A security-enabled local group membership was enumerated
A process enumerated the members of a local security group (`Administrators`, `Remote Desktop Users`, etc.).
Event ID 4799 captures local group enumeration (`NetLocalGroupGetMembers`). When adversaries land on a host, one of their first actions is querying `net localgroup administrators` or querying SAM groups via API (`4799`) to identify local administrators and lateral movement targets.
Failure Reason / Root Cause:
Local group membership listing API call executed against `TargetUserName` (e.g., `Administrators`).
Raw Event XML snippet
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-Security-Auditing" Guid="{54849625-5478-4994-A5BA-3E3B0328C30D}" />
<EventID>4799</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>0</Level>
<Task>12544</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8020000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2026-07-17T09:54:44.914Z" />
<EventRecordID>1048576</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="612" ThreadID="1024" />
<Channel>Security</Channel>
<Computer>DC01.enterprise.internal</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data Name="SubjectUserSid">S-1-5-18</Data>
<Data Name="SubjectUserName">SYSTEM</Data>
<Data Name="SubjectDomainName">NT AUTHORITY</Data>
<Data Name="SubjectLogonId">0x3e7</Data>
<!-- Event telemetry fields specific to A security-enabled local group membership was enumerated -->
</EventData>
</Event>MITRE ATT&CK mapping
| ID | Technique | Tactic |
|---|---|---|
T1069.001 | Permission Groups Discovery: Local Groups | Discovery |
Recommended actions
- Alert when `TargetUserName` is `Administrators` or `Remote Desktop Users` and the query originates from non-system management binaries (`powershell.exe`, `whoami.exe`, `net.exe`).