Detection: Windows WMI Impersonate Token

Updated Date: 2026-09-08 ID: cf192860-2d94-40db-9a51-c04a2e8a8f8b Author: Teoderick Contreras, Splunk Type: Anomaly Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

The following analytic detects WMI token impersonation by identifying wmiprvse.exe requesting the query, VM, and duplicate-handle rights associated with WMI process access. It leverages Sysmon EventCode 10 and checks for access masks that combine PROCESS_QUERY_INFORMATION (0x400), PROCESS_QUERY_LIMITED_INFORMATION (0x1000), PROCESS_VM_OPERATION (0x8), PROCESS_VM_READ (0x10), PROCESS_VM_WRITE (0x20), PROCESS_DUP_HANDLE (0x40), and PROCESS_ALL_ACCESS (0x1f3fff).

Search

1`sysmon`
2EventCode=10
3SourceImage="*\\wmiprvse.exe"

The 0x1478 mask combines query, VM, and duplicate-handle rights; The 0x1fffff mas is full process access. Additional requested rights are allowed.

 1
 2| eval g_access_decimal = tonumber(replace(GrantedAccess,"0x",""),16)
 3
 4| eval PROCESS_QUERY_INFORMATION = 1024
 5
 6| eval PROCESS_QUERY_LIMITED_INFORMATION = 4096
 7
 8| eval PROCESS_VM_OPERATION = 8
 9
10| eval PROCESS_VM_READ = 16
11
12| eval PROCESS_VM_WRITE = 32
13
14| eval PROCESS_DUP_HANDLE = 64
15
16| eval WMI_REQUIRED_ACCESS = PROCESS_QUERY_INFORMATION + PROCESS_QUERY_LIMITED_INFORMATION + PROCESS_VM_OPERATION + PROCESS_VM_READ + PROCESS_VM_WRITE + PROCESS_DUP_HANDLE
17
18| eval PROCESS_ALL_ACCESS = 2097151
19
20| eval wmi_access_set = bit_and(g_access_decimal, WMI_REQUIRED_ACCESS)
21
22| eval full_access_set = bit_and(g_access_decimal, PROCESS_ALL_ACCESS)
23
24| where wmi_access_set == WMI_REQUIRED_ACCESS
25  OR full_access_set == PROCESS_ALL_ACCESS
26
27
28| stats count min(_time) as firstTime
29                max(_time) as lastTime
30    BY user_id dest
31       signature_id signature granted_access Opcode
32       SourceImage SourceProcessGUID SourceProcessId
33       TargetImage TargetProcessGUID TargetProcessId
34       CallTrace vendor_product
35
36
37| eval CallTrace=split(CallTrace, "
38|")
39
40
41| `security_content_ctime(firstTime)`
42
43| `security_content_ctime(lastTime)`
44
45| `windows_wmi_impersonate_token_filter`

Data Source

Name	Platform	Sourcetype	Source
Sysmon EventID 10	Windows	`'XmlWinEventLog'`	`'XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational'`

Macros Used

Name	Value
security_content_ctime	`convert timeformat="%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S" ctime($field$)`
windows_wmi_impersonate_token_filter	`search *`

windows_wmi_impersonate_token_filter is an empty macro by default. It allows the user to filter out any results (false positives) without editing the SPL.

Annotations

- MITRE ATT&CK

+ Kill Chain Phases

+ NIST

+ CIS

- Threat Actors

ID	Technique	Tactic
T1047	Windows Management Instrumentation	Execution

Installation

DE.AE

CIS 10

Default Configuration

This detection is configured by default in Splunk Enterprise Security to run with the following settings:

Setting	Value
Disabled	true
Cron Schedule	`0 * * * *`
Earliest Time	`-70m@m`
Latest Time	`-10m@m`
Schedule Window	`auto`
Creates Finding (Notable)	No
Creates Intermediate Finding (Risk Event)	Yes

Anomaly detections generate Intermediate Findings (Risk Events). They do not generate a Finding (Notable) directly.

Implementation

This search requires Sysmon Logs and a Sysmon configuration, which includes EventCode 10. This search uses an input macro named sysmon. We strongly recommend that you specify your environment-specific configurations (index, source, sourcetype, etc.) for Windows Sysmon logs. Replace the macro definition with configurations for your Splunk environment. The search also uses a post-filter macro designed to filter out known false positives.

Known False Positives

administrator may execute impersonate wmi object script for auditing. Filter is needed.

Associated Analytic Story

Intermediate Findings

Message	Entity Field	Entity Type	Risk Score
The [$SourceImage$] requested the access mask [$granted_access$] from [$TargetImage$] on [$dest$]. This may indicate WMI token impersonation.	dest	system	20

Threat Objects

Field	Type
SourceImage	file_path

References

Detection Testing

Test Type	Status	Dataset	Source	Sourcetype
Validation	✅ Passing	N/A	N/A	N/A
Unit	✅ Passing	Dataset	`XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational`	`XmlWinEventLog`
Integration	✅ Passing	Dataset	`XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational`	`XmlWinEventLog`

Replay any dataset to Splunk Enterprise by using our replay.py tool or the UI. Alternatively you can replay a dataset into a Splunk Attack Range

Source: GitHub |

Version: 11