Possible Lateral Movement through Windows Remote Shell (via process_creation)

title: Possible Lateral Movement through Windows Remote Shell (via process_creation)
id: f7ec89ea-2dd7-5880-94a7-154ddab290a2
status: stable
description: This rule detects a child process spawned by 'winrshost.exe', which suggests remote command execution through Windows Remote Shell (WinRs) and may indicate potential lateral movement activity.
references:
    - https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1021/006/
    - https://cardinalops.com/blog/living-off-winrm-abusing-complexity-in-remote-management/
    - https://www.ired.team/offensive-security/lateral-movement/winrs-for-lateral-movement
author: Huntrule Team
date: 2026-03-19
tags:
    - attack.lateral-movement
    - attack.t1021.006
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection:
        ParentImage|endswith: '\winrshost.exe'
    filter_main_conhost:
        Image: 'C:\Windows\System32\conhost.exe'
    condition: selection and not 1 of filter_main_*
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: medium