Sigma rule: Dump Ntds.dit To Suspicious Location

Rule

Title

Dump Ntds.dit To Suspicious Location

Status

test

Level

medium

Author

Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)

Date

2022-08-14

Modified

2023-10-23

File

rules/windows/builtin/application/esent/win_esent_ntdsutil_abuse_susp_location.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects potential abuse of ntdsutil to dump ntds.dit database to a suspicious location

Log source

product

windows

service

application

Detection

selection_root:
    Provider_Name: 'ESENT'
    EventID: 325 # New Database Created
    Data|contains: 'ntds.dit'
selection_paths:
    Data|contains:
        # Add more locations that you don't use in your env or that are just suspicious
        - ':\ntds.dit'
        - '\Appdata\'
        - '\Desktop\'
        - '\Downloads\'
        - '\Perflogs\'
        - '\Temp\'
        - '\Users\Public\'
condition: all of selection_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Legitimate backup operation/creating shadow copies

Tags

• attack.execution

References

• https://twitter.com/mgreen27/status/1558223256704122882
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2012-r2-and-2012/jj574207(v=ws.11)

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/application/esent/win_esent_ntdsutil_abuse_susp_location.yml