Sigma rule: Suspicious Usage Of Active Directory Diagnostic Tool (ntdsutil.exe)

A detection rule from the SigmaHQ repository, shown as its author published it. Dataset version ref-d971da2735ab, updated 2022-09-14T00:00:00.000Z.

Rule

Title
Suspicious Usage Of Active Directory Diagnostic Tool (ntdsutil.exe)
Status
test
Level
medium
Author
Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
Date
2022-09-14
File
rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_ntdsutil_susp_usage.yml
Commit
ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects execution of ntdsutil.exe to perform different actions such as restoring snapshots...etc.

Log source

product
windows
category
process_creation

Detection

selection_img:
    - Image|endswith: '\ntdsutil.exe'
    - OriginalFileName: 'ntdsutil.exe'
selection_cli:
    - CommandLine|contains|all:
          - 'snapshot'
          - 'mount ' # mounts a specific snapshot - Ex: ntdsutil snapshot "mount c2b3e2c6-1ffb-4625-ba8e-3503c27a9fcb" quit quit
    - CommandLine|contains|all:
          # This offers more coverage to the "selection_oneliner_1" case in rule 8bc64091-6875-4881-aaf9-7bd25b5dda08
          # The shorest form of "activate" can "ac". But "act", "acti"...etc are also valid forms
          # Same case with the "instance" flag
          - 'ac'
          - ' i'
          - ' ntds'
condition: all of selection_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

  • Legitimate usage to restore snapshots
  • Legitimate admin activity

Tags

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

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

Related rules

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/process_creation/proc_creation_win_ntdsutil_susp_usage.yml

Sources and licences

  • SigmaHQ

    "Suspicious Usage Of Active Directory Diagnostic Tool (ntdsutil.exe)" by Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems) (SigmaHQ). Rule: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_ntdsutil_susp_usage.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: Suspicious Usage Of Active Directory Diagnostic Tool (ntdsutil.exe)",
entity page, dataset version ref-d971da2735ab, updated 2022-09-14T00:00:00.000Z,
https://ransomware-tracker.com/detections/sigma/a58353df-af43-4753-bad0-cd83ef35eef5 (accessed 2026-11-03).
Underlying source: SigmaHQ rule a58353df-af43-4753-bad0-cd83ef35eef5, 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.