Sigma rule: Potential Discovery Activity Via Dnscmd.EXE

A detection rule from the SigmaHQ repository, shown as its author published it. Dataset version ref-d4f6dfad5070, updated 2023-02-04T00:00:00.000Z.

Rule

Title
Potential Discovery Activity Via Dnscmd.EXE
Status
test
Level
medium
Author
@gott_cyber
Date
2022-07-31
Modified
2023-02-04
File
rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_dnscmd_discovery.yml
Commit
ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects an attempt to leverage dnscmd.exe to enumerate the DNS zones of a domain. DNS zones used to host the DNS records for a particular domain.

Log source

product
windows
category
process_creation

Detection

selection_img:
    Image|endswith: '\dnscmd.exe'
selection_cli:
    CommandLine|contains:
        - '/enumrecords'
        - '/enumzones'
        - '/ZonePrint'
        - '/info'
condition: all of selection_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

  • Legitimate administration use

Tags

  • attack.discovery
  • attack.execution

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_dnscmd_discovery.yml

Sources and licences

  • SigmaHQ

    "Potential Discovery Activity Via Dnscmd.EXE" by @gott_cyber (SigmaHQ). Rule: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_dnscmd_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: Potential Discovery Activity Via Dnscmd.EXE",
entity page, dataset version ref-d4f6dfad5070, updated 2023-02-04T00:00:00.000Z,
https://ransomware-tracker.com/detections/sigma/b6457d63-d2a2-4e29-859d-4e7affc153d1 (accessed 2026-11-03).
Underlying source: SigmaHQ rule b6457d63-d2a2-4e29-859d-4e7affc153d1, 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.