Individual skill
hunting-for-dcom-lateral-movement
Hunt for DCOM-based lateral movement by detecting abuse of MMC20.Application, ShellBrowserWindow, and ShellWindows COM objects through Sysmon Event ID 1 (process creation) and Event ID 3 (network connection) correlation, WMI event analysis, RPC endpoint mapper traffic on port 135, and DCOM-specific parent-child process relationships.
internal/tools/skills/data/threat-hunting/hunting-for-dcom-lateral-movement/SKILL.md
Source commit d42f381ad34843e71a42658e5c57290c713e85af
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- Observed behavior
- Instructions only
- Last checked
- Nov 9, 2026
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- 1,329
- Repository last updated
- Nov 9, 2026
- License
- Apache-2.0
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- cybersecurity Repository topic
- security Repository topic
- bug-bounty Repository topic
- automation Repository topic
- autonomous-pentesting Repository topic
- ai-agent Repository topic
- ai-security Repository topic
- ethical-hacking Repository topic
- golang Repository topic
- penetration-testing Repository topic
- threat-hunting Declared skill tag
- dcom Declared skill tag
- lateral-movement Declared skill tag
- t1021.003 Declared skill tag
- sysmon Declared skill tag
- mmc20 Declared skill tag
- shellwindows Declared skill tag
- shellbrowserwindow Declared skill tag
- com-objects Declared skill tag
- wmi Declared skill tag
- rpc Declared skill tag
- operations Derived category
- security Derived category
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# Hunting for DCOM Lateral Movement
> **Authorized Testing Disclaimer**: The offensive techniques and attack simulations described in this skill are intended exclusively for authorized penetration testing, red team engagements, purple team exercises, and security research conducted with explicit written permission from the system owner. Unauthorized use of these techniques against systems you do not own or have permission to test is illegal and unethical. Always operate within the scope of your engagement and comply with applicable laws and regulations.
## Overview
Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM) enables remote execution of COM objects across a network using RPC. Adversaries abuse specific DCOM objects -- MMC20.Application (CLSID {49B2791A-B1AE-4C90-9B8E-E860BA07F889}), ShellBrowserWindow (CLSID {C08AFD90-F2A1-11D1-8455-00A0C91F3880}), and ShellWindows (CLSID {9BA05972-F6A8-11CF-A442-00A0C90A8F39}) -- to execute commands on remote hosts without dropping files, making this a stealthy lateral movement technique mapped to MITRE ATT&CK T1021.003. This skill provides detection strategies using Sysmon telemetry, Windows Security Event correlation, network monitoring, and SIEM detection rules to identify DCOM abuse in enterprise environments.
## When to Use
- Proactively hunting for lateral movement in Active Directory environments where DCOM is enabled
- Investigating alerts for suspicious mmc.exe, dllhost.exe, or explorer.exe child process creation on servers
- Building detection rules for MITRE ATT&CK T1021.003 (Remote Services: Distributed Component Object Model)
- Correlating Sysmon Event ID 1 (Process Create) and Event ID 3 (Network Connection) to trace DCOM-based command execution chains