huntrule

Windows: WmiPrvSE.exe Spawning a Child Process

Identifies child processes created by WmiPrvSE.exe on Windows, highlighting potential WMI-based execution attempts.

FreeReviewedSigma · Medium · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
Roberto Rodriguez @Cyb3rWard0g (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published
2019-08-15
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 process creation events where WmiPrvSE.exe is the parent process and a child process is spawned. Attackers often use Windows Management Instrumentation to run code indirectly under the WMI service context, so parent-child process relationships are a useful indicator. The detection relies on Windows process creation telemetry, matching the parent executable path/name and applying exclusions for specific logon IDs and common benign error handling (e.g., WerFault).

Reporting behind it

Related detections9 linkedT1047 — drag to rearrange
Malicious UAT-8302 Remote Process Execution via wmic
Malicious Remote Encryptor Execution via WMIC Process Call Create (Chaos Ransomware)
Malicious Impacket Wmiexec Remote Command Execution Pattern
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)
Malicious WMI Spwaning PowerShell Process - WMImplant (via process_creation)
Windows: WmiPrvSE.exe Spawning a Child Process
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.