Elastic Security Detection Rules

Enumerating Domain Trusts via DSQUERY.EXE

Last updated 5 months ago on 2025-03-20
Created 3 years ago on 2023-01-27

About

Identifies the use of dsquery.exe for domain trust discovery purposes. Adversaries may use this command-line utility to enumerate trust relationships that may be used for Lateral Movement opportunities in Windows multi-domain forest environments.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: WindowsUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: DiscoveryData Source: Elastic EndgameData Source: Elastic DefendData Source: Windows Security Event LogsData Source: Microsoft Defender for EndpointData Source: SysmonData Source: SentinelOneData Source: CrowdstrikeLanguage: eql
Severity
low
Risk Score
21
MITRE ATT&CK™

Discovery (TA0007)(opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Remote System Discovery (T1018)(opens in a new tab or window)

↳ Domain Trust Discovery (T1482)(opens in a new tab or window)

False Positive Examples
Domain administrators may use this command-line utility for legitimate information gathering purposes.
License
Elastic License v2(opens in a new tab or window)

Definition

Rule Type
Event Correlation Rule
Integration Pack
Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Index Patterns
endgame-*logs-crowdstrike.fdr*logs-endpoint.events.process-*logs-m365_defender.event-*logs-sentinel_one_cloud_funnel.*logs-system.security*logs-windows.forwarded*logs-windows.sysmon_operational-*winlogbeat-*
Related Integrations

endpoint(opens in a new tab or window)

windows(opens in a new tab or window)

system(opens in a new tab or window)

m365_defender(opens in a new tab or window)

sentinel_one_cloud_funnel(opens in a new tab or window)

crowdstrike(opens in a new tab or window)

Query
process where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type == "start" and
    (process.name : "dsquery.exe" or ?process.pe.original_file_name: "dsquery.exe") and 
    process.args : "*objectClass=trustedDomain*"

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Enumerating Domain Trusts via DSQUERY.EXE in the Elastic Security detection engine by installing this rule into your Elastic Stack.

To setup this rule, check out the installation guide for Prebuilt Security Detection Rules(opens in a new tab or window).