Sigma rule: Suspicious WindowsTerminal Child Processes

Rule

Title

Suspicious WindowsTerminal Child Processes

Status

test

Level

medium

Author

Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)

Date

2022-07-25

Modified

2023-02-14

File

rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_windows_terminal_susp_children.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects suspicious children spawned via the Windows Terminal application which could be a sign of persistence via WindowsTerminal (see references section)

Log source

product

windows

category

process_creation

Detection

selection_parent:
    ParentImage|endswith:
        - '\WindowsTerminal.exe'
        - '\wt.exe'
selection_susp:
    - Image|endswith:
          # Add more LOLBINS
          - '\rundll32.exe'
          - '\regsvr32.exe'
          - '\certutil.exe'
          - '\cscript.exe'
          - '\wscript.exe'
          - '\csc.exe'
    - Image|contains:
          # Add more suspicious paths
          - 'C:\Users\Public\'
          - '\Downloads\'
          - '\Desktop\'
          - '\AppData\Local\Temp\'
          - '\Windows\TEMP\'
    - CommandLine|contains:
          # Add more suspicious commandline
          - ' iex '
          - ' icm'
          - 'Invoke-'
          - 'Import-Module '
          - 'ipmo '
          - 'DownloadString('
          - ' /c '
          - ' /k '
          - ' /r '
filter_builtin_visual_studio_shell:
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - 'Import-Module'
        - 'Microsoft.VisualStudio.DevShell.dll'
        - 'Enter-VsDevShell'
filter_open_settings:
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - '\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsTerminal_'
        - '\LocalState\settings.json'
filter_vsdevcmd:
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - 'C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\'
        - '\Common7\Tools\VsDevCmd.bat'
condition: all of selection_* and not 1 of filter_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Other legitimate "Windows Terminal" profiles

Tags

• attack.execution
• attack.persistence

References

• https://persistence-info.github.io/Data/windowsterminalprofile.html
• https://twitter.com/nas_bench/status/1550836225652686848

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_windows_terminal_susp_children.yml