Detection rules › Splunk

Windows Remote Management Execute Shell

Author
Teoderick Contreras, Splunk
Source
upstream

The following analytic detects the execution of winrshost.exe initiating CMD or PowerShell processes as part of a potential payload execution. winrshost.exe is associated with Windows Remote Management (WinRM) and is typically used for remote execution. By monitoring for this behavior, the detection identifies instances where winrshost.exe is leveraged to run potentially malicious commands or payloads via CMD or PowerShell. This behavior may indicate exploitation of remote management tools for unauthorized access or lateral movement within a compromised environment, signaling a potential security incident.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

TacticTechniques
Lateral MovementT1021.006 Remote Services: Windows Remote Management

Event coverage

ProviderEvent IDTitle
Sysmon1Process creation
Security-Auditing4688A new process has been created.

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: tstats

tstats WHERE Processes.parent_process_name="winrshost.exe" Processes.process_name IN ("*powershell*", "cmd.exe", "pwsh.exe") BY Processes.action, Processes.dest, Processes.original_file_name, Processes.parent_process, Processes.parent_process_exec, Processes.parent_process_guid, Processes.parent_process_id, Processes.parent_process_name, Processes.parent_process_path, Processes.process, Processes.process_exec, Processes.process_guid, Processes.process_hash, Processes.process_id, Processes.process_integrity_level, Processes.process_name, Processes.process_path, Processes.user, Processes.user_id, Processes.vendor_product

Stage 2: search

search

Stage 3: search

search

Stage 4: search

search

Stage 5: search

search `macro`

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.

FieldKindValues
Processes.parent_process_nameeq
  • "winrshost.exe"
Processes.process_namein
  • "*powershell*" corpus 2 (splunk 2)
  • "cmd.exe" corpus 3 (splunk 3)
  • "pwsh.exe" corpus 4 (splunk 4)