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WmiPrvSE.exe Spawned PowerShell Child Process on Windows

Alerts on PowerShell spawning from WmiPrvSE.exe, a possible indicator of WMI-based remote execution.

FreeReviewedSigma · Medium · v1
Product
windows
Category
process_creation
Author
Markus Neis @Karneades (SigmaHQ), DRL 1.1
Published
2019-04-03
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 when PowerShell (powershell.exe or pwsh.exe) is created as a child process of WmiPrvSE.exe. Such parent-child behavior can indicate WMI-based execution, which attackers may use for lateral movement or remote command execution. It relies on Windows process creation telemetry capturing process image paths, parent process names, and executable names.

Reporting behind it

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Malicious Impacket wmiexec Command Execution via WmiPrvSE Spawning cmd with Admin-Share Output Redirect (via process_creation)
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WmiPrvSE.exe Spawned PowerShell Child Process on Windows
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.