Valid Accounts: Local Accounts

Threat actors often leverage valid accounts to gain unauthorized access to target systems and networks. T1078.003 is a focused course designed to provide participants with a deep understanding of local accounts and their exploitation to further the objectives of an adversary in a cyber operation.
1
45
M
Time
intermediate
difficulty
6
ceu/cpe

Course Content

Course Description

By mastering T1078.003: Valid Accounts: Local Accounts, adversaries can gain unauthorized access to target systems, escalate privileges, and maintain a persistent presence within the target network. They can utilize various techniques to identify, compromise, and exploit local accounts, such as password attacks, credential dumping, and social engineering, which enable them to obtain valid credentials. Once they have acquired these credentials, adversaries can move laterally within the network, access sensitive information, and carry out further attacks with minimal detection. The exploitation of local accounts also allows adversaries to masquerade as legitimate users, which makes it more challenging for security professionals to identify and remediate malicious activities. Overall, leveraging valid local accounts enables adversaries to conduct sophisticated cyber operations while remaining undetected, thereby significantly increasing the potential impact of their attacks.

This course is part of a Career Path:
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Instructed by

Senior Instructor
Matthew Mullins

Matt has led multiple Red Team engagements, ranging from a few weeks to a year and covering multiple security domains. Outside of Red Teaming, Matt is also a seasoned penetration tester with interests in: AppSec, OSINT, Hardware, Wifi, Social Engineering, and Physical Security. Matt has a Master's degree in Information Assurance and an exhaustive number of certifications ranging from frameworks, management, and hands-on hacking. Matt is a Technical SME at Cybrary, focusing on Adversarial Emulation and Red Teaming for course content.

Senior Instructor
Owen Dubiel

Owen is certified in the GIAC GSEC, CompTIA CySA+, and various other vendor-related certifications. He works both as a technical security engineer and as an SME architect instructor in his spare time. Spreading the word of cyber security is a passion of his. Owen lives in Southeast Michigan with his beautiful wife, daughter, and his dog, Thor. In his free time, Owen enjoys watching sports and movies, and spending time with his family.

Senior Instructor
Chris Daywalt

After too many years of security operations work, Chris Daywalt tries to turn his phone off at 5:00 pm EST. While there are a bunch of training classes and education somewhere on his resume, much of what he has to teach was learned at the school of hard knocks, often at the expense of his previous clients. He wants to help you spend more time detecting and denying adversaries and less time banging your head against your keyboard. He dips his blueberry donuts in orange juice.

Chris’ 19-year career includes work for organizations of all sizes, both government and private sector, and is distributed roughly like so:

  • 30% doing DFIR
  • 30% teaching DFIR
  • 20% monitoring and detection engineering
  • 15% risk assessment
  • 5% other stuff, like sneaking in a game of Plants vs. Zombies or taking a quick nap at the desk (Don’t judge - I work overtime)

    Instructor
    Lucas Romano

    Lucas is a seasoned threat researcher in multiple security disciplines, such as real-world adversarial tracking, network vulnerabilities, web exploitation, API abuse, and more. He began his career at the US Department of Defense, where he was trained by some of the world's best operators and analysts. Lucas now operates in the Cybrary red team, emulating real-world threat actors and running purple team exercises. He has 11 industry certifications, including the OSWA, GPEN, GAWN, GCFE, and RHCSA. He is also a member of the GIAC Advisory Board. In his free time, he enjoys working outdoors to improve his farm.

    Provider
    Cybrary Logo
    Certification Body
    Certificate of Completion

    Complete this entire course to earn a Valid Accounts: Local Accounts Certificate of Completion

    Course
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    Valid Accounts: Local Accounts

    Course

    Threat actors often leverage valid accounts to gain unauthorized access to target systems and networks. T1078.003 is a focused course designed to provide participants with a deep understanding of local accounts and their exploitation to further the objectives of an adversary in a cyber operation.
    Path Releasing Q2 2025
    Full access included with 
    Insider Pro
     and 
    Teams

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    45

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    Experience Level

    6

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    CEU's

    1

    Enrollees

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    CEU's

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    Enrollees

    Learners at 96% of Fortune 1000 companies trust Cybrary

    About this course

    Threat actors often leverage valid accounts to gain unauthorized access to target systems and networks. T1078.003 is a focused course designed to provide participants with a deep understanding of local accounts and their exploitation to further the objectives of an adversary in a cyber operation.
    Read More

    Course Description

    By mastering T1078.003: Valid Accounts: Local Accounts, adversaries can gain unauthorized access to target systems, escalate privileges, and maintain a persistent presence within the target network. They can utilize various techniques to identify, compromise, and exploit local accounts, such as password attacks, credential dumping, and social engineering, which enable them to obtain valid credentials. Once they have acquired these credentials, adversaries can move laterally within the network, access sensitive information, and carry out further attacks with minimal detection. The exploitation of local accounts also allows adversaries to masquerade as legitimate users, which makes it more challenging for security professionals to identify and remediate malicious activities. Overall, leveraging valid local accounts enables adversaries to conduct sophisticated cyber operations while remaining undetected, thereby significantly increasing the potential impact of their attacks.

    Train Your Team

    Cybrary’s expert-led cybersecurity courses help your team remediate skill gaps and get up-to-date on certifications. Utilize Cybrary to stay ahead of emerging threats and provide team members with clarity on how to learn, grow, and advance their careers within your organization.

    Included in a Path

    Matthew Mullins
    Security Researcher - Adversary Emulation
    Read Full Bio
    Owen Dubiel
    Security Engineer
    Read Full Bio
    Chris Daywalt
    Security Freelancer
    Read Full Bio
    Lucas Romano
    Red Team Operator
    Read Full Bio
    Learn

    Learn core concepts and get hands-on with key skills.

    Practice

    Exercise your problem-solving and creative thinking skills with security-centric puzzles

    Prove

    Assess your knowledge and skills to identify areas for improvement and measure your growth

    Get Hands-on Learning

    Put your skills to the test in virtual labs, challenges, and simulated environments.

    Measure Your Progress

    Track your skills development from lesson to lesson using the Cybrary Skills Tracker.

    Connect with the Community

    Connect with peers and mentors through our supportive community of cybersecurity professionals.

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    Cassandra

    Information Security Analyst/Cisco Systems

    "I was able to earn both my Security+ and CySA+ in two months. I give all the credit to Cybrary. I’m also proud to announce I recently accepted a job as a Cyber Systems Engineer at BDO... I always try to debunk the idea that you can't get a job without experience or a degree."

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    Founder,/ IntellChromatics.

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    Mike

    Security Engineer and Pentester/

    "Becoming a Cybrary Insider Pro was a total game changer. Cybrary was instrumental in helping me break into cybersecurity, despite having no prior IT experience or security-related degree. Their career paths gave me clear direction, the instructors had real-world experience, and the virtual labs let me gain hands-on skills I could confidently put on my resume and speak to in interviews."

    Cassandra

    Information Security Analyst/Cisco Systems

    "I was able to earn both my Security+ and CySA+ in two months. I give all the credit to Cybrary. I’m also proud to announce I recently accepted a job as a Cyber Systems Engineer at BDO... I always try to debunk the idea that you can't get a job without experience or a degree."

    Casey

    Cyber Systems Engineer/BDO

    "Cybrary has helped me improve my hands-on skills and pass my toughest certification exams, enabling me to achieve 13 advanced certifications and successfully launch my own business. I love the practice tests for certification exams, especially, and appreciate the wide-ranging training options that let me find the best fit for my goals"

    Angel

    Founder,/ IntellChromatics.