Masquerading T1036

Tactic: Stealth

Adversaries may attempt to manipulate features of their artifacts to make them appear legitimate or benign to users and/or security tools. Masquerading occurs when the name or location of an object, legitimate or malicious, is manipulated or abused for the sake of evading defenses and observation. This may include manipulating file metadata, tricking users into misidentifying the file type, and giving legitimate task or service names.

Events covered

33 catalog events are tagged with this technique by at least one rule.

ProviderEventTitle
SysmonEvent ID 1Process creation
SysmonEvent ID 3Network connection
SysmonEvent ID 5Process terminated
SysmonEvent ID 6Driver loaded
SysmonEvent ID 7Image loaded
SysmonEvent ID 11FileCreate
SysmonEvent ID 13RegistryEvent (Value Set)
SysmonEvent ID 29FileExecutableDetected
Security-AuditingEvent ID 4663An attempt was made to access an object.
Security-AuditingEvent ID 4688A new process has been created.
Security-AuditingEvent ID 4689A process has exited.
Security-AuditingEvent ID 4720A user account was created.
Security-AuditingEvent ID 4768A Kerberos authentication ticket (TGT) was requested.
Security-AuditingEvent ID 4781The name of an account was changed.
Security-AuditingEvent ID 4799A security-enabled local group membership was enumerated.
Security-AuditingEvent ID 5058Key file operation.
Security-AuditingEvent ID 5059Key migration operation.
Security-AuditingEvent ID 5156The Windows Filtering Platform has permitted a connection.
Security-AuditingEvent ID 5379Credential Manager credentials were read.
Defender-DeviceProcessEventsanyProcess activity
Defender-DeviceProcessEventsProcessCreatedProcess created
ESFexecProcess Execution
ESFopenFile Open
ESFrenameFile Rename
ESFwriteFile Write
Linux-AuditdEvent ID 1309EXECVE
PowerShellEvent ID 4103Payload Context: ContextInfo User Data: UserData.
PowerShellEvent ID 4104Creating Scriptblock text (MessageNumber of MessageTotal).
Windows-DefenderEvent ID 1119ProductName has encountered a critical error when taking action on malware or other potentially unwanted software.
PowerShellEvent ID 400Event ID 400
Service-Control-ManagerEvent ID 7045A service was installed in the system.
Sysmon-for-LinuxEvent ID 1Process Create
Sysmon-for-LinuxEvent ID 11File created

Authoring guide

These 315 rules share fields, values, and exclusions.

Fields filtered most (129 distinct)

These fields appear most often in rule filters.

FieldRulesHowSample values
Image112ends_with 67, starts_with 19, contains 14, wildcard 11, is_not_null 8, eq 7, regex_match 3, ne 2, in 1, is_null 1, /dev/shm/*, \cmd.exe, \bitsadmin.exe, /boot/*
CommandLine75contains 49, regex_match 15, ends_with 8, in 6, match 3, eq 2, ne 2, starts_with 2, wildcard 2, is_null 1, length_compare 1 /create , /addfile , /transfer , cp , (?i)(copy-item|copy|xcopy|cp|cpi|robocopy)\s+.+(\x5c(syst...
process_basename69eq 38, in 11, starts_with 7, wildcard 5, ne 4, regex_match 4, contains 3, ends_with 2, is_not_null 1bash, csh, WerFault.exe, cp, dash
event.type63eq 61, ne 3start, creation, deletion
EventType58eq 39, in 15, ne 3, starts_with 1exec, start, exec_event, ProcessRollup2, connection_attempted
OriginalFileName56eq 50, contains 2, in 2, wildcard 2, is_not_null 1bitsadmin.exe, schtasks.exe, MSBuild.exe, msdt.exe, AutoHotkey.exe
EventID38eq 384688, 1, 4103, 4104, 7
ParentImage32ends_with 14, eq 6, is_not_null 6, contains 5, is_null 2, starts_with 2, wildcard 2, in 1, match 1, ne 1, \, -, ?:\*, ?:\ProgramData\*
TargetFilename25contains 13, ends_with 9, starts_with 6, wildcard 5, in 4, eq 1, match 1.dll, .exe, .doc., .docx., C:\$WINDOWS.~BT\
process.args22eq 9, wildcard 7, starts_with 6, in 5, ends_with 2, regex_match 2, is_not_null 1-c, /bin/bash, , *&, *--as *
parent_process_basename20eq 15, in 3, is_not_null 1, ne 1, starts_with 1, wildcard 1cmd.exe, explorer.exe, powershell.exe, autochk.exe, cscript.exe
dll.name14eq 11, in 2, wildcard 1winhttp.dll, ws2_32.dll, amsi.dll, netapi32.dll, wininet.dll
process.args_count13eq 10, ge 2, le 11, 2, 3, 4
process.thread.Ext.call_stack_summary13starts_with 6, eq 3, in 3, contains 1, wildcard 1ntdll.dll, ntdll.dll|*, ntdll.dll|Unbacked, ntdll.dll|archiveint.dll|kernel32.dll|ntdll.dll, ntdll.dll|authfwsnapin.dll|kernel32.dll|ntdll.dll
process_name13regex_match 11, ends_with 1, in 1(?i)(\x5c\$Recycle\.bin\x5c|\x5cconfig\x5csystemprofile\x..., (?i)\s+\x5c, (?i)\x5csystem32\x5c(lsass|services)\.exe, (?i)\x5csystem32\x5cspoolsv\.exe, (?i)^(svchost\.exe|rundll32\.exe|services\.exe|powershell...

Top indicator values (6211 distinct)

These values appear most often in rule predicates.

FieldKindValueRules (here)Corpus reach
event.typeeq
start
541036
EventTypeeq
start
18388
EventTypeeq
exec
13547
EventIDeq
1
11226
EventIDeq
4688
11284
Imageis_not_null
8155
CommandLinecontains
/create
715
CommandLinecontains
/addfile
55
CommandLinecontains
/transfer
55
CommandLinecontains
cp
47
Imageends_with
\cmd.exe
7132
Imageends_with
\powershell.exe
7181
Imageends_with
\pwsh.exe
7166
Imageends_with
\bitsadmin.exe
629
Imageends_with
\rundll32.exe
694
Imageends_with
\svchost.exe
622
EventTypein
exec
6180
EventTypein
exec_event
6135
ParentImageis_not_null
693
dll.nameeq
winhttp.dll
616
dll.nameeq
ws2_32.dll
619
dll.nameeq
wininet.dll
518
EventSubTypene
AttackAttempt
57
OriginalFileNameeq
bitsadmin.exe
519
process.args_counteq
1
550
process.code_signature.trustedeq
false
5114
process_basenameeq
WerFault.exe
57
process_basenameeq
rundll32.exe
5123
process_basenameeq
svchost.exe
521
process_basenameeq
wermgr.exe
55

Exclusions (1682 distinct)

These values appear most often in top-level exclusions.

FieldKindValueRules excluding
process.code_signature.trustedeq
true
17
Imagewildcard
?:\Program Files (x86)\*.exe
7
Imagewildcard
?:\Program Files\*.exe
7
process_basenameeq
rundll32.exe
5
process_basenameeq
cmd.exe
4
process_basenameeq
powershell.exe
4
Imageends_with
\cmd.exe
4
Imagein
*:\Windows\SysWOW64\*
4
Imagein
*:\Windows\System32\*
4
Imagestarts_with
/tmp/newroot/*
4
SignatureStatuswildcard
errorCode_endpoint*
4
dll.code_signature.statuswildcard
errorCode_endpoint*
4
parent_process_basenameeq
cmd.exe
4
parent_process_basenameeq
rundll32.exe
4
parent_process_nameregex_match
^-$
4

Rules under this technique

These vendors publish rules tagged with this technique.

Platform (all)
Domain (all)

Sigma 97 rules

Elastic 128 rules

Splunk 66 rules

Kusto 24 rules