ATT&CK coverage › Technique
Command and Scripting Interpreter: Windows Command Shell T1059.003
Adversaries may abuse the Windows command shell for execution. The Windows command shell (cmd) is the primary command prompt on Windows systems. The Windows command prompt can be used to control almost any aspect of a system, with various permission levels required for different subsets of commands. The command prompt can be invoked remotely via Remote Services such as SSH.
Events covered
13 catalog events are tagged with this technique by at least one rule.
Authoring guide
Patterns shared across the 31 rules above: which fields they filter on, what specific values they look for, and what they exclude. Field names are normalized across vendors so Sigma's Image, Elastic's process.name, and Splunk's process_name collapse into one row. Each rule contributes at most once per row.
Fields filtered most (15 distinct)
The fields most rules look at when detecting this technique. The How column shows the operators authors use (eq, wildcard, regex_match, match) and how often each appears. Sample values are concrete examples to start from, not an exhaustive list.
Top indicator values (148 distinct)
Specific (field, operator, value) combinations the rules check for, ranked by how many rules under this technique use each one. The Corpus reach column counts how many rules across the entire catalog (any technique) check the same combination. High numbers point to widely-used indicators that are likely noisy on their own; combine them with another condition for useful signal. Blank means the combination is specific to rules under this technique.
Common exclusions (2 distinct)
Field/operator/value combinations that rules under this technique routinely exclude (top-level not() clauses). These are the false-positive paths the community has learned to filter out. A new rule that ignores the high-count entries here will likely fire on the same noisy paths.
Rules under this technique
Every rule in the catalog tagged with this technique, grouped by vendor. Click a rule title for its full predicates, exclusions, and indicators.
Sigma 26 rules
- AppLocker Prevented Application or Script from Running
- Command Line Execution with Suspicious URL and AppData Strings
- Conhost.exe CommandLine Path Traversal
- DNS Query by Finger Utility
- HackTool - CrackMapExec Execution
- HackTool - CrackMapExec Execution Patterns
- HackTool - Jlaive In-Memory Assembly Execution
- HackTool - Koadic Execution
- HackTool - RedMimicry Winnti Playbook Execution
- HTML Help HH.EXE Suspicious Child Process
- Network Connection Initiated via Finger.EXE
- OpenEDR Spawning Command Shell
- Operator Bloopers Cobalt Strike Commands
- Operator Bloopers Cobalt Strike Modules
- Potential CommandLine Path Traversal Via Cmd.EXE
- Powershell Execute Batch Script
- Powershell Executed From Headless ConHost Process
- PUA - AdvancedRun Execution
- Read Contents From Stdin Via Cmd.EXE
- Remote Access Tool - ScreenConnect Command Execution
- Remote Access Tool - ScreenConnect File Transfer
- Remote Access Tool - ScreenConnect Remote Command Execution
- Remote Access Tool - ScreenConnect Temporary File
- Suspicious HH.EXE Execution
- Suspicious HWP Sub Processes
- Suspicious Usage of For Loop with Recursive Directory Search in CMD
Splunk 3 rules
- Windows Powershell History File Deletion
- Windows PowerShell Invoke-Sqlcmd Execution
- Windows TinyCC Shellcode Execution