WMI Incoming Lateral Movement

Identifies processes executed via Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) on a remote host. This could be indicative of adversary lateral movement, but could be noisy if administrators use WMI to remotely manage hosts.

Rule type: eql

Rule indices:

logs-endpoint.events.process-*
logs-endpoint.events.network-*
winlogbeat-*
logs-windows.sysmon_operational-*

Severity: medium

Risk score: 47

Runs every: 5m

Searches indices from: now-9m (Date Math format, see also Additional look-back time)

Maximum alerts per execution: 100

References: None

Tags:

Domain: Endpoint
OS: Windows
Use Case: Threat Detection
Tactic: Lateral Movement
Data Source: Elastic Defend
Data Source: Sysmon

Version: 210

Rule authors:

Elastic

Rule license: Elastic License v2

Rule query

edit

sequence by host.id with maxspan = 2s

 /* Accepted Incoming RPC connection by Winmgmt service */

  [network where host.os.type == "windows" and process.name : "svchost.exe" and network.direction : ("incoming", "ingress") and
   source.ip != "127.0.0.1" and source.ip != "::1" and source.port >= 49152 and destination.port >= 49152
  ]

  /* Excluding Common FPs Nessus and SCCM */

  [process where host.os.type == "windows" and event.type == "start" and process.parent.name : "WmiPrvSE.exe" and
   not (?process.Ext.token.integrity_level_name : "System" or ?winlog.event_data.IntegrityLevel : "System") and
   not user.id : ("S-1-5-18", "S-1-5-19", "S-1-5-20") and
   not process.executable :
               ("?:\\Program Files\\HPWBEM\\Tools\\hpsum_swdiscovery.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\CCM\\Ccm32BitLauncher.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\System32\\wbem\\mofcomp.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\Microsoft.NET\\Framework*\\csc.exe",
                "?:\\Windows\\System32\\powercfg.exe") and
   not (process.executable : "?:\\Windows\\System32\\msiexec.exe" and process.args : "REBOOT=ReallySuppress") and
   not (process.executable : "?:\\Windows\\System32\\inetsrv\\appcmd.exe" and process.args : "uninstall")
   ]

Framework: MITRE ATT&CK^TM

Tactic:
- Name: Lateral Movement
- ID: TA0008
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0008/
Technique:
- Name: Remote Services
- ID: T1021
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1021/
Tactic:
- Name: Execution
- ID: TA0002
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/tactics/TA0002/
Technique:
- Name: Windows Management Instrumentation
- ID: T1047
- Reference URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1047/

« Volume Shadow Copy Deletion via WMIC WMI WBEMTEST Utility Execution »