huntrule

Windows WMIC process creation with suspicious command execution

Alerts on WMIC spawning new processes with command-line indicators of common execution/payload binaries on Windows.

FreeReviewedSigma · High · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems) (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published
2020-10-12
Updated
2026-07-30
AnalysisDetection

ATT&CK techniques

Execution

  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 Windows process creation events where the command line includes WMIC-style process creation patterns and invokes secondary execution targets such as rundll32, regsvr32, bitsadmin, PowerShell/pwsh, certutil, and script hosts. Attackers abuse WMIC to indirectly spawn processes for execution and payload staging while blending into legitimate administration tooling. The detection relies on process creation telemetry, specifically the process command line contents captured at event time.

Reporting behind it

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Malicious Shadow Copy Deletion Via WMI
Suspicious Remote Process Creation via WMIC Process Call Create (via process_creation)
Suspicious System Reconnaissance via WMI Command-Line Queries (via process_creation)
Malicious Impacket WMIexec Process Execution (via process_creation)
Suspicious Child Process Spawned by WMI Provider Host (via process_creation)
Windows WMIC process creation with suspicious command execution
Pivot detection · T1047 · 9 related

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