Suspicious Get Local Groups Information - PowerShell

Status: test
Severity: low
Log source: category ps_script, product windows
Author: frack113
Source: github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Detects the use of PowerShell modules and cmdlets to gather local group information. Adversaries may use local system permission groups to determine which groups exist and which users belong to a particular group such as the local administrators group.

Known false positives

Inventory scripts or admin tasks

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Discovery	`T1069.001` Permission Groups Discovery: Local Groups

Telemetry coverage

Provider	Record / event type
PowerShell	Event ID 4104: Creating Scriptblock text (MessageNumber of MessageTotal).

Rule body

title: Suspicious Get Local Groups Information - PowerShell
id: fa6a5a45-3ee2-4529-aa14-ee5edc9e29cb
related:
    - id: cef24b90-dddc-4ae1-a09a-8764872f69fc
      type: similar
status: test
description: |
    Detects the use of PowerShell modules and cmdlets to gather local group information.
    Adversaries may use local system permission groups to determine which groups exist and which users belong to a particular group such as the local administrators group.
references:
    - https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/blob/f339e7da7d05f6057fdfcdd3742bfcf365fee2a9/atomics/T1069.001/T1069.001.md
author: frack113
date: 2021-12-12
modified: 2025-08-22
tags:
    - attack.discovery
    - attack.t1069.001
logsource:
    product: windows
    category: ps_script
    definition: 'Requirements: Script Block Logging must be enabled'
detection:
    selection_localgroup:
        ScriptBlockText|contains:
            - 'get-localgroup '
            - 'get-localgroupmember '
    selection_wmi_module:
        ScriptBlockText|contains:
            - 'get-wmiobject '
            - 'gwmi '
            - 'get-ciminstance '
            - 'gcim '
    selection_wmi_class:
        ScriptBlockText|contains: 'win32_group' # Covers both win32_group and win32_groupuser
    condition: selection_localgroup or all of selection_wmi_*
falsepositives:
    - Inventory scripts or admin tasks
level: low

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

selection_localgroup or all of selection_wmi_*

Stage 1: `selection_localgroup`

selection_localgroup:
    ScriptBlockText|contains:
        - 'get-localgroup '
        - 'get-localgroupmember '

Stage 2: `selection_wmi_module`

selection_wmi_module:
    ScriptBlockText|contains:
        - 'get-wmiobject '
        - 'gwmi '
        - 'get-ciminstance '
        - 'gcim '

Stage 3: `selection_wmi_class`

selection_wmi_class:
    ScriptBlockText|contains: 'win32_group'

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

Field	Kind	Values	Search
`ScriptBlockText`	match	`gcim` `get-ciminstance` `get-localgroup` `get-localgroupmember` `get-wmiobject` corpus 2 (sigma 2) `gwmi` corpus 2 (sigma 2) `win32_group` corpus 2 (sigma 1, splunk 1)	`field:"ScriptBlockText" kind:match`