Detecting Wmi Persistence

What it does

When your agent uses it

• Hunting WMI-based persistence
• Triaging a Sysmon alert on these event IDs
• During incident response and purple-team validation of WMI defenses

Example prompts

• “/detecting-wmi-persistence”

Requirements

• Python 3

Workflow steps

7 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

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

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 54a7988. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

• Tool permissions

  Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

  From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

• Runs code

  Ships 1 file in scripts/ (Python), which the agent can run.

  From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

• Network

  No URLs in SKILL.md.

  From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

• Credentials

  Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

  From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Detecting Wmi Persistence loads about 914 tokens when it runs, and up to ~1.7k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 114 tokens; SKILL.md has 265 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it

~114

When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches

~914

With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them

~1.7k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); the scripts in this folder are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills at commit 54a7988, republished under its Apache-2.0 licence (© mukul975). 265 words, ~914 tokens.

name

detecting-wmi-persistence

description

Detect WMI event subscription persistence (MITRE T1546.003) by analyzing Sysmon Event IDs 19, 20, and 21 for malicious EventFilter, EventConsumer, and FilterToConsumerBinding creation, cross-referenced against root\subscription namespace contents and Sysinternals Autoruns. Use when hunting WMI-based persistence, triaging a Sysmon alert on these event IDs, or during incident response and purple-team validation of WMI defenses.

domain

cybersecurity

subdomain

threat-hunting

tags

threat-hunting, wmi, persistence, sysmon, t1546.003, mitre-attack, windows, dfir

version

1.0

author

mahipal

license

Apache-2.0

d3fend_techniques

Application Protocol Command Analysis, Network Isolation, Network Traffic Analysis, Client-server Payload Profiling, Platform Monitoring

nist_csf

DE.CM-01, DE.AE-02, DE.AE-07, ID.RA-05

mitre_attack

T1546.003, T1047, T1059.001

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]

© mukul975, Apache-2.0. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 3 other files (scripts, references) in skills/detecting-wmi-persistence of mukul975/Anthropic-Cybersecurity-Skills.

• SKILL.md
• LICENSE
• references/api-reference.md
• scripts/agent.py

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 54a7988