ReddRadar
Agent skill
hunting-for-lateral-movement-via-wmi
Detect WMI-based lateral movement by analyzing Windows Event ID 4688 process creation and Sysmon Event ID 1 for WmiPrvSE.exe child process patterns, remote process execution, and WMI event subscription persistence.
Install this agent skill to your Project
npx add-skill https://github.com/autohandai/community-skills/tree/main/hunting-for-lateral-movement-via-wmi
SKILL.md
Hunting for Lateral Movement via WMI
Overview
Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) is commonly abused for lateral movement via wmic process call create or Win32_Process.Create() to execute commands on remote hosts. Detection focuses on identifying WmiPrvSE.exe spawning child processes (cmd.exe, powershell.exe) in Windows Security Event ID 4688 and Sysmon Event ID 1 logs, along with WMI-Activity/Operational events (5857, 5860, 5861) for event subscription persistence.
Prerequisites
- Windows Security Event Logs with Process Creation auditing enabled (Event 4688 with command line)
- Sysmon installed with Event ID 1 (Process Creation) configured
- Python 3.9+ with
python-evtx,lxmllibraries - Understanding of WMI architecture and WmiPrvSE.exe behavior
Steps
Step 1: Parse Process Creation Events
Extract Event ID 4688 and Sysmon Event 1 entries from EVTX files.
Step 2: Detect WmiPrvSE Child Processes
Flag processes where ParentImage/ParentProcessName is WmiPrvSE.exe, indicating remote WMI execution.
Step 3: Analyze Command Line Patterns
Identify suspicious command lines matching WMI lateral movement patterns (cmd.exe /q /c, output redirection to admin$ share).
Step 4: Check WMI Event Subscriptions
Parse WMI-Activity/Operational log for event consumer creation indicating persistence.
Expected Output
JSON report with WMI-spawned processes, suspicious command lines, WMI event subscription alerts, and timeline of lateral movement activity.
Recommended Agent Skills
Expand your agent's capabilities with these related and highly-rated skills.
autohandai/community-skills
mapping-mitre-attack-techniques
Maps observed adversary behaviors, security alerts, and detection rules to MITRE ATT&CK techniques and sub-techniques to quantify detection coverage and guide control prioritization. Use when building an ATT&CK-based coverage heatmap, tagging SIEM alerts with technique IDs, aligning security controls to adversary playbooks, or reporting threat exposure to executives. Activates for requests involving ATT&CK Navigator, Sigma rules, MITRE D3FEND, or coverage gap analysis.
autohandai/community-skills
hunting-for-spearphishing-indicators
Hunt for spearphishing campaign indicators across email logs, endpoint telemetry, and network data to detect targeted email attacks.
autohandai/community-skills
analyzing-malicious-url-with-urlscan
URLScan.io is a free service for scanning and analyzing suspicious URLs. It captures screenshots, DOM content, HTTP transactions, JavaScript behavior, and network connections of web pages in an isolat
autohandai/community-skills
implementing-zero-standing-privilege-with-cyberark
Deploy CyberArk Secure Cloud Access to eliminate standing privileges in hybrid and multi-cloud environments using just-in-time access with time, entitlement, and approval controls.
autohandai/community-skills
implementing-pam-for-database-access
Deploy privileged access management for database systems including Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, and MySQL. Covers session proxy configuration, credential vaulting, query auditing, dynamic credentia
autohandai/community-skills
detecting-t1003-credential-dumping-with-edr
Detect OS credential dumping techniques targeting LSASS memory, SAM database, NTDS.dit, and cached credentials using EDR telemetry, Sysmon process access monitoring, and Windows security event correlation.
Didn't find tool you were looking for?