Local Groups Reconnaissance Via Wmic.EXE

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

Detects the execution of "wmic" with the "group" flag. Adversaries may attempt to find local system groups and permission settings. The knowledge of local system permission groups can help adversaries determine which groups exist and which users belong to a particular group. Adversaries may use this information to determine which users have elevated permissions, such as the users found within the local administrators group.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

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

Telemetry coverage

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

Rule body

title: Local Groups Reconnaissance Via Wmic.EXE
id: 164eda96-11b2-430b-85ff-6a265c15bf32
status: test
description: |
    Detects the execution of "wmic" with the "group" flag.
    Adversaries may attempt to find local system groups and permission settings.
    The knowledge of local system permission groups can help adversaries determine which groups exist and which users belong to a particular group.
    Adversaries may use this information to determine which users have elevated permissions, such as the users found within 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: 2023-02-14
tags:
    - attack.discovery
    - attack.t1069.001
logsource:
    product: windows
    category: process_creation
detection:
    selection_img:
        - Image|endswith: '\wmic.exe'
        - OriginalFileName: 'wmic.exe'
    selection_cli:
        CommandLine|contains: ' group'
    condition: all of selection*
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: low
regression_tests_path: regression_data/rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_wmic_recon_group/info.yml

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

all of selection*

Stage 1: `selection_img`

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

Stage 2: `selection_cli`

selection_cli:
    CommandLine|contains: ' group'

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

Field	Kind	Values	Search
`CommandLine`	match	`group` corpus 2 (sigma 2)	`field:"CommandLine" kind:match value:" group"`
`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"`