Malicious Active Directory Database Backup via wbadmin to Loopback Admin Share (via process_creation)
- Product
- windows
- Category
- process_creation
- Author
- HuntRule
- Published
- 2026-06-27
- Updated
- 2026-08-28
ATT&CK techniques
Cred AccessRecon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact
What it detects
This rule detects wbadmin backing up the NTDS database and registry hives while including ntds.dit in the target set, the domain credential-theft technique used in the Akira intrusion to copy the directory database via a loopback admin share. Adversaries abuse wbadmin to snapshot ntds.dit and the SYSTEM and SECURITY hives for offline hash extraction, so a wbadmin job referencing ntds.dit is a high-confidence dumping indicator.
Reporting behind it
Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.
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