Suspicious Domain Controller Discovery via nltest dclist (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

Discovery

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

What it detects

This rule detects nltest being used with the dclist option to enumerate domain controllers, part of the chained reconnaissance run before LockBit 3.0 deployment. Attackers map the domain to plan lateral movement and privilege escalation. Domain controller discovery is an early staging action that precedes credential theft and domain-wide encryption.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1482 — drag to rearrange

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Suspicious Domain Controller and Trust Enumeration via Nltest

Suspicious Domain Trust Discovery via Nltest

Suspicious Active Directory Forest PowerShell Class Called from a Non Administrative Host (via powershell)

Suspicious Domain Controller Discovery via nltest dclist (via process_creation)

Pivot detection · T1482 · 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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