AD-USER-21: Known service account details should be investigated
| ID | AD-USER-21 |
| Severity | Info |
| Suite | Active Directory (on-premises) |
| Product | Active Directory |
| Feature | Users |
| Security area | Applications and workload identities |
| Resource type | User |
| Reads from | On-premises Active Directory |
What this checks and how to fix it
Section titled “What this checks and how to fix it”Service accounts often run business-critical workloads and commonly receive exceptions such as long-lived credentials, SPNs, or privileged access. Naming-pattern reviews help defenders quickly identify accounts that deserve deeper validation.
- Exposure reduction: Find accounts likely used by services before attackers do.
- Privilege review: Verify service accounts are not over-privileged.
- Credential hygiene: Check for non-expiring passwords and stale patterns.
- Inventory accuracy: Confirm naming standards are applied consistently.
Control Type
Section titled “Control Type”Operational
Security Recommendation
Section titled “Security Recommendation”- Maintain a defined naming standard for service accounts.
- Review matched accounts for owner, purpose, and required privileges.
- Prefer gMSAs where possible instead of traditional user-based service accounts.
- Investigate service-like names that lack documentation.
How the Test Works
Section titled “How the Test Works”This test reviews AD user objects and flags accounts whose SamAccountName or Name matches common service-account conventions such as svc-, service-, app-, sql-, or admin-svc.
Related Tests
Section titled “Related Tests”Test-MtAdUserDelegationConfiguredCountTest-MtAdUserDelegationDetails
Mito check. Author: soulemike. Open-source licences.
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