Submission Date: 2016/03/28

Update Date:

Information Domain: Host

Data Subtypes: Process

Analytic Type: TTP

Applicable Platforms: Windows

Contributors: MITRE



Adversaries may use Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) to move laterally, by launching executables remotely.The analytic CAR-2014-12-001 describes how to detect these processes with network traffic monitoring and process monitoring on the target host. However, if the command line utility wmic.exe is used on the source host, then it can additionally be detected on an analytic. The command line on the source host is constructed into something like wmic.exe /node:"\<hostname\>" process call create "\<command line\>". It is possible to also connect via IP address, in which case the string "\<hostname\>" would instead look like IP Address.

Although this analytic was created after CAR-2014-12-001, it is a much simpler (although more limited) approach. Processes can be created remotely via WMI in a few other ways, such as more direct API access or the built-in utility PowerShell.

ATT&CK Detections

Technique Subtechnique(s) Tactic(s) Level of Coverage
Windows Management Instrumentation N/A Execution Low

D3FEND Techniques

ID Name
D3-PSA Process Spawn Analysis

Data Model References

Object Action Field
process create exe
process create command_line

Implementations

Pseudocode

Looks for instances of wmic.exe as well as the substrings in the command line:

  • process call create
  • /node:
processes = search Process:Create
wmic = filter processes where (exe == "wmic.exe" and command_line == "* process call create *" and command_line == "* /node:*")
output wmic

Splunk, Sysmon native

Splunk version of the above pseudocode.

index=__your_sysmon_index__ EventCode=1 Image="C:\\Windows\\*\\wmic.exe" CommandLine="* process call create *"|search CommandLine="* /node:*"

Eql, EQL native

EQL version of the above pseudocode.

process where subtype.create and
  (process_name == "wmic.exe" and command_line == "* process call create ")
  |filter command_line == "* /node:*"

Logpoint, LogPoint native

LogPoint version of the above pseudocode.

norm_id=WindowsSysmon event_id=1 image="C:\\Windows\\*\\wmic.exe" command="* process call create *" command="* /node:*"