Sigma rule: AD Privileged Users or Groups Reconnaissance

A detection rule from the SigmaHQ repository, shown as its author published it. Dataset version ref-9dcee2f77b5c, updated 2022-07-13T00:00:00.000Z.

Rule

Title
AD Privileged Users or Groups Reconnaissance
Status
test
Level
high
Author
Samir Bousseaden
Date
2019-04-03
Modified
2022-07-13
File
rules/windows/builtin/security/win_security_account_discovery.yml
Commit
ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detect priv users or groups recon based on 4661 eventid and known privileged users or groups SIDs

Log source

product
windows
service
security
definition
Requirements: enable Object Access SAM on your Domain Controllers

Detection

selection:
    EventID: 4661
    ObjectType:
        - 'SAM_USER'
        - 'SAM_GROUP'
selection_object:
    - ObjectName|endswith:
          - '-512'
          - '-502'
          - '-500'
          - '-505'
          - '-519'
          - '-520'
          - '-544'
          - '-551'
          - '-555'
    - ObjectName|contains: 'admin'
filter:
    SubjectUserName|endswith: '$'
condition: selection and selection_object and not filter

False positives (as the rule lists them)

  • If source account name is not an admin then its super suspicious

Tags

  • attack.discovery
  • attack.t1087.002

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

References

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/builtin/security/win_security_account_discovery.yml

Sources and licences

  • SigmaHQ

    "AD Privileged Users or Groups Reconnaissance" by Samir Bousseaden (SigmaHQ). Rule: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/windows/builtin/security/win_security_account_discovery.yml.
    Licensed under the Detection Rule License (DRL) 1.1: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/Detection-Rule-License

    Detection Rule License (DRL) 1.1

Cite this page

Dragons Eye Ransomware Tracker, "Sigma rule: AD Privileged Users or Groups Reconnaissance",
entity page, dataset version ref-9dcee2f77b5c, updated 2022-07-13T00:00:00.000Z,
https://ransomware-tracker.com/detections/sigma/35ba1d85-724d-42a3-889f-2e2362bcaf23 (accessed 2026-11-03).
Underlying source: SigmaHQ rule 35ba1d85-724d-42a3-889f-2e2362bcaf23, commit ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84.

Pages change. The dataset version identifies the data, but no archive of old versions is kept, so this citation cannot be replayed later.