Suspicious Cmd Execution via WMI

Last updated 16 days ago on 2025-05-20
Created 5 years ago on 2020-10-19

About

Identifies suspicious command execution (cmd) via Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) on a remote host. This could be indicative of adversary lateral movement.
Tags
Domain: EndpointOS: WindowsUse Case: Threat DetectionTactic: ExecutionData Source: Elastic EndgameData Source: Elastic DefendData Source: Windows Security Event LogsData Source: Microsoft Defender for EndpointData Source: SysmonData Source: SentinelOneData Source: CrowdstrikeLanguage: eql
Severity
high
Risk Score
73
MITRE ATT&CK™

Execution (TA0002)(opens in a new tab or window)

License
Elastic License v2(opens in a new tab or window)

Definition

Rule Type
Event Correlation Rule
Integration Pack
Prebuilt Security Detection Rules
Index Patterns
endgame-*logs-crowdstrike.fdr*logs-endpoint.events.process-*logs-m365_defender.event-*logs-sentinel_one_cloud_funnel.*logs-system.security*logs-windows.forwarded*logs-windows.sysmon_operational-*winlogbeat-*
Related Integrations

endpoint(opens in a new tab or window)

windows(opens in a new tab or window)

system(opens in a new tab or window)

m365_defender(opens in a new tab or window)

sentinel_one_cloud_funnel(opens in a new tab or window)

crowdstrike(opens in a new tab or window)

Query
process where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type == "start" and
 process.parent.name : "WmiPrvSE.exe" and process.name : "cmd.exe" and process.args : "/c" and process.args:"/Q" and 
 process.args : "2>&1" and process.args: "1>"  and 
 process.args : ("C:\\windows\\temp\\*.txt", "\\Windows\\Temp\\*", "-encodehex", "\\\\127.0.0.1\\C$\\Windows\\Temp\\*", "\\\\127.0.0.1\\ADMIN$\\__*.*")

Install detection rules in Elastic Security

Detect Suspicious Cmd Execution via WMI in the Elastic Security detection engine by installing this rule into your Elastic Stack.

To setup this rule, check out the installation guide for Prebuilt Security Detection Rules(opens in a new tab or window).