Potential PsExec Remote Execution

Status: test
Severity: high
Log source: category process_creation, product windows
Author: Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
Source: github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Detects potential psexec command that initiate execution on a remote systems via common commandline flags used by the utility

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Resource Development	`T1587.001` Develop Capabilities: Malware

Telemetry coverage

Provider	Record / event type
Sysmon	Event ID 1: Process creation
Security-Auditing	Event ID 4688: A new process has been created.

Rule body

title: Potential PsExec Remote Execution
id: ea011323-7045-460b-b2d7-0f7442ea6b38
status: test
description: Detects potential psexec command that initiate execution on a remote systems via common commandline flags used by the utility
references:
    - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/psexec
    - https://www.poweradmin.com/paexec/
    - https://www.fireeye.com/blog/threat-research/2020/10/kegtap-and-singlemalt-with-a-ransomware-chaser.html
author: Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
date: 2023-02-28
modified: 2025-09-01
tags:
    - attack.resource-development
    - attack.t1587.001
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection:
        # Accepting EULA in commandline - often used in automated attacks
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - 'accepteula'
            - ' -u '
            - ' -p '
            - ' \\\\'
    filter_main_localhost:
        CommandLine|contains:
            - '\\\\localhost'
            - '\\\\127.'
    condition: selection and not 1 of filter_main_*
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: high

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

selection and not 1 of filter_main_*

Stage 1: `selection`

selection:
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - 'accepteula'
        - ' -u '
        - ' -p '
        - ' \\\\'

Stage 2: `not filter_main_localhost`

filter_main_localhost:
    CommandLine|contains:
        - '\\\\localhost'
        - '\\\\127.'

Exclusions

The rule actively suppresses these predicates.

Field	Kind	Excluded values	Search
`CommandLine`	match	`\\\\127.`	`excludes:CommandLine` `field:"CommandLine" value:"\\\\127."`
`CommandLine`	match	`\\\\localhost`	`excludes:CommandLine` `field:"CommandLine" value:"\\\\localhost"`

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

Field	Kind	Values	Search
`CommandLine`	match	`-p` corpus 11 (sigma 7, splunk 4) `-u` corpus 8 (sigma 5, chronicle 2, splunk 1) `\\\\` corpus 8 (sigma 8) `accepteula` corpus 7 (sigma 3, kusto 3, splunk 1)	`field:"CommandLine" kind:match`