/ncas/alerts/aa22-074a CISA MFA PrintNightmare
- https://www.mandiant.com/resources/blog/apt29-continues-targeting-microsoft Mandiant APT29 Microsoft 365 2022
- https://o365blog.com/post/mdm AADInternals - Conditional Access Bypass
- https://o365blog.com/post/bprt/ AADInternals - BPRT
- https://o365blog.com/post/devices/ AADInternals - Device Registration
- https://www.darkreading.com/threat-intelligence/fireeye-s-mandia-severity-zero-alert-led-to-discovery-of-solarwinds-attack DarkReading FireEye SolarWinds
- https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2022/01/26/evolved-phishing-device-registration-trick-adds-to-phishers-toolbox-for-victims-without-mfa Microsoft - Device Registration
- https://www.microsoft.com/security/blog/2022/03/22/dev-0537-criminal-actor-targeting-organizations-for-data-exfiltration-and-destruction/ Microsoft DEV-0537