Suspicious Active Directory Reconnaissance Commands (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

Discovery

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
- T1069.002Domain Groups
- T1482Domain Trust Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects command shell execution of domain trust and privileged group enumeration commands run in rapid succession. The FROZEN#SHADOW campaign used these commands for post-compromise Active Directory discovery.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1069.002 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious SharpHound Group Enumeration LDAP Filter

Windows File Events: ADExplorer .dat Snapshot Written by ADExp.exe or ADExplorer.exe

Windows: Sysinternals ADExplorer invoked with snapshot flag to create AD database snapshot

Windows Process Creation: Sysinternals ADExplorer Snapshot Exports Active Directory Database

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: Renamed AdFind.exe Executions

Windows file creation for SharpHound/BloodHound collection output filenames

Windows Process Creation: SharpView.exe with Recon/Domain Discovery Cmdlets

Suspicious Active Directory Reconnaissance Commands (via process_creation)

Pivot detection · T1069.002 · 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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