Potential Lateral Movement via Windows Remote Shell

Title: Potential Lateral Movement via Windows Remote Shell
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
modified:None
Tags:

• -'attack.lateral-movement'
• -'attack.t1021.006'

Logsource:

• category: process_creation
• product: windows

Detection:
  selection:
    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