Usage Of Web Request Commands And Cmdlets — Sigma Rule

Rule metadata and linked tags

Author: James Pemberton / @4A616D6573, Endgame, JHasenbusch, oscd.community, Austin Songer @austinsonger. Source status: test; severity: medium. Source dates: 2019-10-24 / 2025-10-20.

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

Pinned original Sigma rule · Detection Rule License 1.1

Source SHA-256: 9b5307e84a4516ee1dc086db4fdd9d9787673e1631fb51272165990f9da078c1

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: Usage Of Web Request Commands And Cmdlets
id: 9fc51a3c-81b3-4fa7-b35f-7c02cf10fd2d
related:
    - id: 1139d2e2-84b1-4226-b445-354492eba8ba
      type: similar
    - id: f67dbfce-93bc-440d-86ad-a95ae8858c90
      type: obsolete
    - id: cd5c8085-4070-4e22-908d-a5b3342deb74
      type: obsolete
    - id: 6e897651-f157-4d8f-aaeb-df8151488385
      type: obsolete
status: test
description: Detects the use of various web request commands with commandline tools and Windows PowerShell cmdlets (including aliases) via CommandLine
references:
    - https://4sysops.com/archives/use-powershell-to-download-a-file-with-http-https-and-ftp/
    - https://blog.jourdant.me/post/3-ways-to-download-files-with-powershell
    - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/bitstransfer/add-bitsfile?view=windowsserver2019-ps
author: James Pemberton / @4A616D6573, Endgame, JHasenbusch, oscd.community, Austin Songer @austinsonger
date: 2019-10-24
modified: 2025-10-20
tags:
    - attack.execution
    - attack.t1059.001
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection:
        CommandLine|contains:
            - '[System.Net.WebRequest]::create'
            - 'curl '
            - 'Invoke-RestMethod'
            - 'Invoke-WebRequest'
            - ' irm ' # Space before and after to avoid false positives with 'irm' as a substring
            - 'iwr '
            # - 'Net.WebClient' # There are various other rules that cover this, so it is commented out
            - 'Resume-BitsTransfer'
            - 'Start-BitsTransfer'
            - 'wget '
            - 'WinHttp.WinHttpRequest'
    condition: selection
falsepositives:
    - Use of Get-Command and Get-Help modules to reference Invoke-WebRequest and Start-BitsTransfer.
level: medium

Original YAML and metadata in JSON

False positives

• Use of Get-Command and Get-Help modules to reference Invoke-WebRequest and Start-BitsTransfer.

Source references

• https://4sysops.com/archives/use-powershell-to-download-a-file-with-http-https-and-ftp/
• https://blog.jourdant.me/post/3-ways-to-download-files-with-powershell
• https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/powershell/module/bitstransfer/add-bitsfile?view=windowsserver2019-ps