Suspicious NTDS Database Extraction from System Volume

ATT&CK techniques

Cred Access

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
- T1003.003NTDS
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects command-line references to the NTDS.dit Active Directory database being copied or dumped, a credential-theft step seen in CitrixBleed post-exploitation. Attackers extract NTDS.dit to harvest domain credential hashes for offline cracking and further compromise. Because access to this file outside of backup or DC maintenance is rare, it is a strong indicator of domain credential theft.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1003.003 — drag to rearrange

Malicious NTDS Credential Dump via Ntdsutil IFM Snapshot (via process_creation)

Malicious NTDS Database Dump via ntdsutil

Malicious NTDS Extraction from Volume Shadow Copy by RA World

Malicious NTDS Extraction via ntdsutil IFM

Malicious NTDS.dit Access via Shadow Copy GLOBALROOT Path

Suspicious Shadow Copy Creation via WMIC (via process_creation)

Malicious NTDS Extraction via Ntdsutil IFM

Malicious NTDS.dit Credential Extraction via ntdsutil

Malicious NTDS Credential Theft via Wbadmin Backup

Suspicious NTDS Database Extraction from System Volume

Pivot detection · T1003.003 · 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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