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SMB Lateral Movement Detection

Detecting attackers using SMB to move between hosts, by spotting unusual share access, remote command execution patterns, and anomalous SMB authentication, mapped to ATT&CK.

Because SMB is heavily abused for lateral movement, detection focuses on its specific anomalies: unusual administrative-share access, PsExec-like remote execution patterns, anomalous SMB authentication, file transfers between hosts not normally interacting. Built on Windows authentication and process telemetry and mapped to the relevant ATT&CK technique, SMB lateral-movement detection is high-value because attackers reliably use SMB after initial access. It complements RDP and pass-the-hash detections in covering Windows lateral movement.

Introduced in: Writing Detections with ATT&CK

Examples

  • Alerting on PsExec-style remote execution patterns over SMB.
  • Detecting unusual administrative-share access between hosts.
  • Mapping the detection to the ATT&CK SMB lateral-movement technique.