Lateral Movement via WMIC Remote Process Creation

ATT&CK techniques

Execution

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
- T1047Windows Management Instrumentation
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects wmic.exe invoking process call create against a remote node, the technique used in Operation Soft Cell to execute batch payloads across telecom networks. Remote WMI process creation is a common lateral movement and execution vector for hands-on-keyboard operators.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1047 — drag to rearrange

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Malicious Shadow Copy Deletion Via WMI

Suspicious Remote Process Creation via WMIC Process Call Create (via process_creation)

Suspicious System Reconnaissance via WMI Command-Line Queries (via process_creation)

Malicious Impacket WMIexec Process Execution (via process_creation)

Suspicious Child Process Spawned by WMI Provider Host (via process_creation)

Malicious WMI Spwaning PowerShell Process - WMImplant (via process_creation)

Lateral Movement via WMIC Remote Process Creation

Pivot detection · T1047 · 9 related

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.

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