Sysmon (Sysinternals)
System Monitor (Sysmon) is a Windows system service from Microsoft Sysinternals that logs process creation, network connections and file changes to the event log.
Legal & ethical use. Use this tool only on systems, networks and data that you own or have explicit written permission to test. Unauthorised access or scanning can break computer-misuse laws (for example Pakistan's Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016, and equivalents elsewhere). Practise in your own lab or in authorised environments such as CTFs.
What it is used for
- Generate detailed endpoint telemetry for detection engineering
- Investigate process trees during an incident
Key features
- Process creation with hashes
- Network connection logging
- Configurable via XML
Installation
Download the Sysinternals Sysmon package from Microsoft Learn and install it with a configuration file.
Beginner usage guide
Install with a community or custom configuration, run a test command and find the resulting Event ID 1 in Event Viewer.
Example commands
Run these only against your own lab or authorised targets. Placeholder addresses such as 192.0.2.x are documentation ranges.
Install with a configuration (admin prompt)
sysmon64 -accepteula -i sysmonconfig.xmlInstalls the service using your XML configuration.
Keep learning
🚩 Practice challenge: Triage the Alert medium
References
Source verification
Last reviewed: 2026-10-27
Links checked over HTTP: 2026-10-27 07:51 UTC — official: 200, docs: 200, repo: 200
Commands were written from the official documentation and have not been executed on this site; test them in your lab.