Suspicious Domain Controller Enumeration via Nltest by DeadLock Ransomware

ATT&CK techniques

Discovery

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
- T1018Remote System Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects use of nltest to list domain controllers during reconnaissance. The DeadLock ransomware actors run nltest and quser to map the domain prior to lateral movement. Domain controller enumeration is an early sign of an actor preparing to spread across the network.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1018 — drag to rearrange

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Uncommon Domain Trust Discovery via Nltest (via process_creation)

Suspicious AdFind Active Directory Reconnaissance Tool Execution (via process_creation)

Suspicious Domain Controller and Trust Enumeration via Nltest

Suspicious Active Directory Enumeration via ADWS PowerShell Cmdlets via ps_script

Suspicious Domain Controller Discovery via nltest

Suspicious SimpleHelp Remote Access Client Spawning Discovery Commands (via process_creation)

Suspicious Domain Controller Enumeration via Nltest by DeadLock Ransomware

Pivot detection · T1018 · 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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