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DSInternals Suspicious PowerShell Cmdlets — Sigma Rule

Sigma rule 43d91656-a9b2-4541-b7e2-6a9bd3a13f4e. DSInternals Suspicious PowerShell Cmdlets — Sigma Rule. Detects execution and usage of the DSInternals PowerShell module. Which can be used to perform what might be considered as suspicious activity such as dumping DPAPI backup keys or manipulating NTDS.DIT files. The DSInternals PowerShell Module exposes several internal features of Active Directory and Azure Active Directory. These include FIDO2 and NGC key auditing, offline ntds.dit file manipulation, password auditing, DC recovery from IFM backups and password hash calculation.

Rule metadata and linked tags

Author: Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems), Nounou Mbeiri. Source status: test; severity: high. Source dates: 2024-06-26 / not supplied.

{
  "product": "windows",
  "category": "process_creation"
}

Pinned original Sigma rule · Detection Rule License 1.1

Source SHA-256: ac67710fc3f7bef327a9c78a3d34b7952836e3ae74d585478013d9c7011ea42e

Detection logic

Original source YAML. Source-tag agreement is not proof of complete semantic coverage. This rule has not been compiled for a SIEM backend or validated against live telemetry here.

title: DSInternals Suspicious PowerShell Cmdlets
id: 43d91656-a9b2-4541-b7e2-6a9bd3a13f4e
related:
    - id: 846c7a87-8e14-4569-9d49-ecfd4276a01c
      type: similar
status: test
description: |
    Detects execution and usage of the DSInternals PowerShell module. Which can be used to perform what might be considered as suspicious activity such as dumping DPAPI backup keys or manipulating NTDS.DIT files.
    The DSInternals PowerShell Module exposes several internal features of Active Directory and Azure Active Directory. These include FIDO2 and NGC key auditing, offline ntds.dit file manipulation, password auditing, DC recovery from IFM backups and password hash calculation.
references:
    - https://github.com/MichaelGrafnetter/DSInternals/blob/39ee8a69bbdc1cfd12c9afdd7513b4788c4895d4/Src/DSInternals.PowerShell/DSInternals.psd1
author: Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems), Nounou Mbeiri
date: 2024-06-26
tags:
    - attack.execution
    - attack.t1059.001
logsource:
    product: windows
    category: process_creation
detection:
    selection:
        CommandLine|contains:
            - 'Add-ADDBSidHistory'
            - 'Add-ADNgcKey'
            - 'Add-ADReplNgcKey'
            - 'ConvertFrom-ADManagedPasswordBlob'
            - 'ConvertFrom-GPPrefPassword'
            - 'ConvertFrom-ManagedPasswordBlob'
            - 'ConvertFrom-UnattendXmlPassword'
            - 'ConvertFrom-UnicodePassword'
            - 'ConvertTo-AADHash'
            - 'ConvertTo-GPPrefPassword'
            - 'ConvertTo-KerberosKey'
            - 'ConvertTo-LMHash'
            - 'ConvertTo-MsoPasswordHash'
            - 'ConvertTo-NTHash'
            - 'ConvertTo-OrgIdHash'
            - 'ConvertTo-UnicodePassword'
            - 'Disable-ADDBAccount'
            - 'Enable-ADDBAccount'
            - 'Get-ADDBAccount'
            - 'Get-ADDBBackupKey'
            - 'Get-ADDBDomainController'
            - 'Get-ADDBGroupManagedServiceAccount'
            - 'Get-ADDBKdsRootKey'
            - 'Get-ADDBSchemaAttribute'
            - 'Get-ADDBServiceAccount'
            - 'Get-ADDefaultPasswordPolicy'
            - 'Get-ADKeyCredential' # Covers 'Get-ADKeyCredentialLink'
            - 'Get-ADPasswordPolicy'
            - 'Get-ADReplAccount'
            - 'Get-ADReplBackupKey'
            - 'Get-ADReplicationAccount'
            - 'Get-ADSIAccount'
            - 'Get-AzureADUserEx'
            - 'Get-BootKey'
            - 'Get-KeyCredential'
            - 'Get-LsaBackupKey'
            - 'Get-LsaPolicy' # Covers 'Get-LsaPolicyInformation'
            - 'Get-SamPasswordPolicy'
            - 'Get-SysKey'
            - 'Get-SystemKey'
            - 'New-ADDBRestoreFromMediaScript'
            - 'New-ADKeyCredential' # Covers 'New-ADKeyCredentialLink'
            - 'New-ADNgcKey'
            - 'New-NTHashSet'
            - 'Remove-ADDBObject'
            - 'Save-DPAPIBlob'
            - 'Set-ADAccountPasswordHash'
            - 'Set-ADDBAccountPassword' # Covers 'Set-ADDBAccountPasswordHash'
            - 'Set-ADDBBootKey'
            - 'Set-ADDBDomainController'
            - 'Set-ADDBPrimaryGroup'
            - 'Set-ADDBSysKey'
            - 'Set-AzureADUserEx'
            - 'Set-LsaPolicy' # Covers 'Set-LSAPolicyInformation'
            - 'Set-SamAccountPasswordHash'
            - 'Set-WinUserPasswordHash'
            - 'Test-ADDBPasswordQuality'
            - 'Test-ADPasswordQuality'
            - 'Test-ADReplPasswordQuality'
            - 'Test-PasswordQuality'
            - 'Unlock-ADDBAccount'
            - 'Write-ADNgcKey'
            - 'Write-ADReplNgcKey'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate usage of DSInternals for administration or audit purpose.
level: high

Original YAML and metadata in JSON

False positives

  • Legitimate usage of DSInternals for administration or audit purpose.

Source references

Connected ecosystem references

Exact source-tagged techniques

Telemetry review

Read the original logsource above, then inspect the linked detection workspaces for technique-level sensor context. No per-rule telemetry equivalence is inferred.

Pinned research references. No browser attack runner, live simulation result or validated detector is asserted. Source mappings and validation limits are preserved. ATT&CK / Atomic provenance · Detection provenance.