Malicious ESX Admins Group Creation via WinRM Host

ATT&CK techniques

Initial Access → Defense Evasion

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
- T1078Valid Accounts
Execution
Persistence
- T1078Valid Accounts
- T1098.007Additional Local or Domain Groups
Priv Esc
- T1078Valid Accounts
- T1098.007Additional Local or Domain Groups
Defense Evasion
- T1078Valid Accounts
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects the WinRM provider host wsmprovhost.exe launching net.exe to create or modify a group named ESX Admins, matching the UNC3944 technique that abuses a default vSphere Active Directory integration to grant full administrative rights over the ESXi estate. This privilege escalation precedes VM theft and hypervisor-level ransomware.

Reporting behind it

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Malicious ESX Admins Group Creation via WinRM Host

Pivot detection · T1078 · 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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