Sigma rule: HackTool - Impersonate Execution

A detection rule from the SigmaHQ repository, shown as its author published it. Dataset version ref-676f16787906, updated 2024-11-23T00:00:00.000Z.

Rule

Title
HackTool - Impersonate Execution
Status
test
Level
medium
Author
Sai Prashanth Pulisetti @pulisettis
Date
2022-12-21
Modified
2024-11-23
File
rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_hktl_impersonate.yml
Commit
ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects execution of the Impersonate tool. Which can be used to manipulate tokens on a Windows computers remotely (PsExec/WmiExec) or interactively

Log source

product
windows
category
process_creation

Detection

selection_commandline_exe:
    CommandLine|contains: 'impersonate.exe'
selection_commandline_opt:
    CommandLine|contains:
        - ' list '
        - ' exec '
        - ' adduser '
selection_hash:
    Hashes|contains:
        - 'MD5=9520714AB576B0ED01D1513691377D01'
        - 'SHA256=E81CC96E2118DC4FBFE5BAD1604E0AC7681960143E2101E1A024D52264BB0A8A'
        - 'IMPHASH=0A358FFC1697B7A07D0E817AC740DF62'
condition: all of selection_commandline_* or selection_hash

False positives (as the rule lists them)

  • Unknown

Tags

  • attack.privilege-escalation
  • attack.stealth
  • attack.t1134.001
  • attack.t1134.003

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

References

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_impersonate.yml

Sources and licences

  • SigmaHQ

    "HackTool - Impersonate Execution" by Sai Prashanth Pulisetti @pulisettis (SigmaHQ). Rule: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma/blob/ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84/rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_hktl_impersonate.yml.
    Licensed under the Detection Rule License (DRL) 1.1: https://github.com/SigmaHQ/Detection-Rule-License

    Detection Rule License (DRL) 1.1

Cite this page

Dragons Eye Ransomware Tracker, "Sigma rule: HackTool - Impersonate Execution",
entity page, dataset version ref-676f16787906, updated 2024-11-23T00:00:00.000Z,
https://ransomware-tracker.com/detections/sigma/cf0c254b-22f1-4b2b-8221-e137b3c0af94 (accessed 2026-11-03).
Underlying source: SigmaHQ rule cf0c254b-22f1-4b2b-8221-e137b3c0af94, commit ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84.

Pages change. The dataset version identifies the data, but no archive of old versions is kept, so this citation cannot be replayed later.