Potential Unquoted Service Path Reconnaissance Via Wmic.EXE

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

Detects known WMI recon method to look for unquoted service paths using wmic. Often used by pentester and attacker enumeration scripts

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Execution	`T1047` Windows Management Instrumentation

Telemetry coverage

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

Rule body

title: Potential Unquoted Service Path Reconnaissance Via Wmic.EXE
id: 68bcd73b-37ef-49cb-95fc-edc809730be6
related:
    - id: 09658312-bc27-4a3b-91c5-e49ab9046d1b # PowerShell Variant
      type: similar
    - id: 76f55eaa-d27f-4213-9d45-7b0e4b60bbae
      type: similar
status: test
description: Detects known WMI recon method to look for unquoted service paths using wmic. Often used by pentester and attacker enumeration scripts
references:
    - https://github.com/nccgroup/redsnarf/blob/35949b30106ae543dc6f2bc3f1be10c6d9a8d40e/redsnarf.py
    - https://github.com/S3cur3Th1sSh1t/Creds/blob/eac23d67f7f90c7fc8e3130587d86158c22aa398/PowershellScripts/jaws-enum.ps1
    - https://www.absolomb.com/2018-01-26-Windows-Privilege-Escalation-Guide/
author: Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
date: 2022-06-20
modified: 2023-09-11
tags:
    - attack.execution
    - attack.t1047
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection_img:
        - OriginalFileName: 'wmic.exe'
        - Image|endswith: '\WMIC.exe'
    selection_cli:
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - ' service get '
            - 'name,displayname,pathname,startmode'
    condition: all of selection_*
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: medium
regression_tests_path: regression_data/rules/windows/process_creation/proc_creation_win_wmic_recon_unquoted_service_search/info.yml

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:
        - ' service get '
        - 'name,displayname,pathname,startmode'

Indicators

These rows show field, operator, and value matches.

Field	Kind	Values	Search
`CommandLine`	match	`service get` `name,displayname,pathname,startmode`	`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"`

Potential Unquoted Service Path Reconnaissance Via Wmic.EXE

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Telemetry coverage

Rule body

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

Stage 1: selection_img

Stage 2: selection_cli

Indicators

Stage 0: `condition`

Stage 1: `selection_img`

Stage 2: `selection_cli`