Suspicious System Reconnaissance via WMI Command-Line Queries (via process_creation)

PremiumReviewedSigma · Medium · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-09-02
Updated
2026-09-02

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 wmic.exe being used to enumerate host security and system information, such as querying installed antivirus products, operating-system details or running processes for situational awareness. WMI-based discovery is called out in the Red Canary Threat Detection Report as an early hands-on-keyboard step that informs an adversary's next moves. Detecting these reconnaissance queries surfaces post-compromise triage before escalation.

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In-Memory Ramnit Process Injection Target Spawned by WmiPrvSE in drIBAN Fraud Operation (via process_creation)
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Suspicious WMIC Remote Process Creation Installing MSI via Command Line
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Suspicious System Reconnaissance via WMI Command-Line Queries (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.