Suspicious Driver Install by pnputil.exe

calendar Oct 23, 2025 · attack.privilege-escalation attack.persistence attack.t1547  ·
Share on: linkedin copy

Detects when a possible suspicious driver is being installed via pnputil.exe lolbin

Sigma rule (View on GitHub)

 1title: Suspicious Driver Install by pnputil.exe
 2id: a2ea3ae7-d3d0-40a0-a55c-25a45c87cac1
 3status: test
 4description: Detects when a possible suspicious driver is being installed via pnputil.exe lolbin
 5references:
 6    - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/devtest/pnputil-command-syntax
 7    - https://strontic.github.io/xcyclopedia/library/pnputil.exe-60EDC5E6BDBAEE441F2E3AEACD0340D2.html
 8author: Hai Vaknin @LuxNoBulIshit, Avihay eldad  @aloneliassaf, Austin Songer @austinsonger
 9date: 2021-09-30
10modified: 2022-10-09
11tags:
12    - attack.privilege-escalation
13    - attack.persistence
14    - attack.t1547
15logsource:
16    category: process_creation
17    product: windows
18detection:
19    selection:
20        CommandLine|contains:
21            - '-i'
22            - '/install'
23            - '-a'
24            - '/add-driver'
25            - '.inf'
26        Image|endswith: '\pnputil.exe'
27    condition: selection
28fields:
29    - ComputerName
30    - User
31    - CommandLine
32    - ParentCommandLine
33falsepositives:
34    - Pnputil.exe being used may be performed by a system administrator.
35    - Verify whether the user identity, user agent, and/or hostname should be making changes in your environment.
36    - Pnputil.exe being executed from unfamiliar users should be investigated. If known behavior is causing false positives, it can be exempted from the rule.
37level: medium

References

Related rules

to-top