TRACERT.EXE
Summary
Trace Route. Traces the network path to a destination, showing each hop and round-trip times. Used for network discovery and mapping in reconnaissance.
TRACERT.EXE is the 1953rd most commonly executed Windows program in EchoTrail's dataset, observed 327 times across enterprise environments. It typically runs from C:\Windows\System32 and it is most often launched by cmd.exe.
Behavior
Top Paths
- C:\Windows\System3298.47%
- C:\Windows\SysWOW641.53%
Top Hashes (SHA256)
- 46ee9fe3d12067f833b85da5c75c15aea4ae4da1bc705e186c67d390d0b3c79542.14%
- 4e8114c4ecb6affedbf56fad3f5a11101cfea6a05c6bf00cde4be45db682a2bd17.06%
- 9dc0e5218d73d5f07d49bd5dd1cdf7e792e2440d5312d1fd402a23b7e14f290c13.04%
- 5817a6b5d24d21e19a05a08253737b1d2842b612ec1b90f9b928d78fad27109212.04%
- 4f9adb638cf4264b40ba70189722def3aedd5fed24773dedbc571fa4e17079a06.69%
- 743f8e8a91b2d1e0db9323109034de91a1e065242a33a90bb787a63edb860b355.35%
- 618b29888378dad8e326059deb324d34a9b51c7c00bd0afb2270bb37fdc428bc1%
- 08c1435db9319a209e0deb991faf668a63cfb8f9ae0885eb1b508a2bb396d8b30.67%
- 1295ee599ceaf8ea0c7e6746f8f9b002f95e4763c4b49deea90b54d0039e12d80.67%
- d799159c37356decb9c9f0e6560dd6ee4a64bd10be54ce7548426544108a52e40.67%
Process Ancestry
Top Grandparents
- explorer.exe99.2%
- cmd.exe0.4%
- Update.exe0.4%
Top Parents
- cmd.exe83.79%
- powershell.exe9.17%
- AvastSvc.exe6.12%
- slack.exe0.31%
- webexmta.exe0.31%
Top Children
- conhost.exe100%
Rare or environment-specific process names are omitted from ancestry tables. Percentages are of all observed relationships.
Security Analysis
What does TRACERT.EXE normally do?
Runs from C:\Windows\System32. Used by network administrators and users to diagnose network connectivity and routing issues.
When is TRACERT.EXE suspicious?
Multiple tracert commands to different destinations (network mapping). tracert to external C2-related IPs. Execution by automated scripts scanning network topology.
How do attackers abuse TRACERT.EXE?
NETWORK DISCOVERY: Used to map network topology, identify firewalls and network boundaries, and understand routing paths. Part of post-exploitation reconnaissance but low-risk individually.
Detection guidance
LOW-PRIORITY: tracert alone is rarely actionable. Monitor in combination with other discovery tools (nbtstat, ping, arp, net view) as part of enumeration patterns. DATA SOURCES: Process creation (Sysmon 1)
False positive notes
Very common in normal network troubleshooting. Help desk staff, network engineers, and users regularly use tracert.
Related Processes
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Data from EchoTrail's dataset of ~346M Windows process executions. Last extracted 2026-08-04.