Malicious Impacket-Style Remote Command Execution Pattern (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

Lateral Movement

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
- T1021.002SMB/Windows Admin Shares
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects the command shell pattern used by Impacket remote-execution tools such as wmiexec, smbexec and atexec, where cmd.exe runs a command and redirects its output to a local admin share or loopback path (for example 1> \\127.0.0.1\ADMIN$). Remote execution over SMB/WMI is a lateral-movement behavior featured in the Red Canary Threat Detection Report and is heavily used by hands-on-keyboard operators. Detecting this redirect-to-share signature surfaces Impacket-driven lateral movement.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1021.002 — drag to rearrange

Malicious Network Share Manipulation via Commandline (via process_creation)

Suspicious Number of Oustanding SMB Requests Increased (via process_creation)

Suspicious SMB Insecure Guest Authentication Activated - Native (via security)

Suspicious PSexec Execution Over SMB Share (via security)

Suspicious Permissions Modification on a Network Share (via security)

Malicious Impacket Atexec Remote Scheduled Task Execution (via process_creation)

Suspicious Lateral Movement by Mounting a Network Share - Net Use - Command (via security)

Malicious Remote Shell Execution via SMB Admin Share (via security)

Suspicious Lateral Movement Detection - Based on "special Groups" Feature (via security)

Malicious Impacket-Style Remote Command Execution Pattern (via process_creation)

Pivot detection · T1021.002 · 9 related

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