Potential Lateral Movement via Windows Remote Shell — Sigma Rule

Rule metadata and linked tags

Author: Liran Ravich. Source status: experimental; severity: medium. Source dates: 2025-10-22 / not supplied.

{
  "category": "process_creation",
  "product": "windows"
}

Pinned original Sigma rule · Detection Rule License 1.1

Source SHA-256: 694797cfcc6ce9474ec91eff610770645b1e79b23714c1b3127b2e40553213d2

Detection logic

Original source YAML. Source-tag agreement is not proof of complete semantic coverage. This rule has not been compiled for a SIEM backend or validated against live telemetry here.

title: Potential Lateral Movement via Windows Remote Shell
id: 79df3f68-dccb-48e9-9171-b75cbc37c51d
status: experimental
description: |
    Detects a child process spawned by 'winrshost.exe', which suggests remote command execution through Windows Remote Shell (WinRs) and may indicate potential lateral movement activity.
references:
    - https://cardinalops.com/blog/living-off-winrm-abusing-complexity-in-remote-management/
    - https://www.ired.team/offensive-security/lateral-movement/winrs-for-lateral-movement
author: Liran Ravich
date: 2025-10-22
tags:
    - attack.lateral-movement
    - attack.t1021.006
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection:
        # Note: Example of command to simulate (winrm needs to be enabled): "c:\Windows\System32\winrs.exe" powershell
        ParentImage|endswith: '\winrshost.exe'
    filter_main_conhost:
        Image: 'C:\Windows\System32\conhost.exe'
    condition: selection and not 1 of filter_main_*
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate use of WinRM within the organization
level: medium

Original YAML and metadata in JSON

False positives

• Legitimate use of WinRM within the organization

Source references

• https://cardinalops.com/blog/living-off-winrm-abusing-complexity-in-remote-management/
• https://www.ired.team/offensive-security/lateral-movement/winrs-for-lateral-movement