Sigma rule: Suspicious Autorun Registry Modified via WMI

Rule

Title

Suspicious Autorun Registry Modified via WMI

Status

experimental

Level

high

Author

Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems)

Date

2025-02-17

File

rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_autorun_registry_modified_via_wmic.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects suspicious activity where the WMIC process is used to create an autorun registry entry via reg.exe, which is often indicative of persistence mechanisms employed by malware.

Log source

product

windows

category

process_creation

Detection

selection_execution_img:
    - Image|endswith: '\wmic.exe'
    - OriginalFileName: 'wmic.exe' # wmic process call create 'reg.exe add HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run /v Desktops /t REG_SZ /d "\"C:\Users\user\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\tre\Desktops.exe\" random" /f'
    - ParentImage|endswith: '\wmiprvse.exe'
selection_execution_cmd:
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - 'reg'
        - ' add '
    CommandLine|contains:
        - '\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run'
        - '\Software\WOW6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run'
        - '\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\Run'
selection_suspicious_paths_1:
    CommandLine|contains:
        - ':\Perflogs'
        - :\ProgramData'
        - ':\Windows\Temp'
        - ':\Temp'
        - '\AppData\Local\Temp'
        - '\AppData\Roaming'
        - ':\$Recycle.bin'
        - ':\Users\Default'
        - ':\Users\public'
        - '%temp%'
        - '%tmp%'
        - '%Public%'
        - '%AppData%'
selection_suspicious_paths_user_1:
    CommandLine|contains: ':\Users\'
selection_suspicious_paths_user_2:
    CommandLine|contains:
        - '\Favorites'
        - '\Favourites'
        - '\Contacts'
        - '\Music'
        - '\Pictures'
        - '\Documents'
        - '\Photos'
condition: all of selection_execution_* and (selection_suspicious_paths_1 or (all of selection_suspicious_paths_user_*))

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Legitimate administrative activity or software installations

Tags

• attack.privilege-escalation
• attack.execution
• attack.persistence
• attack.t1547.001
• attack.t1047

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1047
• T1547.001

References

• Internal Research
• https://github.com/HackTricks-wiki/hacktricks/blob/e4c7b21b8f36c97c35b7c622732b38a189ce18f7/src/windows-hardening/windows-local-privilege-escalation/privilege-escalation-with-autorun-binaries.md

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_autorun_registry_modified_via_wmic.yml