NEW: Microsoft Vulnerabilities Report 2022 - Read the Findings of Our Annual Report Read Now

  • Partners
  • Support
  • Careers
  • English
    • Deutsch
    • français
    • español
    • 한국어
    • português
BeyondTrust
  • Products

    Privileged Password Management

    Discover, manage, audit, and monitor privileged accounts and credentials.

    • Password Safe
    • DevOps Secrets Safe
    • Privileged Access Discovery Application

    Endpoint Privilege Management

    Enforce least privilege across Windows, Mac, Linux, and Unix endpoints.

    • Windows and Mac
    • Unix and Linux
    • Active Directory Bridge

    Secure Remote Access

    Centrally manage remote access for service desks, vendors, and operators.

    • Remote Support
    • Privileged Remote Access
    • Privileged Access Discovery Application

    Cloud Security Management

    Automate the management of identities and assets across your multicloud footprint.

    • Cloud Privilege Broker

    BeyondInsight

    Experience the industry’s most innovative, comprehensive platform for privileged access management.

  • Solutions

    Use Cases

    • Cloud Security
    • Compliance
    • Cyber Insurance
    • Digital Transformation
    • Endpoint Security
    • Operational Technology
    • Ransomware
    • Service Desk Efficiency
    • Zero Trust

    Industry Applications

    • Financial Services
    • Government Agencies
    • Healthcare
    • Law Enforcement
    • Manufacturing
    • Schools & Universities

    Solutions

    The BeyondTrust Privileged Access Management portfolio is an integrated solution that provides visibility and control over all privileged accounts and users.

  • Resources

    Learn

    • Blog
    • Customer Stories
    • Competitor Comparisons
    • Datasheets
    • Demos
    • Glossary
    • Podcast
    • Whitepapers

    Attend

    • Events
    • Go Beyond
    • Training
    • Webinars

    Support

    • Changelog
    • Professional Services
    • Technical Documentation

    Universal Privilege Management

    Our innovative Universal Privilege Management approach secures every user, asset, and session across your entire enterprise.

  • Company
    • About
    • Leadership
    • Core Values
    • Partners
    • Careers
  • Watch Demo
  • Contact Sales

Do You Have an Account Named "Administrator"?

April 3, 2018

  • Blog
  • Archive

blog-do-you-have-an-account-named-administrator.jpg

One of the most coveted targets for a threat actor is to gain ownership and access to a Windows Administrator account. While local accounts are valuable, domain administrator accounts are even more valuable since they essentially give access to every Windows asset in the environment. If the threat actor can easily identify the account by the username "Administrator", you have actually made it easy for them to target the credentials for some form of a privilege escalation attack.

Outside of them identifying the SID (Security Identifier) for administrator accounts, identifying which accounts are administrators is normally trivial if they are named Administrator (by default) or renamed something like “x-admin” (or similar). An enumeration of user accounts by name, therefore, becomes a dead giveaway.

The United States Department of Defense (DoD) Security Technical Implementation Guide (STIG) recommends that all default administrator accounts be renamed using the following procedure to obfuscate the name even on workstations:

  • Run "gpedit.msc" - Local Group Policy Editor
  • Navigate to Local Computer Policy >> Computer Configuration >> Windows Settings >> Security Settings >> Local Policies >> Security Options
  • If the value for "Accounts: Rename administrator account" is set to "Administrator", then the default value has not been changed

While this can be set using Group Policy, it will change the name to the same value on all systems governed by that policy. If you know the value of one system, then you know it on all systems, and odds are the password is the same for all of them, too. This is another security risk that could result in lateral movement.

So, what is an organization to do to mitigate these threats? Minimize risk, and keep this account secretive?

First, consider renaming the local administrator account to something different on every workstation. In order to avoid the guessability of “x-admin” consider something like “x-{Serial Number}” or “x-{Service Tag}”. This means physical knowledge from the asset is needed to guess the local administrator username or the data must be obtained from an asset management database.

Next, keep the passwords unique per asset. This can be done with Microsoft LAPS or with a privileged access management solution like PowerBroker Password Safe. If the devices are mobile, PowerBroker for Windows can be linked to PowerBroker Password Safe to also make these passwords unique across the Internet or VPN. And, it can rotate these passwords on a frequent basis to keep them secure from insider threats. This solves multiple problems:

  • Secures the administrator account according to some of strictest hardening guidelines like the DoD STIGs
  • Mitigates the threat of password re-use for local accounts by keeping them all unique
  • Obfuscates the administrator username to something cryptic and makes it difficult to guess without enumerating the asset directly
  • Minimizes the risk of lateral movement by not having the same local administrator accounts on multiple systems
  • Secures remote access for team members (like help desk) that may need to assist an end user without additional exposure

If you consider that modern threats target privileges, knowing the local administrator account is named “administrator” makes it one step easier for a threat actor to guess or obtain a password. If the administrator account's username is obscure it is that much more difficult to compromise and conduct lateral movement. I recommend following the STIGs recommendations and using a privileged access management solution to manage the accounts passwords. This will prevent many modern threats and help contribute to good cybersecurity hygiene.

If you would like to learn more about how to administer Windows without domain admin privileges, download this free white paper by cybersecurity expert, Russell Smith: An 8-Step Guide to Administering Windows without Domain Admin Privileges.

Photograph of Morey J. Haber

Morey J. Haber, Chief Security Officer, BeyondTrust

Morey J. Haber is the Chief Security Officer at BeyondTrust. He has more than 25 years of IT industry experience and has authored three books: Privileged Attack Vectors, Asset Attack Vectors, and Identity Attack Vectors. He is a founding member of the industry group Transparency in Cyber, and in 2020 was elected to the Identity Defined Security Alliance (IDSA) Executive Advisory Board. Morey currently oversees BeyondTrust security and governance for corporate and cloud based solutions and regularly consults for global periodicals and media. He originally joined BeyondTrust in 2012 as a part of the eEye Digital Security acquisition where he served as a Product Owner and Solutions Engineer since 2004. Prior to eEye, he was Beta Development Manager for Computer Associates, Inc. He began his career as Reliability and Maintainability Engineer for a government contractor building flight and training simulators. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Stay Up To Date

Get the latest news, ideas, and tactics from BeyondTrust. You may unsubscribe at any time.

I agree to receive product related communications from BeyondTrust as detailed in the Privacy Policy, and I may manage my preferences or withdraw my consent at any time.

You May Also Be Interested In:

Whitepapers

Microsoft Vulnerabilities Report 2022

Whitepapers

Cybersecurity Insurance Checklist

Whitepapers

Privileged Access Management: PAM Checklist

Keep up with BeyondTrust

I agree to receive product related communications from BeyondTrust as detailed in the Privacy Policy, and I may manage my preferences or withdraw my consent at any time.

Customer Support
Contact Sales

Products

  • Endpoint Privilege Management
  • Password Management
  • Privileged Remote Access
  • DevOps Secrets Safe
  • Remote Support
  • Cloud Privilege Broker

Resources

  • Blog
  • Case Studies
  • Competitor Comparisons
  • Datasheets
  • Glossary
  • Podcast
  • Videos
  • Webcasts
  • Whitepapers

About

  • Company
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Events
  • Leadership Team
  • Partner Program
  • Press
BeyondTrust Logo
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Privacy
  • Security
  • Manage Cookies
  • WEEE Compliance

Copyright © 1999 — 2022 BeyondTrust Corporation. All rights reserved. Other trademarks identified on this page are owned by their respective owners. BeyondTrust Corporation is not a chartered bank or trust company, or depository institution. It is not authorized to accept deposits or trust accounts and is not licensed or regulated by any state or federal banking authority.