SPLK-5001 Threat Hunting Practice Question
You are performing a hypothesis-driven hunt and suspect that an attacker is using lateral movement via WMI. Which command in Splunk would best assist in identifying anomalous process creation events associated with WMI (wmiprvse.exe) spawning shells?
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
index=windows EventCode=4688 | stats count by ParentProcessName, ProcessName
Identifying abnormal parent-child relationships is a core hunting technique. Using tstats to aggregate process parent-child pairs is efficient.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
index=windows EventCode=4697 | table User, ServiceName
Why it's wrong here
This is for service installation events, not process execution.
- ✓
index=windows EventCode=4688 | stats count by ParentProcessName, ProcessName
Why this is correct
This efficiently isolates process lineage to spot anomalous spawns from wmiprvse.exe.
- ✗
index=windows EventCode=4624 | table Logon_Type, User
Why it's wrong here
This only identifies logins, not process execution behavior.
- ✗
index=windows EventCode=7045 | stats count by ServiceName
Why it's wrong here
This tracks service installation, not process spawning via WMI.
About these practice questions
This SPLK-5001 question is part of Courseiva's 203-question bank — original exam-style content with full explanations and wrong-answer analysis, never real exam questions or exam dumps. Learn why practice questions differ from exam dumps →
JA
Written and reviewed by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
Last reviewed August 2026 · checked against the official Splunk exam blueprint
This SPLK-5001 practice question is part of Courseiva's free Splunk certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the SPLK-5001 exam.