Analytics Story: Suspicious WMI Use

Updated Date: 2026-05-13 ID: c8ddc5be-69bc-4202-b3ab-4010b27d7ad5 Author: Rico Valdez, Splunk Product: Splunk Enterprise Security

Description

Attackers are increasingly abusing Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), a framework and associated utilities available on all modern Windows operating systems. Because WMI can be leveraged to manage both local and remote systems, it is important to identify the processes executed and the user context within which the activity occurred.

Why it matters

WMI is a Microsoft infrastructure for management data and operations on Windows operating systems. It includes of a set of utilities that can be leveraged to manage both local and remote Windows systems. Attackers are increasingly turning to WMI abuse in their efforts to conduct nefarious tasks, such as reconnaissance, detection of antivirus and virtual machines, code execution, lateral movement, persistence, and data exfiltration. The detection searches included in this Analytic Story are used to look for suspicious use of WMI commands that attackers may leverage to interact with remote systems. The searches specifically look for the use of WMI to run processes on remote systems. In the event that unauthorized WMI execution occurs, it will be important for analysts and investigators to determine the context of the event. These details may provide insights related to how WMI was used and to what end.

Detections

Name ▲▼	Technique ▲▼	Type ▲▼
WMIC XSL Execution via URL	XSL Script Processing	TTP
XSL Script Execution With WMIC	XSL Script Processing	TTP
Script Execution via WMI	Windows Management Instrumentation	TTP
PowerShell Invoke WmiExec Usage	Windows Management Instrumentation	TTP
Windows WMIC Shadowcopy Delete	Inhibit System Recovery	Anomaly
Remote Process Instantiation via WMI	Windows Management Instrumentation	TTP
WMI Temporary Event Subscription	Windows Management Instrumentation	TTP
Windows WMI Process Call Create	Windows Management Instrumentation	Hunting
Detect WMI Event Subscription Persistence	Windows Management Instrumentation Event Subscription	TTP
Process Execution via WMI	Windows Management Instrumentation	TTP
WMI Permanent Event Subscription - Sysmon	Windows Management Instrumentation Event Subscription	TTP
Remote WMI Command Attempt	Windows Management Instrumentation	TTP
WMI Permanent Event Subscription	Windows Management Instrumentation	TTP

Data Sources

Name ▲▼	Platform ▲▼	Sourcetype ▲▼	Source ▲▼
CrowdStrike ProcessRollup2	Other	`crowdstrike:events:sensor`	`crowdstrike`
Sysmon EventID 1	Windows	`XmlWinEventLog`	`XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational`
Windows Event Log Security 4688	Windows	`XmlWinEventLog`	`XmlWinEventLog:Security`
Cisco Network Visibility Module Flow Data	Network	`cisco:nvm:flowdata`	`not_applicable`
Powershell Script Block Logging 4104	Windows	`XmlWinEventLog`	`XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-PowerShell/Operational`
Sysmon EventID 20	Windows	`XmlWinEventLog`	`XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational`
Sysmon EventID 21	Windows	`XmlWinEventLog`	`XmlWinEventLog:Microsoft-Windows-Sysmon/Operational`

References

Source: GitHub | Version: 3