Enumerating Domain Trusts via NLTEST.EXE
editEnumerating Domain Trusts via NLTEST.EXE
editIdentifies the use of nltest.exe for domain trust discovery purposes. Adversaries may use this command-line utility to enumerate domain trusts and gain insight into trust relationships, as well as the state of Domain Controller (DC) replication in a Microsoft Windows NT Domain.
Rule type: eql
Rule indices:
- winlogbeat-*
- logs-endpoint.events.*
- logs-windows.*
Severity: low
Risk score: 21
Runs every: 5 minutes
Searches indices from: now-9m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time)
Maximum alerts per execution: 100
References:
Tags:
- Elastic
- Host
- Windows
- Threat Detection
- Discovery
Version: 101 (version history)
Added (Elastic Stack release): 8.4.0
Last modified (Elastic Stack release): 8.5.0
Rule authors: Elastic
Rule license: Elastic License v2
Potential false positives
editDomain administrators may use this command-line utility for legitimate information gathering purposes, but it is not common for environments with Windows Server 2012 and newer.
Investigation guide
editRule query
editprocess where event.type == "start" and process.name : "nltest.exe" and process.args : ( "/DCLIST:*", "/DCNAME:*", "/DSGET*", "/LSAQUERYFTI:*", "/PARENTDOMAIN", "/DOMAIN_TRUSTS", "/BDC_QUERY:*")
Threat mapping
editFramework: MITRE ATT&CKTM
-
Tactic:
- Name: Discovery
- ID: TA0007
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0007/
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Technique:
- Name: Domain Trust Discovery
- ID: T1482
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1482/
Rule version history
edit- Version 101 (8.5.0 release)
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-
Updated query, changed from:
process where event.type in ("start", "process_started") and process.name : "nltest.exe" and process.args : ( "/DCLIST:*", "/DCNAME:*", "/DSGET*", "/LSAQUERYFTI:*", "/PARENTDOMAIN", "/DOMAIN_TRUSTS", "/BDC_QUERY:*")
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