LoFP LoFP / administrators may use nltest for troubleshooting purposes, otherwise, rarely used.

Techniques

Sample rules

NLTest Domain Trust Discovery

Description

The following analytic identifies the execution of nltest.exe with command-line arguments /domain_trusts or /all_trusts to query Domain Trust information. It leverages data from Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) agents, focusing on process execution logs and command-line arguments. This activity is significant as it indicates potential reconnaissance efforts by adversaries to understand domain trust relationships, which can inform their lateral movement strategies. If confirmed malicious, this activity could enable attackers to map out trusted domains, facilitating further compromise and pivoting within the network.

Detection logic


| tstats `security_content_summariesonly` count min(_time) as firstTime max(_time) as lastTime from datamodel=Endpoint.Processes where `process_nltest` (Processes.process=*/domain_trusts* OR Processes.process=*/all_trusts*) by Processes.dest Processes.user Processes.parent_process Processes.process_name Processes.process Processes.process_id Processes.parent_process_id 
| `drop_dm_object_name(Processes)` 
| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)` 
| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)` 
| `nltest_domain_trust_discovery_filter`