Sigma rule: Suspicious Non PowerShell WSMAN COM Provider

Rule

Title

Suspicious Non PowerShell WSMAN COM Provider

Status

test

Level

medium

Author

Roberto Rodriguez (Cyb3rWard0g), OTR (Open Threat Research)

Date

2020-06-24

Modified

2025-10-22

File

rules/windows/powershell/powershell_classic/posh_pc_wsman_com_provider_no_powershell.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects suspicious use of the WSMAN provider without PowerShell.exe as the host application.

Log source

product

windows

service

powershell-classic

Detection

selection:
    Data|contains: 'ProviderName=WSMan'
filter_main_ps:
    Data|contains:
        - 'HostApplication=powershell'
        - 'HostApplication=C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell'
        - 'HostApplication=C:\Windows\SysWOW64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell'
        # In some cases powershell was invoked with inverted slashes
        - 'HostApplication=C:/Windows/System32/WindowsPowerShell/v1.0/powershell'
        - 'HostApplication=C:/Windows/SysWOW64/WindowsPowerShell/v1.0/powershell'
filter_main_host_application_null:
    # Note: Since we're using the raw data field to match. There is no easy way to filter out cases where the "HostApplication" field is null (i.e doesn't exist). We're practically forced to use a regex.
    # If you're already mapping and extracting the field, then obviously use that directly.
    Data|re: 'HostId=[a-zA-Z0-9-]{36}\s+EngineVersion='
filter_optional_hexnode:
    Data|contains: 'HostApplication=C:\Hexnode\Hexnode Agent\Current\HexnodeAgent.exe'
condition: selection and not 1 of filter_main_* and not 1 of filter_optional_*

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Unknown

Tags

• attack.execution
• attack.t1059.001
• attack.lateral-movement
• attack.t1021.003

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1021.003
• T1059.001

References

• https://twitter.com/chadtilbury/status/1275851297770610688
• https://bohops.com/2020/05/12/ws-management-com-another-approach-for-winrm-lateral-movement/
• https://github.com/bohops/WSMan-WinRM

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/powershell/powershell_classic/posh_pc_wsman_com_provider_no_powershell.yml