PING.EXE
Sources: 300M+ executions observed in the wild.
Summary
Ping (ping.exe) sends ICMP echo requests to test network connectivity to a target host. Displays round-trip time and packet loss statistics.
PING.EXE is the 429th most commonly executed Windows program in EchoTrail's dataset, observed 15,946 times across enterprise environments. It typically runs from C:\Windows\System32 and it is most often launched by cmd.exe.
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Behavior
Top Paths
- C:\Windows\System3258.2%
- C:\Windows\SysWOW6441.8%
Top Hashes (SHA256)
- a97f91d6f165705edd286aeff25691806759bfdb051b20c4853965247dda36da25.71%
- e3cd6a30d8eea5ba802a453c9ff6225625a61074323e956fb04854e2f3eb627e12.75%
- 6fcd8b595636afcf7f7e1bdb4e5062a960fe53e67d82a69ea6db21d16115d11311.31%
- c370e9606a929aca877e7e5267a9f05ffa09a7cc4c53575b3be8216dfed945b110.14%
- aab02d72b4980d67f5e6c9bd5d9649aa034ce304f43cf301064d2f33a9124e5c8.1%
- a510579a207c53ba35ef3551d2d62cfd9fe0e9d7f13c1dd6beb8ced0d7f1154e7.03%
- ed7fa5b3ccbdd31a9e83f7c59f78ab5e2c83c7feedcc5f8b95948d11ebd7ff345.63%
- bdc34d4260925e54b84395b8167ca5d6f9c4aa2e047221c14f7736dddeb139063.91%
- c9b49dbf091bc66d6aee677269c613aeda0952ddbd113e21a6d9553c3e374d0f3.51%
- 9b97c065bca5fead86c951d9152a3d914dfcb1d9ac4d644fe1b0c7311489d4e32.87%
Process Ancestry
Top Grandparents
- explorer.exe79.34%
- svchost.exe7.41%
- WmiPrvSE.exe4.02%
- webexAppLauncher.exe1.04%
- cmd.exe0.52%
- msiexec.exe0.49%
- LTSVC.exe0.44%
- bash.exe0.21%
- services.exe0.2%
Top Parents
- cmd.exe53.06%
- dcconfig.exe35.02%
- sdiagnhost.exe4.26%
- powershell.exe3.76%
- rundll32.exe2.26%
- AvastSvc.exe0.13%
- RmmService.exe0.13%
- bash.exe0.12%
- pwsh.exe0.08%
- explorer.exe0.01%
Top Children
- conhost.exe100%
Security Analysis
What does PING.EXE normally do?
Located in C:\Windows\System32 or C:\Windows\SysWOW64. Launched by cmd.exe, management agents, and network diagnostic tools.
When is PING.EXE suspicious?
Ping sweeps (rapid sequential pings to different hosts) indicating network enumeration. Used as a connectivity check before lateral movement. Part of discovery sequences.
How do attackers abuse PING.EXE?
Network discovery: ping sweeps to identify live hosts. Also used as a simple delay mechanism in scripts (ping -n 10 127.0.0.1 > nul as a sleep substitute).
Detection guidance
Low priority alone. Ping sweeps (many targets in sequence) are worth monitoring as network reconnaissance.
False positive notes
Extremely common in monitoring, health checks, and administration.
Related Processes
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This page is the Team-tier API record for PING.EXE. The free tier returns the summary, 500 lookups a month. Or ask Rocky.