Suspicious Impacket smbexec Command Execution Pattern

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 Impacket smbexec execution pattern where a command interpreter runs with the quiet and command flags, echoes a command, and redirects output to a share path ending in __output. This service-based semi-interactive shell is used for lateral movement during these ransomware attacks. The __output redirection artifact is a reliable smbexec indicator.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1021.002 — drag to rearrange

Suspicious SMB Admin Share Mapping for Lateral Tool Transfer (via process_creation)

Suspicious Impacket Remote Execution Tool Usage via process_creation

Suspicious Remote Service Execution via PsExec (via process_creation)

Suspicious RemCom Service Named Pipe for Lateral Movement (via pipe_created)

Suspicious WMIC Remote Process Creation for Lateral Movement

Suspicious File Copy to Administrative SMB Share via net.exe (via process_creation)

Malicious PsExec Service Binary Execution from Windows Directory via services.exe (via process_creation)

Malicious Remote Command Execution via smbexec Output Redirection Pattern

Malicious Lateral Movement via PsExec File-List Target

Suspicious Impacket smbexec Command Execution Pattern

Pivot detection · T1021.002 · 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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