Potential Suspicious Windows Feature Enabled - ProcCreation

Status: test
Severity: medium
Author: Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
Source: github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Detects usage of the built-in PowerShell cmdlet "Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature" used as a Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool. Similar to DISM.exe, this cmdlet is used to enumerate, install, uninstall, configure, and update features and packages in Windows images

Event coverage

Provider	Event	Title
Sysmon	Event ID 1	Process creation
Security-Auditing	Event ID 4688	A new process has been created.

Rule body yaml

title: Potential Suspicious Windows Feature Enabled - ProcCreation
id: c740d4cf-a1e9-41de-bb16-8a46a4f57918
related:
    - id: 55c925c1-7195-426b-a136-a9396800e29b
      type: similar
status: test
description: |
    Detects usage of the built-in PowerShell cmdlet "Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature" used as a Deployment Image Servicing and Management tool.
    Similar to DISM.exe, this cmdlet is used to enumerate, install, uninstall, configure, and update features and packages in Windows images
references:
    - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/dism/enable-windowsoptionalfeature?view=windowsserver2022-ps
    - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/projfs/enabling-windows-projected-file-system
    - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/install-on-server
author: Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)
date: 2022-12-29
tags:
    - attack.stealth
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection_cmd:
        CommandLine|contains|all:
            - 'Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature'
            - '-Online'
            - '-FeatureName'
    selection_feature:
        # Add any insecure/unusual windows features that you don't use in your environment
        CommandLine|contains:
            - 'TelnetServer'
            - 'Internet-Explorer-Optional-amd64'
            - 'TFTP'
            - 'SMB1Protocol'
            - 'Client-ProjFS'
            - 'Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux'
    condition: all of selection_*
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate usage of the features listed in the rule.
level: medium

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

all of selection_*

Stage 1: `selection_cmd`

selection_cmd:
    CommandLine|contains|all:
        - 'Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature'
        - '-Online'
        - '-FeatureName'

Stage 2: `selection_feature`

selection_feature:
    # Add any insecure/unusual windows features that you don't use in your environment
    CommandLine|contains:
        - 'TelnetServer'
        - 'Internet-Explorer-Optional-amd64'
        - 'TFTP'
        - 'SMB1Protocol'
        - 'Client-ProjFS'
        - 'Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux'

Indicators

Each row is a field, operator, and value that the rule matches. The corpus column counts how many other rules in the catalog look for the same combination: high numbers point to widely-used, community-vetted indicators. Blank or 1 shows that the indicator is specific to this rule.

Field	Kind	Values
`CommandLine`	match	`-FeatureName` `-Online` `Client-ProjFS` `Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature` `Internet-Explorer-Optional-amd64` `Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux` corpus 3 (sigma 2, elastic 1) `SMB1Protocol` `TFTP` `TelnetServer`

`j` / `k`	Scroll down / up
`d` / `u`	Half-page down / up
`gg` / `G`	Top / bottom
`h` / `l`	History back / forward
`f`	Follow link (`Shift` = new tab)
`/`	Focus search
`?`	Toggle this help
`↑` / `↓`	Navigate search results
`Enter`	Open highlighted result
`Esc`	Close results / dialog

`type:`	`events` / `rules` / `providers`
`vendor:`	`sigma` / `elastic` / `splunk` / `kusto` / `chronicle` (vendor name alone also works: `sigma:`, `kql:`, `secops:`…)
`tactic:`	TA-id, slug, or name: `credential_access`, `TA0006`
`technique:`	technique or sub-technique ID: `T1003`, `T1003.001` (alias `tech:`)
`severity:`	`critical` / `high` / `medium` / `low` / `informational` (alias `sev:`)
`stages:`	Rules with exactly N pipeline stages
`correlation:`	`single_event` / `sequence` / `alternatives` / `alternatives_cross_log` / `all_required` / `correlated`
`with:`	Co-occurrence event-id; stacks (`with:4624 with:4769`) to require all, while a comma list in one occurrence (`with:4624,4769`) is an either-or group. Implies multi-event
`like:`	Structural neighbors of a rule slug (equivalents + subsumption stricter / broader): `like:comsvcs_lsass_memory_dump-splunk-sysmon`
`groupby:`	Entity-grouping substring match against `group_by_keys`: `groupby:user`, `groupby:host`
`uses:`	Rules whose predicate tree touches the field (any kind, any value): `uses:CommandLine`
`excludes:`	Rules with top-level `not()` clauses on the field (FP whitelists): `excludes:ParentImage`
`field:` / `value:`	Predicate search; narrows rule cards to those with a matching leaf and drives the indicator tier. Unquoted = substring, wildcards allowed (`value:mimikatz`)
`indicator:`	Shorthand for `field:F value:V`: `indicator:Image=*\powershell.exe`
`kind:`	Filter by predicate kind. Narrows rule cards to those carrying a matching predicate leaf (`vendor:elastic kind:cidr_match`) and drives the indicator tier: `contains` / `starts_with` / `ends_with` / `regex` / `cidr` / `eq` / `in` … (operator aliases `op:`/`match:`)
`has:` / `no:`	`sample`, `field`, `notes`, `refs`, `trace`, `thirdparty`, `rule`, `pattern`, `timewindow`, `threshold`, `newterms`, `sigma`/`elastic`/`splunk`/`kusto`/`chronicle`
`-op:val`	Exclude matches; works on most operators but not `type:`/`like:`/`has:`/`no:` (use `no:<flag>` to exclude a rule flag): `tactic:execution -vendor:splunk`. Standalone `-kind:`/`-field:`/`-value:` drop every rule carrying a matching predicate leaf (`type:rules -kind:is_null`)
`field:"…"` / `value:"…"`	Quoted value = anchored exact match (also allows spaces): `value:"net user"`
`a,b`	Comma = OR inside one operator (`vendor:sigma,elastic`, `severity:high,critical`); repeating a facet merges the same way. `field:`/`value:` never split (literal commas)
`vendors:` / `stage:`	Singular and plural spellings fold to the canonical operator and value: `tactics:` = `tactic:`, `type:event` = `type:events`, `correlation:sequences` = `correlation:sequence`, `has:thresholds` = `has:threshold`
`"quoted phrase"`	Exact-match a multi-word phrase (free text)

Potential Suspicious Windows Feature Enabled - ProcCreation

Event coverage

Rule body yaml

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

Stage 1: `selection_cmd`

Stage 2: `selection_feature`

Indicators

Keyboard shortcuts

Search operators

Potential Suspicious Windows Feature Enabled - ProcCreation

Event coverage

Rule body yaml

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

Stage 1: selection_cmd

Stage 2: selection_feature

Indicators

Stage 0: `condition`

Stage 1: `selection_cmd`

Stage 2: `selection_feature`