Windows: WinRM Service Process Spawning Command-Line and Scripting Utilities

ATT&CK techniques

Initial Access

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
- T1190Exploit Public-Facing Application
Execution
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule identifies process creation events where the parent process is wsmprovhost.exe and the child process command image ends with common command-line, shell, scripting, and utility executables (such as cmd.exe, PowerShell variants, bash/sh, wsl, schtasks, certutil, whoami, and bitsadmin). Attackers can leverage WinRM to execute commands remotely, often via intermediate shell or administrative utilities to establish execution, persistence, or privilege escalation. The detection relies on Windows process creation telemetry including parent and image paths.

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1190 — drag to rearrange

Malicious Node.js Process Spawning Unix Shell or Network Client

Malicious SharePoint ToolShell Exploitation via ToolPane Endpoint

Malicious Exchange Mailbox Export to ASPX via New-MailboxExportRequest

Suspicious Shell Spawned by ActiveMQ Java Process

Cleo Autorun Exploitation via Healthcheck File Drop

Suspicious SharePoint Worker Process Spawning Command Interpreter via ToolShell

Malicious IIS Worker Process Spawning Command Shell Reconnaissance

Potential StyleSmuggler (CVE-2026-75650) Exploitation Attempt - Magento GraphQL Styles Parameter (via webserver)

Cisco IOS XE Configuration Change by Web UI WSMA User

Windows: WinRM Service Process Spawning Command-Line and Scripting Utilities

Pivot detection · T1190 · 9 related

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

windows-winrm-service-process-spawning-command-line-and-scripting-utilities-5cc2cda8

title: "Windows: WinRM Service Process Spawning Command-Line and Scripting Utilities"
id: 26b24ae9-76a2-4afa-947c-7921f804eb0e
status: test
description: This rule identifies process creation events where the parent process is wsmprovhost.exe and the child process command image ends with common command-line, shell, scripting, and utility executables (such as cmd.exe, PowerShell variants, bash/sh, wsl, schtasks, certutil, whoami, and bitsadmin). Attackers can leverage WinRM to execute commands remotely, often via intermediate shell or administrative utilities to establish execution, persistence, or privilege escalation. The detection relies on Windows process creation telemetry including parent and image paths.
author: Andreas Hunkeler (@Karneades), Markus Neis, Huntrule Team
references:
  - Internal Research
  - https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/master/rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_winrm_susp_child_process.yml
date: 2021-05-20
modified: 2022-07-14
tags:
  - attack.t1190
  - attack.initial-access
  - attack.persistence
  - attack.privilege-escalation
logsource:
  category: process_creation
  product: windows
detection:
  selection:
    ParentImage|endswith: \wsmprovhost.exe
    Image|endswith:
      - \cmd.exe
      - \sh.exe
      - \bash.exe
      - \powershell.exe
      - \pwsh.exe
      - \wsl.exe
      - \schtasks.exe
      - \certutil.exe
      - \whoami.exe
      - \bitsadmin.exe
  condition: selection
falsepositives:
  - Legitimate WinRM usage
level: high
license: DRL-1.1
related:
  - id: 5cc2cda8-f261-4d88-a2de-e9e193c86716
    type: derived

Convert

This rule as a query you can run. Uses no unlock credit.

SplunkSPL