ATT&CK coverage › Technique

Event Triggered Execution: Windows Management Instrumentation Event Subscription T1546.003

Adversaries may establish persistence and elevate privileges by executing malicious content triggered by a Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) event subscription. WMI can be used to install event filters, providers, consumers, and bindings that execute code when a defined event occurs. Examples of events that may be subscribed to are the wall clock time, user login, or the computer's uptime.

Events covered

12 catalog events are tagged with this technique by at least one rule.

ProviderEvent IDTitle
Sysmon1Process creation
Sysmon7Image loaded
Sysmon11FileCreate
Sysmon19WmiEvent (WmiEventFilter activity detected)
Sysmon20WmiEvent (WmiEventConsumer activity detected)
Sysmon21WmiEvent (WmiEventConsumerToFilter activity detected)
Security-Auditing4662An operation was performed on an object.
Security-Auditing4688A new process has been created.
PowerShell4104Creating Scriptblock text (MessageNumber of MessageTotal).
WMI-Activity21WMI Events were bound.
WMI-Activity5859Namespace = Operation_EssStarted.NamespaceName; NotificationQuery = Operation_EssStarted.Query; OwnerName = Operation_EssStarted.User; HostProcessID = Operation_EssStarted.Processid; Provider= Operation_EssStarted.Provider, queryID = Operation_EssStarted.queryid; PossibleCause = Operation_EssStarted.PossibleCause.
WMI-Activity5861Namespace = Operation_ESStoConsumerBinding.Namespace; Eventfilter = Operation_ESStoConsumerBinding.ESS (refer to its activate eventid:5859); Consumer = Operation_ESStoConsumerBinding.CONSUMER; PossibleCause = Operation_ESStoConsumerBinding.PossibleCause.

Authoring guide

Patterns shared across the 14 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 (18 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.

FieldRulesHowSample values
Image6eq 4, ends_with 2, match 1, starts_with 1C:\WINDOWS\system32\wbem\scrcons.exe, WriteProcessMemory, This program must be run under Win32, This program cannot be run in DOS mode, \scrcons.exe
ImageLoaded2ends_with 2\wshom.ocx, \wbemdisp.dll, \scrrun.dll, \wbemcons.dll
ParentImage2ends_with 1, eq 1\EdgeTransport.exe, C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
EventID2eq 220, 21
Provider_Name1eq 1Microsoft-Windows-WMI-Activity
Consumer1match 1subscription:ActiveScriptEventConsumer, subscription:CommandLineEventConsumer
Operation1eq 1Created
process.Ext.api.parameters.consumer_type1in 1ActiveScriptEventConsumer, CommandLineEventConsumer
data_stream.dataset1eq 1windows.sysmon_operational, endpoint.events.api
process.Ext.api.name1eq 1IWbemServices::PutInstance
CommandLine1match 1 CREATE , ActiveScriptEventConsumer
ScriptBlockText1match 1-ClassName CommandLineEventConsumer , -Property , -Namespace root/subscription
Query1wildcard 1select * from MSFT_SCMEventLogEvent
user1eq 1S-1-5-32-544
PossibleCause1eq 1Permanent

Top indicator values (40 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.

FieldKindValueRules (here)Corpus reach
ImageeqC:\WINDOWS\system32\wbem\scrcons.exe22
process.Ext.api.parameters.consumer_typeinActiveScriptEventConsumer1
Provider_NameeqMicrosoft-Windows-WMI-Activity1
Consumermatchsubscription:ActiveScriptEventConsumer1
process.Ext.api.nameeqIWbemServices::PutInstance1
process.Ext.api.parameters.consumer_typeinCommandLineEventConsumer1
data_stream.dataseteqwindows.sysmon_operational1
data_stream.dataseteqendpoint.events.api1
Consumermatchsubscription:CommandLineEventConsumer1
OperationeqCreated1
CommandLinematch CREATE 1
CommandLinematchActiveScriptEventConsumer1
ScriptBlockTextmatch-Property 1
ScriptBlockTextmatch-Namespace root/subscription 1
ScriptBlockTextmatch-ClassName __EventFilter 1
ScriptBlockTextmatch-ClassName CommandLineEventConsumer 1
ScriptBlockTextmatchNew-CimInstance 1
ImagematchWriteProcessMemory1
ImagematchThis program must be run under Win321
ImagematchThis program cannot be run in DOS mode1

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 11 rules

Elastic 1 rule

Splunk 2 rules