Windows WMI Persistence via wbemcons.dll Loaded by WmiPrvSE.exe

Identifies WmiPrvSE.exe loading wbemcons.dll, a behavior consistent with WMI command line event consumer persistence on Windows.

FreeReviewedSigma · High · v2

Product: windows
Category: image_load
Author: Thomas Patzke (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published: 2018-03-07
Updated: 2026-07-31

Analysis Detection

ATT&CK techniques

Persistence → Priv Esc

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
Persistence
- T1546.003Windows Management Instrumentation Event Subscription
Priv Esc
- T1546.003Windows Management Instrumentation Event Subscription
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule flags Windows processes where WmiPrvSE.exe loads the WMI consumer DLL wbemcons.dll. Attackers can use WMI event consumer functionality to establish persistence or execute actions by hosting malicious logic in WMI-related components. The detection relies on image load telemetry capturing the executing image path and the loaded DLL path ending with \wbemcons.dll.

Reporting behind it

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Windows WMI Event Subscription Creation (Sysmon Event 19/20/21)

Windows WMI Persistence via wbemcons.dll Loaded by WmiPrvSE.exe

Pivot detection · T1546.003 · 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-wmi-persistence-via-command-line-event-consumers-wmiprvse-exe-loading-wb-05936ce2

title: Windows WMI Persistence via wbemcons.dll Loaded by WmiPrvSE.exe
id: 0701218b-8d0f-456d-9716-85df918350cd
status: test
description: This rule flags Windows processes where WmiPrvSE.exe loads the WMI consumer DLL wbemcons.dll. Attackers can use WMI event consumer functionality to establish persistence or execute actions by hosting malicious logic in WMI-related components. The detection relies on image load telemetry capturing the executing image path and the loaded DLL path ending with \wbemcons.dll.
references:
  - https://www.eideon.com/2018-03-02-THL03-WMIBackdoors/
  - https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/master/rules/windows/image_load/image_load_wmi_persistence_commandline_event_consumer.yml
author: Thomas Patzke, Huntrule Team
date: 2018-03-07
modified: 2021-11-27
tags:
  - attack.privilege-escalation
  - attack.t1546.003
  - attack.persistence
logsource:
  category: image_load
  product: windows
detection:
  selection:
    Image: C:\Windows\System32\wbem\WmiPrvSE.exe
    ImageLoaded|endswith: \wbemcons.dll
  condition: selection
falsepositives:
  - Unknown (data set is too small; further testing needed)
level: high
license: DRL-1.1
related:
  - id: 05936ce2-ee05-4dae-9d03-9a391cf2d2c6
    type: derived

Convert

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