Sigma rule: MMC20 Lateral Movement

Rule

Title

MMC20 Lateral Movement

Status

test

Level

high

Author

@2xxeformyshirt (Security Risk Advisors) - rule; Teymur Kheirkhabarov (idea)

Date

2020-03-04

Modified

2021-11-27

File

rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_mmc_mmc20_lateral_movement.yml

Commit

ccbb0369507f796db0b0ae6854c8a2be471b9d84

Detects MMC20.Application Lateral Movement; specifically looks for the spawning of the parent MMC.exe with a command line of "-Embedding" as a child of svchost.exe

Log source

product

windows

category

process_creation

Detection

selection:
    ParentImage|endswith: '\svchost.exe'
    Image|endswith: '\mmc.exe'
    CommandLine|contains: '-Embedding'
condition: selection

False positives (as the rule lists them)

• Unlikely

Tags

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

MITRE ATT&CK ids this rule names

• T1021.003

References

• https://enigma0x3.net/2017/01/05/lateral-movement-using-the-mmc20-application-com-object/
• https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lKya3_mLnR3UQuCoiYruO3qgu052_iS_/view?usp=sharing

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_mmc_mmc20_lateral_movement.yml