PowerShell 3.0 or above module for creating and managing Sysinternals Sysmon v2.0 config files. System Monitor (Sysmon) is a Windows system service and device driver that is part of the SysInternal tools from Microsoft. It is written by Mark Russinovich and Thomas Garnier to monitor a Windows system actions and log such actions in to the Windows Event Log. When the tool is installed on a system it can be given a XML configuration file so as to control what is logged and the same file can be used to update the configuration of a previously installed instance of the tool.
All functions in the PowerShell module include help information and example of usage that can be view using the Get-Help cmdlet.
For installation it is highly recomended that you install from the PowerShell Gallery using the Install-Module cmdlet.
On PowerShell v5 and above:
Install-Module -Name Posh-Sysmon
If you are running PS 3.0 to 4.0 you can use the PowerShell Gallery also following instruction in PowerShell Gallery Documentation
- Support for Schema 3.3 of Sysmon v6.
- New function New-SysmonPipeEvent for filtering for named pipeline cration and connection events.
- Support of PipeEvent in config creation and event type functions.
- Several bug fixes on filtering functions when give an array of values.
- Several bug fixes when creating RawAccess and ProcessOpen rules.
- By default the new schema is 3.2 for the latest version of Sysmon 5.0
- New-SysmonConfiguration function has options to enable all logging for FileCreate, RegistryEvent and FileCreateStreamHash
- Get-SysmonEventData can now parse File Create, Registry and File Stream creation events.
- New function New-SysmonFileCreateFilter for creating file creation filters.
- New function New-SysmonRegistryEvent for creating registry event filters.
- New function New-SysmonFileCreateStreamHash for creating file stream hash event filters.
- Updated Get-SysmonRule, Set-SysmonRule, Remove-SysmonRule and Remove-SysmonRuleFilter for the new event type rules.
- Added Online Help option for all functions.
- Added missing Event Types to Get-SysmonEventData.
- Fixed issue with conditions with filters with space in them.
- Added support for ProcessAccess filtering added in Sysmon 4.1
- Added function New-SysmonProcessAccess for creating ProcessAccess filters.
- Fixed issue where command was displayed and not ran with New-SysmonDriverLoadFilter.
- Added ProcessAccess type in Get-SysmonEventData and Get-SysmonRuleFilter.
- In verbose output it shows with what version of Sysmon the file will be compatible with after creating it.
- Added support for Sysmon 4.0 XML schemea (Schema version 3.0)
- One can select the version of schema to support when creating the configuration file.
- All functions have been updated to support the use of more than one rule as per Schema 3.0
- Added Get-SysmonEventData to get the Event Data information as custom object for selected Event Types.
- Added Get-SysmonRuleFilter to get all filters under a specific Event Type Rule.
Version 3.0 is a full re-write om how rules work and new event types. This update is SysMon 3.0 only. If you wish to work on SysMon 2.0 rules I recommend you use version 0.3 version of the module.
- When creating a new sysmon rule it will allow you to enable logging of event types supported.
- Checks that it is only working with the proper XML schema for the rules.
- Can now create specific filter for CreateRemoteThread event type.
- Since Rules and Config got merger config functions (Get-SysmonConfigOptio, Set-SysmonConfigOption) where removed and replaced with Get-SysmonHashingAlgorithm and Set-SysmonHashingAlgorithm
- Tons of fixes do to a bad re-facor.
- Filter creation is now done by specific funtions per event type.
- Filter creation functions are now in their own sub-module.
- Validate that the file is an XML file and a valid Sysmon configuration file.
- Change option ConfigFile to Path and LiteralPath so as to match other cmdlets that work with files.
- Fixed typos on verbose messages and examples.
- Functions should work better now when passing files through the pipeline using Get-ChildItem.
- Initial version for Sysmon 2.0 with XML Schema 1.0
PS C:\> New-SysmonConfiguration -Path .\pc_marketing.xml -HashingAlgorithm IMPHASH,SHA1 -Network -Comment "Sysmon config for deployment in the Marketing PC OU" -Verbose VERBOSE: Enabling hashing algorithms : IMPHASH,SHA1 VERBOSE: Enabling network connection logging. VERBOSE: Config file created as C:\pc_marketing.xml
PS C:\> Get-SysmonRule -Path .\pc_marketing.xml
EventType : NetworkConnect
Scope : Filtered
DefaultAction : Exclude
Filters : {@{EventField=Image; Condition=Image; Value=C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe},
@{EventField=Image; Condition=Image; Value=C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe},
@{EventField=Image; Condition=Image; Value=C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe},
@{EventField=Image; Condition=Image; Value=C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe}...}
PS C:\> Get-SysmonRules -Path .\pc_marketing.xml | select -ExpandProperty Filters
EventField Condition Value
---------- --------- -----
Image Image C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe
Image Image C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplo...
Image Image C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe
Image Image C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Applicatio...
Image Image C:\Program Files (x86)\PuTTY\putty.exe
Image Image C:\Program Files (x86)\PuTTY\plink.exe
Image Image C:\Program Files (x86)\PuTTY\pscp.exe
Image Image C:\Program Files (x86)\PuTTY\psftp.exe
PS C:\> Set-SysmonRule -Path .\pc_marketing.xml -EventType ImageLoad -Verbose VERBOSE: No rule for ImageLoad was found. VERBOSE: Creating rule for event type with action of Exclude VERBOSE: Action has been set. EventType : ImageLoad Scope : All Events DefaultAction : Exclude Filters :
PS C:\> Get-SysmonRule -Path .\pc_marketing.xml -EventType NetworkConnect
EventType : NetworkConnect
Scope : Filtered
DefaultAction : Exclude
Filters : {@{EventField=Image; Condition=Image; Value=C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe},
@{EventField=Image; Condition=Image; Value=C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe},
@{EventField=Image; Condition=Image; Value=C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe},
@{EventField=Image; Condition=Image; Value=C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe}...}
PS C:\> Remove-SysmonRuleFilter -Path .\pc_marketing.xml -EventType NetworkConnect -Condition Image -EventField Image -Value $images -Verbose
VERBOSE: Filter for field Image with condition Image and value of C:\Windows\System32\svchost.exe removed.
VERBOSE: Filter for field Image with condition Image and value of C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe removed.
VERBOSE: Filter for field Image with condition Image and value of C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe removed.
VERBOSE: Filter for field Image with condition Image and value of C:\Program Files (x86)\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe removed.
VERBOSE: Filter for field Image with condition Image and value of C:\Program Files (x86)\PuTTY\putty.exe removed.
VERBOSE: Filter for field Image with condition Image and value of C:\Program Files (x86)\PuTTY\plink.exe removed.
VERBOSE: Filter for field Image with condition Image and value of C:\Program Files (x86)\PuTTY\pscp.exe removed.
VERBOSE: Filter for field Image with condition Image and value of C:\Program Files (x86)\PuTTY\psftp.exe removed.
EventType : NetworkConnect
Scope : All Events
DefaultAction : Exclude
Filters :
PS C:\> Remove-SysmonRule -Path .\pc_marketing.xml -EventType ImageLoad,NetworkConnect -Verbose VERBOSE: Removed rule for ImageLoad. VERBOSE: Removed rule for NetworkConnect.