huntrule

Windows whoami.exe Privilege Enumeration Using /priv Flag

Alerts on whoami.exe runs with /priv or -priv to enumerate current user privileges.

FreeReviewedSigma · High · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
Florian Roth (Nextron Systems) (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published
2021-05-05
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 flags execution of whoami.exe where the command line includes the /priv or -priv flag to display all current user privileges. Attackers commonly run this after privilege escalation attempts to confirm the effective privilege set available to the current context. It relies on Windows process creation telemetry capturing the executable identity (whoami.exe) and the full command line arguments.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1033 — drag to rearrange
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Suspicious Localized Administrator Account and Group Enumeration After Citrix Bleed Exploitation
Malicious Recon Output Staged in Qlik Sense Fonts Directory by Cactus Ransomware
Suspicious Host Reconnaissance Command Chain via cmd
Malicious Child Process Spawned From n8n Node Process
Suspicious Credential Enumeration via cmdkey List
Suspicious IIS Worker Process Spawning Whoami Reconnaissance
Suspicious Whoami Execution With Output Redirected to a File (via process_creation)
Possible Logged-On Session Discovery via Quser or Qwinsta (via process_creation)
Windows whoami.exe Privilege Enumeration Using /priv Flag
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.