Windows Security Log: Denied Remote Desktop Logon (Event ID 4825)

ATT&CK techniques

Lateral Movement

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
- T1021.001Remote Desktop Protocol
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule identifies cases where an authenticated user attempts a Remote Desktop connection to a computer and is denied because remote logon is not permitted. Attackers often use repeated RDP attempts to discover reachable Windows servers and potential lateral movement targets. It relies on Windows Security auditing event telemetry for Event ID 4825.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1021.001 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious Enabling of Remote Desktop via fDenyTSConnections Registry by DeadLock Ransomware

Suspicious Plink SSH Tunnel Execution (via process_creation)

Suspicious Remote Desktop Enabled via fDenyTSConnections Registry by Sandworm

Suspicious RDP Shadow Session Started - Native (via rdp)

Malicious RDP BlueeKeep Connection Closed - CVE-2019-0708 (via rdp)

Obfuscated RDP Tunneling Configuration Enabled for Port Forwarding (via process_creation)

Malicious RDP Shadow Session Configuration Enabled - Registry (via registry_event)

Malicious RDP Tunneling (via rdp)

Suspicious Denied RDP Login with Valid Credentials (via security)

Windows Security Log: Denied Remote Desktop Logon (Event ID 4825)

Pivot detection · T1021.001 · 9 related

Changelog

v2

v2
Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
v1
No changelog recorded for this version.2026-07-30

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.

windows-security-denied-remote-desktop-logon-attempts-event-id-4825-8e5c03fa

title: "Windows Security Log: Denied Remote Desktop Logon (Event ID 4825)"
id: b83ef24f-a81d-4c46-a164-0beac96cdbbf
status: test
description: This rule identifies cases where an authenticated user attempts a Remote Desktop connection to a computer and is denied because remote logon is not permitted. Attackers often use repeated RDP attempts to discover reachable Windows servers and potential lateral movement targets. It relies on Windows Security auditing event telemetry for Event ID 4825.
references:
  - https://www.ultimatewindowssecurity.com/securitylog/encyclopedia/event.aspx?eventid=4825
  - https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/master/rules/windows/builtin/security/win_security_not_allowed_rdp_access.yml
author: Pushkarev Dmitry, Huntrule Team
date: 2020-06-27
modified: 2021-11-27
tags:
  - attack.lateral-movement
  - attack.t1021.001
logsource:
  product: windows
  service: security
detection:
  selection:
    EventID: 4825
  condition: selection
falsepositives:
  - Valid user was not added to RDP group
level: medium
license: DRL-1.1
related:
  - id: 8e5c03fa-b7f0-11ea-b242-07e0576828d9
    type: derived

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