Suspicious ESXi Virtual Machine Enumeration via esxcli Process List

ATT&CK techniques

Discovery

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
- T1057Process Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects esxcli enumerating running virtual machine processes on an ESXi host. RTM Locker collects the output of esxcli vm process list into a temporary file to build a target list before force-killing and encrypting the VMs. VM process enumeration through esxcli immediately preceding termination is an early ransomware staging behavior.

Reporting behind it

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Suspicious ESXi Virtual Machine Enumeration via esxcli Process List

Pivot detection · T1057 · 9 related

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