Windows CMSTP Process Spawning Child Process
Alerts on child processes spawned by Windows cmstp.exe, a common signal for CMSTP abuse.
- Product
- windows
- Category
- process_creation
- Author
- Nik Seetharaman (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
- Published
- 2018-07-16
- Updated
- 2026-07-31
ATT&CK techniques
Defense EvasionRecon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact
What it detects
This rule flags process creation events where the parent process is cmstp.exe, indicating Microsoft Connection Manager Profile Installer activity that can be leveraged for code execution. Attackers may abuse CMSTP to launch additional payloads via child processes, making parent-child process relationships an important telemetry signal. It relies on Windows process creation logs that include the parent image path.
Reporting behind it
Changelog
v2- v2Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
- v1No changelog recorded for this version.2026-07-30
Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.
title: Windows CMSTP Process Spawning Child Process
id: a621221b-4729-41be-8308-b9e68afec34a
status: stable
description: This rule flags process creation events where the parent process is cmstp.exe, indicating Microsoft Connection Manager Profile Installer activity that can be leveraged for code execution. Attackers may abuse CMSTP to launch additional payloads via child processes, making parent-child process relationships an important telemetry signal. It relies on Windows process creation logs that include the parent image path.
references:
- https://web.archive.org/web/20190720093911/http://www.endurant.io/cmstp/detecting-cmstp-enabled-code-execution-and-uac-bypass-with-sysmon/
- https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/master/rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_cmstp_execution_by_creation.yml
author: Nik Seetharaman, Huntrule Team
date: 2018-07-16
modified: 2020-12-23
tags:
- attack.execution
- attack.stealth
- attack.t1218.003
- attack.g0069
- car.2019-04-001
logsource:
category: process_creation
product: windows
detection:
selection:
ParentImage|endswith: \cmstp.exe
condition: selection
falsepositives:
- Legitimate CMSTP use (unlikely in modern enterprise environments)
level: high
license: DRL-1.1
related:
- id: 7d4cdc5a-0076-40ca-aac8-f7e714570e47
type: derived