Suspicious Active Directory Discovery via ADFind

ATT&CK techniques

Discovery

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
- T1087Account Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects execution of the ADFind reconnaissance utility which Black Basta operators use to enumerate Active Directory users groups and computers during the discovery phase of an intrusion. While ADFind is a legitimate administrative tool its presence on endpoints is frequently associated with pre ransomware reconnaissance.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1087 — drag to rearrange

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Windows Process Creation Signals for Pikabot System Discovery

Windows PowerShell module commandlet names matching known exploitation and post-exploitation tooling

Windows Process Creation: Suspicious PowerShell Commandlets Used by Known Exploitation Tools

Windows Process Creation: Seatbelt.exe PUA Discovery Command-Line Execution

Windows Process Creation: China Chopper Webshell Command Pattern via W3WP

Suspicious Active Directory Discovery via ADFind

Pivot detection · T1087 · 9 related

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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