NewActiveScriptEventConsumer Creation Attempt via Wmic.EXE

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

Detects the attempt to create an ActiveScriptEventConsumer via WMIC.EXE. An ActiveScriptEventConsumer is 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 ActiveScriptEventConsumer to maintain persistence on a compromised host by executing a malicious script whenever a specific event occurs.

Known false positives

Legitimate software creating script event consumers

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Persistence	`T1546.003` Event Triggered Execution: Windows Management Instrumentation Event Subscription
Privilege Escalation	`T1546.003` Event Triggered Execution: Windows Management Instrumentation Event Subscription

Telemetry coverage

Provider	Record / event type
Sysmon	Event ID 1: Process creation

Rule body

title: NewActiveScriptEventConsumer Creation Attempt via Wmic.EXE
id: ebef4391-1a81-4761-a40a-1db446c0e625
status: test
description: |
    Detects the attempt to create an ActiveScriptEventConsumer via WMIC.EXE.
    An ActiveScriptEventConsumer is 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 ActiveScriptEventConsumer to maintain persistence on a compromised host by executing a malicious script whenever a specific event occurs.
references:
    - https://twitter.com/johnlatwc/status/1408062131321270282?s=12
    - https://www.fireeye.com/content/dam/fireeye-www/global/en/current-threats/pdfs/wp-windows-management-instrumentation.pdf
author: Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)
date: 2021-06-25
modified: 2026-06-19
tags:
    - attack.privilege-escalation
    - attack.persistence
    - attack.t1546.003
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection_img:
        - OriginalFileName: 'wmic.exe'
        - Image|endswith: '\WMIC.exe'
    selection_cli:
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - 'ActiveScriptEventConsumer'
            - ' CREATE '
    condition: all of selection_*
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate software creating script event consumers
level: high

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

all of selection_*

Stage 1: `selection_img`

selection_img:
    - OriginalFileName: 'wmic.exe'
    - Image|endswith: '\WMIC.exe'

Stage 2: `selection_cli`

selection_cli:
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - 'ActiveScriptEventConsumer'
        - ' CREATE '

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

Field	Kind	Values	Search
`CommandLine`	match	`CREATE` corpus 3 (sigma 2, splunk 1) `ActiveScriptEventConsumer` corpus 2 (sigma 1, elastic 1)	`field:"CommandLine" kind:match`
`Image`	ends_with	`\WMIC.exe` corpus 62 (sigma 62)	`field:"Image" kind:ends_with value:"\WMIC.exe"`
`OriginalFileName`	eq	`wmic.exe` corpus 80 (sigma 38, elastic 24, splunk 18)	`field:"OriginalFileName" kind:eq value:"wmic.exe"`