Detection rules › Sigma
Dump Ntds.dit To Suspicious Location
Detects potential abuse of ntdsutil to dump ntds.dit database to a suspicious location
MITRE ATT&CK coverage
| Tactic | Techniques |
|---|---|
| Execution | No specific technique |
Event coverage
| Provider | Event |
|---|---|
| ESENT | Event ID 325 |
Rule body yaml
title: Dump Ntds.dit To Suspicious Location
id: 94dc4390-6b7c-4784-8ffc-335334404650
status: test
description: Detects potential abuse of ntdsutil to dump ntds.dit database to a suspicious location
references:
- https://twitter.com/mgreen27/status/1558223256704122882
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2012-r2-and-2012/jj574207(v=ws.11)
author: Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
date: 2022-08-14
modified: 2023-10-23
tags:
- attack.execution
logsource:
product: windows
service: application
# warning: The 'data' field used in the detection section is the container for the event data as a whole. You may have to adapt the rule for your backend accordingly
detection:
selection_root:
Provider_Name: 'ESENT'
EventID: 325 # New Database Created
Data|contains: 'ntds.dit'
selection_paths:
Data|contains:
# Add more locations that you don't use in your env or that are just suspicious
- ':\ntds.dit'
- '\Appdata\'
- '\Desktop\'
- '\Downloads\'
- '\Perflogs\'
- '\Temp\'
- '\Users\Public\'
condition: all of selection_*
falsepositives:
- Legitimate backup operation/creating shadow copies
level: medium
Stages and Predicates
Stage 0: condition
all of selection_*Stage 1: selection_root
selection_root:
Provider_Name: 'ESENT'
EventID: 325
Data|contains: 'ntds.dit'
Stage 2: selection_paths
selection_paths:
Data|contains:
- ':\ntds.dit'
- '\Appdata\'
- '\Desktop\'
- '\Downloads\'
- '\Perflogs\'
- '\Temp\'
- '\Users\Public\'
Indicators
Each row is a field, operator, and value that the rule matches. The corpus column counts how many other rules in the catalog look for the same combination: high numbers point to widely-used, community-vetted indicators. Blank or 1 shows that the indicator is specific to this rule.
| Field | Kind | Values |
|---|---|---|
Data | match |
|
Provider_Name | eq |
|