Sigma rule: HackTool - Potential Impacket Lateral Movement Activity

Rule

Title

HackTool - Potential Impacket Lateral Movement Activity

Status

stable

Level

high

Author

Ecco, oscd.community, Jonhnathan Ribeiro, Tim Rauch

Date

2019-09-03

Modified

2023-02-21

File

rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_hktl_impacket_lateral_movement.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects wmiexec/dcomexec/atexec/smbexec from Impacket framework

Log source

product

windows

category

process_creation

Detection

selection_other:
    # *** wmiexec.py
    #    parent is wmiprvse.exe
    #    examples:
    #       cmd.exe /Q /c whoami 1> \\127.0.0.1\ADMIN$\__1567439113.54 2>&1
    #       cmd.exe /Q /c cd  1> \\127.0.0.1\ADMIN$\__1567439113.54 2>&1
    # *** dcomexec.py -object MMC20
    #   parent is mmc.exe
    #   example:
    #       "C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe" /Q /c cd  1> \\127.0.0.1\ADMIN$\__1567442499.05 2>&1
    # *** dcomexec.py -object ShellBrowserWindow
    #  runs %SystemRoot%\System32\rundll32.exe shell32.dll,SHCreateLocalServerRunDll {c08afd90-f2a1-11d1-8455-00a0c91f3880} but parent command is explorer.exe
    #  example:
    #   "C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe" /Q /c cd \ 1> \\127.0.0.1\ADMIN$\__1567520103.71 2>&1
    # *** smbexec.py
    #   parent is services.exe
    #   example:
    #       C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe /Q /c echo tasklist ^> \\127.0.0.1\C$\__output 2^>^&1 > C:\Windows\TEMP\execute.bat & C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe /Q /c C:\Windows\TEMP\execute.bat & del C:\Windows\TEMP\execute.bat
    ParentImage|endswith:
        - '\wmiprvse.exe'        # wmiexec
        - '\mmc.exe'        # dcomexec MMC
        - '\explorer.exe'        # dcomexec ShellBrowserWindow
        - '\services.exe'        # smbexec
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - 'cmd.exe'
        - '/Q'
        - '/c'
        - '\\\\127.0.0.1\\'
        - '&1'
selection_atexec:
    ParentCommandLine|contains:
        - 'svchost.exe -k netsvcs'       # atexec on win10 (parent is "C:\Windows\system32\svchost.exe -k netsvcs")
        - 'taskeng.exe'       # atexec on win7 (parent is "taskeng.exe {AFA79333-694C-4BEE-910E-E57D9A3518F6} S-1-5-18:NT AUTHORITY\System:Service:")
        # cmd.exe /C tasklist /m > C:\Windows\Temp\bAJrYQtL.tmp 2>&1
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - 'cmd.exe'
        - '/C'
        - 'Windows\Temp\'
        - '&1'
condition: 1 of selection_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Unknown

Tags

• attack.execution
• attack.t1047
• attack.lateral-movement
• attack.t1021.003

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1021.003
• T1047

Related rules

• e31f89f7-36fb-4697-8ab6-48823708353b (obsolete)

References

• https://github.com/SecureAuthCorp/impacket/blob/8b1a99f7c715702eafe3f24851817bb64721b156/examples/wmiexec.py
• https://github.com/SecureAuthCorp/impacket/blob/8b1a99f7c715702eafe3f24851817bb64721b156/examples/atexec.py
• https://github.com/SecureAuthCorp/impacket/blob/8b1a99f7c715702eafe3f24851817bb64721b156/examples/smbexec.py
• https://github.com/SecureAuthCorp/impacket/blob/8b1a99f7c715702eafe3f24851817bb64721b156/examples/dcomexec.py
• https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/security/current/suspicious-cmd-execution-via-wmi.html

Read on 2026-11-03T00:58:21.399Z under licence sigma-drl-1.1@d5f4c36a from https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_hktl_impacket_lateral_movement.yml