database administrators and developers commonly use sqlcmd.exe legitimately for database management and scripting tasks within enterprise environments. these legitimate activities often include database backups and restores, schema deployment scripts, automated database maintenance, and etl processes. however, it's important to note that some organizations may have no sqlcmd.exe usage at all, making any detection highly suspicious. to effectively manage false positives, organizations should whitelist known administrator accounts, create exceptions for approved script paths and output locations, and add legitimate usage patterns to the filter macro as needed. recommend running this detection first as a hunt to review usage patterns. following, modify the risk score and false positive list as needed. | |