Access Token Manipulation: Token Impersonation/Theft (T1134.001)
Tactics: Stealth, Privilege Escalation · Platforms: Windows
The interactive view maps 1 detection strategy, 2 mitigations, 2 threat groups, 17 software entries, 1 campaign to this technique, alongside D3FEND countermeasures and data-component coverage.
Sub-technique of Access Token Manipulation (T1134).
Overview
Adversaries may duplicate then impersonate another user's existing token to escalate privileges and bypass access controls. For example, an adversary can duplicate an existing token using `DuplicateToken` or `DuplicateTokenEx`. The token can then be used with `ImpersonateLoggedOnUser` to allow the calling thread to impersonate a logged on user's security context, or with `SetThreadToken` to assign the impersonated token to a thread.
An adversary may perform Token Impersonation/Theft when they have a specific, existing process they want to assign the duplicated token to. For example, this may be useful for when the target user has a non-network logon session on the system.
When an adversary would instead use a duplicated token to create a new process rather than attaching to an existing process, they can additionally Create Process with Token using `CreateProcessWithTokenW` or `CreateProcessAsUserW`. Token Impersonation/Theft is also distinct from Make and Impersonate Token in that it refers to duplicating an existing token, rather than creating a new one.