Windows: Suspicious Parent Process Spawning cmd.exe

Alerts on cmd.exe executions that have a suspicious/atypical parent process among listed Windows binaries.

FreeReviewedSigma · Medium · v2

Product: windows
Category: process_creation
Author: Tim Rauch, Elastic (idea) (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published: 2022-09-21
Updated: 2026-07-31

ATT&CK techniques

Execution

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
- T1059Command and Scripting Interpreter
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule flags process creation events where cmd.exe is the spawned image and the parent process is one of several high-risk system executables. Attackers may use cmd.exe as a command interpreter to execute follow-on actions, making unusual parent-child relationships an important signal. It relies on Windows process creation telemetry that includes both the child Image and ParentImage paths, matched by case-specific path suffixes.

Reporting behind it

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Windows: Suspicious Parent Process Spawning cmd.exe

Pivot detection · T1059 · 9 related

Changelog

v2
Candidate ingested via manual entry.2026-07-31
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.

windows-suspicious-parent-process-for-cmd-exe-execution-4b991083

title: "Windows: Suspicious Parent Process Spawning cmd.exe"
id: 08294d6b-0134-4a07-98c2-3632033e2658
status: test
description: This rule flags process creation events where cmd.exe is the spawned image and the parent process is one of several high-risk system executables. Attackers may use cmd.exe as a command interpreter to execute follow-on actions, making unusual parent-child relationships an important signal. It relies on Windows process creation telemetry that includes both the child Image and ParentImage paths, matched by case-specific path suffixes.
references:
  - https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/security/current/unusual-parent-process-for-cmd.exe.html
  - https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/master/rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_cmd_unusual_parent.yml
author: Tim Rauch, Elastic (idea), Huntrule Team
date: 2022-09-21
modified: 2023-12-05
tags:
  - attack.execution
  - attack.t1059
logsource:
  category: process_creation
  product: windows
detection:
  selection:
    Image|endswith: \cmd.exe
    ParentImage|endswith:
      - \csrss.exe
      - \ctfmon.exe
      - \dllhost.exe
      - \epad.exe
      - \FlashPlayerUpdateService.exe
      - \GoogleUpdate.exe
      - \jucheck.exe
      - \jusched.exe
      - \LogonUI.exe
      - \lsass.exe
      - \regsvr32.exe
      - \SearchIndexer.exe
      - \SearchProtocolHost.exe
      - \SIHClient.exe
      - \sihost.exe
      - \slui.exe
      - \spoolsv.exe
      - \sppsvc.exe
      - \taskhostw.exe
      - \unsecapp.exe
      - \WerFault.exe
      - \wermgr.exe
      - \wlanext.exe
      - \WUDFHost.exe
  condition: selection
falsepositives:
  - Unknown
level: medium
license: DRL-1.1
related:
  - id: 4b991083-3d0e-44ce-8fc4-b254025d8d4b
    type: derived

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