huntrule

Windows Process Creation: Web Request Cmdlets and CLI Tools Usage

Alerts on Windows CommandLine usage of web request cmdlets/tools like Invoke-WebRequest, Invoke-RestMethod, curl, wget, and BITS transfer.

FreeReviewedSigma · Medium · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
James Pemberton / @4A616D6573, Endgame, JHasenbusch, oscd.community, Austin Songer @austinsonger (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published
2019-10-24
Updated
2026-07-30
AnalysisDetection

ATT&CK techniques

Execution

  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 flags Windows command-line activity that uses common web request mechanisms, including PowerShell cmdlets (and aliases) and command-line tools such as curl and wget. Such commands are frequently used to retrieve remote content and can support download-and-execute or staged payload delivery. It relies on process creation telemetry with full CommandLine content matching specific strings for these web request behaviors.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1059.001 — drag to rearrange
Suspicious PowerShell Script Fetching Remote Batch File From Paste Site (via ps_script)
Suspicious PowerShell Download of Payload From Pastebin (via process_creation)
Suspicious PowerShell Interaction with ProgramData SysInt Log via Process Creation
Suspicious Node.js Spawning Script Interpreter for Dropped Payload
Suspicious PowerShell Remote Download and Execution via Invoke-WebRequest
Suspicious Script Host Spawning Hidden PowerShell (via process_creation)
Suspicious PowerShell Reflective Assembly Load With GZip Decompression (via process_creation)
Suspicious PowerShell Invoke-Expression with Replace Obfuscation
Suspicious PowerShell Archive Extraction to AppData Roaming
Windows Process Creation: Web Request Cmdlets and CLI Tools Usage
Pivot detection · T1059.001 · 9 related

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