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

PremiumReviewedSigma · Medium · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-09-01
Updated
2026-09-01

ATT&CK techniques

Execution
  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Persistence

  5. Priv Esc

  6. Defense Evasion

  7. Cred Access

  8. Discovery

  9. Lateral Movement

  10. Collection

  11. C2

  12. Exfiltration

  13. Impact

What it detects

This rule detects the WMI Provider Host (WmiPrvSE.exe) spawning a command shell or script interpreter, an execution pattern that indicates local or remote code execution through Windows Management Instrumentation. WMI is a top execution and lateral-movement technique in the Red Canary Threat Detection Report because it runs under a trusted service and leaves little on disk. Detecting interpreter children of WmiPrvSE surfaces WMI-based hands-on activity.

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Suspicious System Reconnaissance via WMI Command-Line Queries (via process_creation)
Malicious Impacket WMIexec Process Execution (via process_creation)
Malicious WMI Spwaning PowerShell Process - WMImplant (via process_creation)
In-Memory Ramnit Process Injection Target Spawned by WmiPrvSE in drIBAN Fraud Operation (via process_creation)
Suspicious WMIC Execution from Anomalous Parent Process (via process_creation)
Suspicious WMIC Remote Process Creation Installing MSI via Command Line
Malicious MSI Installation from Remote WebDAV Share via process_creation
Malicious Lateral Movement via Impacket WMIExec Command Pattern
Suspicious Child Process Spawned by WMI Provider Host (via 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.