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Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills/skills/detecting-wmi-persistence/SKILL.md
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mukul975 efca3ec611 feat: add NIST CSF 2.0 nist_csf field to all 754 cybersecurity skills
Mapped every skill to NIST CSF 2.0 subcategory IDs (GV/ID/PR/DE/RS/RC functions)
based on subdomain and content analysis. Restores 11 skills corrupted during
prior rebase, re-enriching with ATLAS, D3FEND, NIST AI RMF, and CSF 2.0 fields.

All 754 skills now carry structured mappings for all 5 security frameworks:
- MITRE ATT&CK (in tags)
- MITRE ATLAS v5.5 (atlas_techniques)
- MITRE D3FEND v1.3 (d3fend_techniques)
- NIST AI RMF 1.0 (nist_ai_rmf)
- NIST CSF 2.0 (nist_csf)
2026-04-06 11:17:40 +02:00

3.3 KiB

name, description, domain, subdomain, tags, version, author, license, d3fend_techniques, nist_csf
name description domain subdomain tags version author license d3fend_techniques nist_csf
detecting-wmi-persistence Detect WMI event subscription persistence by analyzing Sysmon Event IDs 19, 20, and 21 for malicious EventFilter, EventConsumer, and FilterToConsumerBinding creation. cybersecurity threat-hunting
threat-hunting
wmi
persistence
sysmon
t1546.003
mitre-attack
windows
dfir
1.0 mahipal Apache-2.0
Application Protocol Command Analysis
Network Isolation
Network Traffic Analysis
Client-server Payload Profiling
Platform Monitoring
DE.CM-01
DE.AE-02
DE.AE-07
ID.RA-05

Detecting WMI Persistence

When to Use

  • When hunting for WMI event subscription persistence (MITRE ATT&CK T1546.003)
  • After detecting suspicious WMI activity in endpoint telemetry
  • During incident response to identify attacker persistence mechanisms
  • When Sysmon alerts trigger on Event IDs 19, 20, or 21
  • During purple team exercises testing WMI-based persistence

Prerequisites

  • Sysmon v6.1+ deployed with WMI event logging enabled (Event IDs 19, 20, 21)
  • Windows Security Event Log forwarding configured
  • SIEM with Sysmon data ingested (Splunk, Elastic, Sentinel)
  • PowerShell access for WMI enumeration on endpoints
  • Sysinternals Autoruns for manual WMI subscription review

Workflow

  1. Collect Telemetry: Parse Sysmon Event IDs 19 (WmiEventFilter), 20 (WmiEventConsumer), 21 (WmiEventConsumerToFilter).
  2. Identify Suspicious Consumers: Flag CommandLineEventConsumer and ActiveScriptEventConsumer types executing code.
  3. Analyze Event Filters: Examine WQL queries in EventFilters for process start triggers or timer-based execution.
  4. Correlate Bindings: Match FilterToConsumerBindings linking suspicious filters to consumers.
  5. Check Persistence Locations: Query WMI namespaces root\subscription and root\default for active subscriptions.
  6. Validate Findings: Cross-reference with known-good WMI subscriptions (SCCM, AV products).
  7. Document and Remediate: Remove malicious subscriptions and update detection rules.

Key Concepts

Concept Description
Sysmon Event 19 WmiEventFilter creation detected
Sysmon Event 20 WmiEventConsumer creation detected
Sysmon Event 21 WmiEventConsumerToFilter binding detected
T1546.003 Event Triggered Execution: WMI Event Subscription
CommandLineEventConsumer Executes system commands when filter triggers
ActiveScriptEventConsumer Runs VBScript/JScript when filter triggers

Tools & Systems

Tool Purpose
Sysmon Windows event monitoring for WMI activity
WMI Explorer GUI tool for browsing WMI namespaces
Autoruns Sysinternals tool listing persistence mechanisms
PowerShell Get-WMIObject Enumerate WMI event subscriptions
Splunk SIEM analysis of Sysmon WMI events
Velociraptor Endpoint WMI artifact collection

Output Format

Hunt ID: TH-WMI-[DATE]-[SEQ]
Technique: T1546.003
Host: [Hostname]
Event Type: [EventFilter|EventConsumer|Binding]
Consumer Type: [CommandLine|ActiveScript]
WQL Query: [Filter query text]
Command: [Executed command or script]
Risk Level: [Critical/High/Medium/Low]
Recommended Action: [Remove subscription, investigate lateral movement]