Suspicious WMI Provider Host Spawning Explorer or wlrmdr via Process Creation

ATT&CK techniques

Execution

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
- T1047Windows Management Instrumentation
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects WmiPrvSE.exe spawning explorer.exe or wlrmdr.exe, an execution chain MirrorFace uses in Operation AkaiRyu to launch its tooling through WMI while abusing rarely spawned Windows binaries as hosts. The WMI provider host does not normally start these processes. This indicates WMI-based execution during an espionage intrusion reviving the ANEL backdoor.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1047 — drag to rearrange

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Malicious Impacket Wmiexec Remote Command Execution Pattern

Malicious Shadow Copy Deletion Via WMI

Suspicious Remote Process Creation via WMIC Process Call Create (via process_creation)

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

Suspicious WMI Provider Host Spawning Explorer or wlrmdr 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.

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