Suspicious WMIC Execution from Anomalous Parent Process (via process_creation)

PremiumReviewedSigma · Medium · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
HuntRule
Published
2026-08-06
Updated
2026-08-28

ATT&CK techniques

Execution → Discovery
  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Persistence

  5. Priv Esc

  6. Defense Evasion

  7. Cred Access

  8. Lateral Movement

  9. Collection

  10. C2

  11. Exfiltration

  12. Impact

What it detects

This rule detects wmic being spawned by an anomalous parent such as an Office application, browser or scripting host. Legitimate WMIC use rarely originates from these processes, so this parent-child relationship points to WMI being abused for execution or discovery following initial access.

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Suspicious Scheduled Task Enumerated (via process_creation)
Malicious Impacket WMIexec Process Execution (via process_creation)
Suspicious Child Process Spawned by WMI Provider Host (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 Firewall Configuration Enumerated - PowerShell (via powershell)
Suspicious WMIC Execution from Anomalous Parent Process (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.