huntrule

Windows Process Command Line Containing Whoami as First Parameter

Flags Windows process creations with command lines containing '.exe whoami' to surface potential discovery behavior.

FreeReviewedSigma · High · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
Florian Roth (Nextron Systems) (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published
2021-11-29
Updated
2026-07-30
AnalysisDetection

ATT&CK techniques

Discovery

  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Execution

  5. Persistence

  6. Priv Esc

  7. Defense Evasion

  8. Cred Access

  9. Discovery

  10. Lateral Movement

  11. Collection

  12. C2

  13. Exfiltration

  14. Impact

What it detects

This rule identifies newly created Windows processes whose command line includes a pattern where '.exe whoami' appears, indicating that whoami is being passed as the first parameter to an executable. Such usage can be part of discovery or local reconnaissance by attempting to determine the current security context. It relies on process creation telemetry, specifically the full command line recorded at process start time.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1033 — drag to rearrange
Suspicious Whoami Execution With Output Redirected to a File (via process_creation)
Possible Logged-On Session Discovery via Quser or Qwinsta (via process_creation)
Suspicious Reconnaissance Spawned by Injected SearchProtocolHost via process_creation
Windows Process Creation: whoami.exe Executed With /all for Full Identity Enumeration
Linux Process Execution of esxcli Network Commands for ESXi Network Discovery
Linux Process Execution of esxcli VM Listing Commands
Linux ESXi esxcli VSAN Information Discovery via esxcli Command
Linux Process Creation: ESXi esxcli system discovery via system namespace
Linux ESXi esxcli Storage Information Discovery via esxcli storage commands
Windows Process Command Line Containing Whoami as First Parameter
Pivot detection · T1033 · 9 related

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.