Remote System Discovery T1018
Adversaries may attempt to get a listing of other systems by IP address, hostname, or other logical identifier on a network that may be used for Lateral Movement from the current system. Functionality could exist within remote access tools to enable this, but utilities available on the operating system could also be used such as Ping, net view using Net, or, on ESXi servers, `esxcli network diag ping`.
Events covered
12 catalog events are tagged with this technique by at least one rule.
| Provider | Event | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Sysmon | Event ID 1 | Process creation |
| Sysmon | Event ID 3 | Network connection |
| Sysmon | Event ID 5 | Process terminated |
| Sysmon | Event ID 7 | Image loaded |
| Security-Auditing | Event ID 4688 | A new process has been created. |
| Security-Auditing | Event ID 4689 | A process has exited. |
| Security-Auditing | Event ID 5145 | A network share object was checked to see whether client can be granted desired access. |
| Defender-DeviceEvents | LdapSearch | LDAP search |
| Defender-DeviceProcessEvents | any | Process activity (any) |
| LDAP-Client | Event ID 30 | LDAP search request |
| PowerShell | Event ID 4103 | Payload Context: ContextInfo User Data: UserData. |
| PowerShell | Event ID 4104 | Creating Scriptblock text (MessageNumber of MessageTotal). |
Authoring guide
Patterns shared across the 66 rules above: which fields they filter on, what specific values they look for, and what they exclude. The catalog normalizes field names across vendors so Sigma's Image, Elastic's process.name, and Splunk's process_name collapse into one row. Each rule contributes at most once per row.
Fields filtered most (27 distinct)
The fields most rules look at when detecting this technique. The How column shows the operators authors use (eq, wildcard, regex_match, match) and how often each appears. Sample values are concrete examples to start from, not an exhaustive list.
Top indicator values (384 distinct)
Specific (field, operator, value) combinations the rules check for, ranked by how many rules under this technique use each one. The Corpus reach column counts how many rules across the entire catalog (any technique) check the same combination. High numbers point to widely-used indicators that are likely noisy on their own; combine them with another condition for useful signal. Blank means the combination is specific to rules under this technique. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that use it.
Exclusions (25 distinct)
Field/operator/value combinations excluded by rules under this technique (top-level not() clauses), sorted by how many rules exclude each. These are the false-positive paths the community has learned to filter out. A new rule that ignores the high-count entries here will likely fire on the same noisy paths. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that exclude it.
Rules under this technique
Every rule in the catalog tagged with this technique, grouped by vendor. Click a rule title for its full predicates, exclusions, and indicators.
Sigma 15 rules
- Active Directory Computers Enumeration With Get-AdComputer
- Chopper Webshell Process Pattern
- DirectorySearcher Powershell Exploitation
- DNS hosts file accessed via network share
- HackTool - NetExec Execution
- Net.EXE Execution
- Nltest.EXE Execution
- Potential Unconstrained Delegation Discovery Via Get-ADComputer - ScriptBlock
- PUA - AdFind Suspicious Execution
- PUA - Adidnsdump Execution
- Renamed AdFind Execution
- Share And Session Enumeration Using Net.EXE
- Suspicious Scan Loop Network
- Webshell Detection With Command Line Keywords
- Webshell Hacking Activity Patterns
Elastic 8 rules
- Active Directory Discovery using AdExplorer
- AdFind Command Activity
- Enumerating Domain Trusts via DSQUERY.EXE
- Enumerating Domain Trusts via NLTEST.EXE
- Enumeration Command Spawned via WMIPrvSE
- Potential Enumeration via Active Directory Web Service
- Remote System Discovery Commands
- Windows Network Enumeration
Splunk 40 rules
- Adfind Commands (PowerShell)
- Adfind Commands (Sysmon)
- Adfind Commands (Windows Event Log)
- Adfind Execution (EDR)
- Adfind Execution (PowerShell)
- Adfind Execution (Sysmon)
- Adfind Execution (Windows Event Log)
- Domain Controller Discovery with Nltest
- Domain Controller Discovery with Wmic
- Domain Controller Enumeration via nltest (PowerShell)
- Domain Controller Enumeration via nltest (Sysmon)
- Domain Controller Enumeration via nltest (Windows Event Log)
- FScan.exe Network Scan (Sysmon)
- FScan.exe Network Scan (Windows Event Log)
- GetAdComputer with PowerShell
- GetAdComputer with PowerShell Script Block
- GetDomainComputer with PowerShell
- GetDomainComputer with PowerShell Script Block
- GetDomainController with PowerShell
- GetDomainController with PowerShell Script Block
- GetWmiObject Ds Computer with PowerShell
- GetWmiObject Ds Computer with PowerShell Script Block
- Multiple nslookup commands (Sysmon)
- Multiple nslookup commands (Windows Event Log)
- NMAP Execution (EDR)
- NMAP Execution (PowerShell)
- NMAP Execution (Windows Event Log)
- Potential Ping Sweep (Windows Event Log)
- PowerHuntShares Commands (PowerShell)
- PowerHuntShares Commands (Sysmon)
- PowerHuntShares Commands (Windows Event Log)
- Remote System Discovery with Adsisearcher
- Remote System Discovery with Dsquery
- Remote System Discovery with Wmic
- Windows AdFind Exe
- Windows Get-AdComputer Unconstrained Delegation Discovery
- Windows Netspy Network Scanner Execution
- Windows PowerView Constrained Delegation Discovery
- Windows PowerView Unconstrained Delegation Discovery
- Windows PsTools Recon Usage