Sigma rule: WMI Persistence - Script Event Consumer

Rule

Title

WMI Persistence - Script Event Consumer

Status

test

Level

medium

Author

Thomas Patzke

Date

2018-03-07

Modified

2022-10-11

File

rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_wmi_persistence_script_event_consumer.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects the execution of a script event consumer. When scrcons.exe launches, it does so in response to the creation of an ActiveScriptEventConsumer instance
and will execute registered JScript or VBScript code as a result.
Script event consumers are a built-in Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) class that
automatically executes a predefined script (in VBScript or JScript) whenever a specific system event occurs.
Adversaries often abuse script event consumers to maintain persistence on a compromised host
by executing a malicious script whenever a specific event occurs.

Log source

product

windows

category

process_creation

Detection

selection:
    Image: C:\WINDOWS\system32\wbem\scrcons.exe
    ParentImage: C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
condition: selection

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Legitimate event consumers
• Dell computers on some versions register an event consumer that is known to cause false positives when brightness is changed by the corresponding keyboard button

Tags

• attack.persistence
• attack.privilege-escalation
• attack.t1546.003

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1546.003

References

• https://redcanary.com/blog/threat-detection/child-processes/
• https://www.eideon.com/2018-03-02-THL03-WMIBackdoors/

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_wmi_persistence_script_event_consumer.yml