Windows Remote Thread Creation via rundll32 Triggered by wab*, wabmig, or ImagingDevices

Alerts on remote thread creation targeting rundll32.exe from wab* or ImagingDevices.exe process images on Windows.

FreeReviewedSigma · High · v5
Product
windows
Category
create_remote_thread
Author
Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems) (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published
2022-09-27
Updated
2026-07-31

ATT&CK techniques

Execution → Defense Evasion
  1. Recon

  2. Resource Dev

  3. Initial Access

  4. Persistence

  5. Priv Esc

  6. Defense Evasion

  7. Cred Access

  8. Discovery

  9. Lateral Movement

  10. Collection

  11. C2

  12. Exfiltration

  13. Impact

What it detects

This rule identifies remote thread creation events where the target process ends with rundll32.exe and the initiating process ends with wabmig.exe, wab.exe, or ImagingDevices.exe. Remote thread injection is commonly used to run code in another process while hiding activity from straightforward process monitoring. The detection relies on process image path suffixes for the source and target in Windows remote thread creation telemetry.

Related detections9 linkedT1059.001 — drag to rearrange
Windows Process Creation: Suspicious Children Spawned by HTML Help (hh.exe)
Windows: Alert on Suspicious HH.EXE Process Execution
Windows PowerShell Remote Thread Creation Into Uncommon Target Processes
Suspicious Script Interpreter Spawned by Explorer via ClickFix Run Dialog (via process_creation)
Suspicious PowerShell Download Cradle via ClickFix Fake CAPTCHA (via process_creation)
Suspicious PowerShell EncodedCommand Spawned From Command Shell via Process Creation
Suspicious Script Download via Curl and PowerShell by Dohdoor
Malicious Mass Hyper-V Virtual Machine Shutdown via PowerShell by Kraken Ransomware
Suspicious PowerShell WebClient DownloadFile of Archive Payload (UAT-7237)
Windows Remote Thread Creation via rundll32 Triggered by wab*, wabmig, or ImagingDevices
Pivot detection · T1059.001 · 9 related

Changelog

v5
  1. v5
    Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
  2. v4
    Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
  3. v3
    Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
  4. v2
    Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
  5. v1
    No 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.