Sigma rule: NTDS.DIT Creation By Uncommon Process

Rule

Title

NTDS.DIT Creation By Uncommon Process

Status

test

Level

high

Author

Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)

Date

2022-01-11

Modified

2022-07-14

File

rules/windows/file/file_event/file_event_win_ntds_dit_uncommon_process.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects creation of a file named "ntds.dit" (Active Directory Database) by an uncommon process or a process located in a suspicious directory

Log source

product

windows

category

file_event

Detection

selection_ntds:
    TargetFilename|endswith: '\ntds.dit'
selection_process_img:
    Image|endswith:
        # Add more suspicious processes as you see fit
        - '\cmd.exe'
        - '\cscript.exe'
        - '\mshta.exe'
        - '\powershell.exe'
        - '\pwsh.exe'
        - '\regsvr32.exe'
        - '\rundll32.exe'
        - '\wscript.exe'
        - '\wsl.exe'
        - '\wt.exe'
selection_process_paths:
    Image|contains:
        - '\AppData\'
        - '\Temp\'
        - '\Public\'
        - '\PerfLogs\'
condition: selection_ntds and 1 of selection_process_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Unknown

Tags

• attack.credential-access
• attack.t1003.002
• attack.t1003.003

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1003.002
• T1003.003

Related rules

• 4e7050dd-e548-483f-b7d6-527ab4fa784d (similar)

References

• https://stealthbits.com/blog/extracting-password-hashes-from-the-ntds-dit-file/
• https://adsecurity.org/?p=2398

Read on 2026-11-03T00:58:21.399Z under licence sigma-drl-1.1@d5f4c36a from https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/windows/file/file_event/file_event_win_ntds_dit_uncommon_process.yml