Lateral Movement Detection Guide for SOC Analysts

SOC Playbook: Lateral Movement Detection and Response Guide

In modern networks, attackers never stop at acquiring initial access. Once a foothold is gained, the action begins: lateral movement, the phase where adversaries pivot across systems, escalate privileges, and open the gates to enterprise assets.
The danger lies in its resemblance to normal administrative behavior. Attackers use lateral movement tools like PsExec, WMI, and PowerShell remoting alongside legitimate credentials and network paths to evade detection. For SOC analysts, quickly detecting a lateral movement attack is the difference between dealing with an attack and watching it until it reaches a critical stage.

What is Lateral Movement in Cybersecurity?

Lateral movement refers to a set of post-exploitation techniques attackers use to navigate through a network after gaining initial access. Common lateral movement techniques include remote service exploitation, credential theft, and abuse of legitimate administrative tools.

What makes lateral movement particularly dangerous is its stealth. Attackers use legitimate protocols like SMB, RDP, and WinRM with stolen credentials, deliberately mimicking normal IT operations. Without proper visibility and behavioral baselines, these movements blend seamlessly into everyday network traffic

The Three-Stage Attack Progression Framework

Detection requires understanding lateral movement techniques and how adversaries apply them across your network. Here, we organized lateral movement detection in three stages, each with specific indicators and response requirements:

Stage 1: Reconnaissance & Discovery

Attackers trace the network, identify critical targets, and map Active Directory structure. Detection at this stage will stop any further progression.

Stage 2: Lateral Movement Execution

Attackers freely move between systems using conventional protocols and tools. Speed is critical; the faster you detect and respond, the more you limit the impacted scope.

Stage 3: Privilege Escalation & Domain Compromise

Attackers target control-level access, often using advanced techniques like DCSync or Kerberos attacks. Detection at this stage requires an immediate major incident declaration.

⇒ Each stage comes with specific Event IDs, detection logic, and response actions designed to help in identifying and containing threats early.

Stage 1: Reconnaissance & Discovery Detection

During the scouting phase, attackers explore the network and collect data about the domain structure, users, and trust connections. Their behavior often resembles legitimate administrative enumeration, but at a suspicious speed and scale.

Key Event IDs to Monitor

• Event ID 4688 - Process Creation
  Observe processes like net.exe, nltest, dsquery, or adfind.exe. These commands indicate enumeration of groups, users, or trust paths.
• Event ID 5156 - Network Connections
  Activated when a network connection is allowed by the Windows Filtering Platform. Useful for detecting internal SMB or LDAP scans.
• Sysmon Event ID 3 - Network Activity
  Captures connections started by a process, detect proprietary recon tools (SharpHound, AdFind, etc.) communicating with multiple hosts.

Behavioral Indicators of Lateral Movement attack

• System probing commands executed within 60 seconds window.
• Repeated queries like net group "Domain Admins" or nltest /domain_trusts.
• SMB scans to several internal IPs on port 445.
• Execution of lateral movement tools and discovery utilities like SharpHound, AdFind, Mimikatz, or BloodHound.

Immediate Response Actions

1. Quarantine the endpoint using EDR mitigation.
2. Extract process memory for credential theft analysis (search for LSASS access).
3. Review 48-hour process tree and network logs for related internal pivot attempts.
4. Escalate to Tier 2 if persistence or suspicious tools are detected.

Stage 2: Lateral Movement Execution

Once exploration provides insight, attackers begin pivoting laterally, utilizing stolen credentials and remote services to execute commands on new hosts.

Critical Event IDs for Lateral Movement

• Event ID 4624 Type 3 - Network Logon
  Signals logon via network connection (SMB, PsExec, WinRM). Multiple Type 3 logons from the same account to multiple hosts in a short period is suspicious.
• Event ID 4648 - Explicit Credentials Used
  Demonstrates use of specific usernames and passwords for sign-in attempts, commonly seen in credential replay or pass-the-hash attacks.
• Event ID 4672 - Special Privileges Assigned
  Logs when privileged user accounts (e.g., domain admins) log in, helpful for tracking suspicious admin activity.
• Event ID 7045 - Service Installation
  Activated when PsExec or WMI creates remote services for execution.
• Event IDs 5140 / 5145 - Admin Share Access
  Catch attempts to access network shares such as \\ADMIN$ or \\C$, typical of lateral movement using SMB.

MITRE ATT&CK Techniques

► Explore this Full MITRE ATT&CK Guide: Mapping Real Alerts to Tactics, Techniques, Behaviors.

Critical Response Protocol

1. Escalate to IR team instantly.
2. Deactivate compromised accounts and reset users' credentials.
3. Isolate both source and destination hosts.
4. Inspect for credential dumping (Event 4656 on LSASS).
5. Block lateral network traffic using EDR or firewall policies.

Speed is vital: every minute of undetected lateral movement increases potential damage exponentially.

Stage 3: Privilege Escalation & Domain Compromise

In this final stage, attackers escalate privileges to gain domain control, often targeting AD for persistence and dominance.

Domain-Level Attack Event IDs

Advanced threat patterns

• DCSync Attacks: attackers use tools like Mimikatz to request directory replication data.
• Golden Ticket: forged Kerberos TGT granting full domain privileges.
• Silver Ticket: forged service ticket targeting specific SPNs.
• Skeleton Key: backdoor injected into domain controller authentication logic.

Major Incident Response Procedures

1. Declare a major incident and start incident-command mode.
2. Reset KRBTGT password twice (24 hours apart) to invalidate forged Kerberos tickets.
3. Reset admin credentials immediately.
4. Collect forensic images of affected domain controllers.
5. Hunt for persistence mechanisms (services, scheduled tasks, registry).
6. Inform legal and CISO teams due to potential breach disclosure requirements.

► Know all about Digital Forensics and Incident Response through this full playbook.

Lateral Movement Detection Pitfalls to Avoid

1. Insufficient Event Log Collection

Lack of Sysmon or Windows event forwarding breaks visibility. Ensure centralized collections and proper retention. 

2. Neglecting Account Service Behavior 

Service accounts are the top lateral movement targets. Track their logons and flag deviations for baseline. 

4. Delayed Escalation Procedures

Slow response keeps dwell time high. Automate escalation triggers to IR when critical rules fire. 

5. Lack of Network Segmentation

Flat network enables unrestricted lateral travel. Segment sensitive zones and restrict RDP/SMB between segments. 

Quick Guide for Lateral Movement Detection

Phase 1 - Foundation

Start with infrastructure:

• Roll Sysmon out to all endpoints using configuration from SwiftOnSecurity or similar resources. 
• Set up Windows Event Forwarding from all domain controllers and server members. 
• Configure SIEM log intake, and validate you’re capturing Security, System, and Sysmon logs. 
• Ensure thorough log collection across your environment. 

Phase 2 - Detection Rules

Build detection capabilities

• Stage 1: detection queries for scouting activities focus on Event IDs 4688, 5156, and Sysmon Event ID. 
• Stage 2: detection queries for lateral movement implementation, highlighting Event ID 4624 Type 3 correlation. 
• Stage 3: Detection queries for privilege escalation, particularly Event ID 4662 for DCSync detection. 
  Adjust detection rules to match your environment's normal behavior. 

Phase 3 - Response and Testing 

Operationalise your capabilities

• Develop response playbooks for each attack stage. 
• Train the IR team on Lateral Movement indicators and response techniques.
• Run exercises simulating lateral movement scenarios. 
• Verify automated response workflows function. 

Build Your Lateral Movement Detection Infrastructure

Attack discovery depends on visibility. Without log collection and correlations, even the best playbook fails.

Essential Tools and Technologies

• SIEM platforms: Splunk, Google Chronicle, Microsoft Sentinel. 
• EDR solutions: CrowdStrike, Microsoft Defender, SentinelOne.
• Sysmon: Deep process and network telemetry via configurable event IDs.
• Windows Event Forwarding (WEF): Centralize logs efficiently for detection coverage. 

Detection Rule Best Practices

• Baseline normal behavior: Document administrative activities, service account patterns, and scheduled task behaviors. Detection logic should rely on these baselines to reduce false positives.
• Optimize correlation windows: Lateral movement happens rapidly. Use short time windows (5-10 minutes) for more accurate alerts and faster detection.
• Whitelist known accounts: Exclude monitoring systems, scheduled tasks, and service accounts from alerting. Audit whitelisted accounts frequently to ensure their legitimacy.
• Tune continuously: Refine detection queries based on operational feedback, false positive rates, and emerging attack patterns.

SOAR Integrations and Automation

Automation reduces the time needed to detect and respond, keeping analysts focused on complex investigations.

• Automated isolation workflows: When credible lateral movement indicators are detected, automatically isolate affected endpoints via EDR integrations. 
• Threat intelligence enrichment: enrich alerts with threat intelligence automatically on IPs, domains, and file hashes to provide context for decision-making.
• Response playbook triggers: Use SOAR platforms to automate the multi-step response procedures, as account disablement, evidence collection, and notification workflows.

Measuring Lateral Movement Detection Effectiveness

You can’t develop what you can not measure. SOC teams should define clear KPIs for detection capabilities. 

Key Performance Indicators

Continuous Improvement:

Detection process never ends.

• Weekly rule review: Identify false positives for tuning and true positives for lessons learned. 
• Quarterly threat hunting: Search for lateral movement indicators in historical data.  
• Red Team Validation: Have your red team or external penetration tester attempt lateral movement.
• Detection Gap Analysis: Match your detection contained to MITRE ATT&CK lateral movement techniques. 

Conclusion and Key Takeaways

Before closing this guide, make sure you have implemented these controls:

1. ► Turn on Sysmon Event ID 3 to track network connections.
2. ► Set up forwarding for Key security Event IDs (4624, 4648, 4662, 4768).
3. ​​​​​​​► Create an admin-only account baseline separate from service identities.
4. ​​​​​​​► Draft escalation procedures with 24/7 contact information. 
5. ► ​​​​​​​KRBTGT password should be reset immediately after a confirmed domain attack.
6. ► ​​​​​​​Deploy EDR across the entire endpoint fleet with host isolation enabled. 
7. ► ​​​​​​​Test the containment workflow and check it executes in under 15 minutes. 

► Check This Complete Guide: Skills Every SOC Analyst Needs in 2026. 

Lateral Movement attack is the center of every major breach. Detecting it requires data visibility, monitoring, and well-tested response playbooks. By aligning detection with MITRE ATT&CK and continuously improve your KPIs, your SOC can detect and stop lateral movement before attackers achieve their objectives.