ExtraHop named a Leader in the 2025 Forrester Wave™: Network Analysis And Visibility Solutions

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DETECTION OVERVIEW

Impacket WMIExec Activity

Risk Factors

Impacket is an open-source collection of tools for manipulating packets and network protocols such as Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI). An attacker with local administrator privileges can run commands with the WMIExec tool to compromise remote devices, helping the attacker move laterally across the network.

Category

Lateral Movement
Detection diagram
Next in Lateral Movement: Internal Dharma Ransomware File Transfer

Attack Background

WMI, installed by default on Windows operating systems, is a set of specifications from Microsoft for local or remote management of Windows operating system components. Third-party applications can interact with WMI classes and elements contained within them (such as methods, properties, and references) to perform actions on a remote device. Some WMI classes, such as the Win32_Process, can create a process that runs commands.

Impacket is a toolset that includes WMIExec, a python script that creates a semi-interactive shell process for running commands on a remote device with WMI. An attacker inside the network identifies a victim device they want to compromise. The attacker runs WMIExec, which sends a WMI request to the victim. This request includes WMI methods to create a process that runs a command within the request.

Mitigation Options

Block or restrict WMI access to authorized IP addresses in Windows firewall settings
Limit the number of administrator accounts that have WMI privileges
Create separate credentials for administrators by the type of remote activity
Restrict access to specific WMI namespaces to only relative administrative user accounts

MITRE ATT&CK ID

Associated content

Breaking Through Encrypted East-West Traffic: How to Detect Impacket’s Hidden Lateral Movement — ExtraHop

Learn how attackers use the Impacket tool to move laterally in encrypted east-west traffic. Discover how ExtraHop RevealX provides the crucial visibility to detect these hidden threats.

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Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) Protocol — ExtraHop

WMI is a Microsoft-specific implementation of the Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM) standard. WMI allows you to gather information about and control various components of a Windows system.

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Announcing The Forrester Wave™: Network Analysis And Visibility Solutions, Q4 2025

Network analysis and visibility solutions remain underrepresented in enterprises. Find out why in this preview of a new Wave report.

Report

ExtraHop® Named a Leader in First-Ever Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Network Detection and Response — ExtraHop

ExtraHop® Named a Leader in First-Ever Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Network Detection and Response

News

Detections

Visit this resource for more information.

Docs

The 2025 ExtraHop Global Threat Landscape Report: The Alarming Reality of Threat Actor Dwell Time and Deeper Network Access — ExtraHop

This analysis exposes the critical link between an organization's lack of internal visibility and the escalating cost of compromise, demanding an urgent re-evaluation of how core business assets are protected.

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ExtraHop RevealX MITRE ATT&CK Coverage 2024 — ExtraHop

Learn why you need to be wary of the claims certain network detection and response providers make about their coverage against the MITRE ATT&CK framework.

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MITRE ATT&CK - Network Detection & Response with RevealX — ExtraHop

Learn how NDR from RevealX helps security teams detect and investigate more adversary TTPs in the MITRE ATT&CK framework than rule-based tools.

External
Periodic Table of Use Cases

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