Virtualization/Sandbox Evasion: Time Based Checks T1497.003

Tactics: Stealth, Discovery

Adversaries may employ various time-based methods to detect virtualization and analysis environments, particularly those that attempt to manipulate time mechanisms to simulate longer elapses of time. This may include enumerating time-based properties, such as uptime or the system clock.

Events covered

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

Authoring guide

Patterns shared across the 4 rules above: which fields they filter on, what specific values they look for, and what they exclude. The catalog normalizes field names across vendors so Sigma's Image, Elastic's process.name, and Splunk's process_name collapse into one row. Each rule contributes at most once per row.

Fields filtered most (9 distinct)

The fields most rules look at when detecting this technique. The How column shows the operators authors use (eq, wildcard, regex_match, match) and how often each appears. Sample values are concrete examples to start from, not an exhaustive list.

FieldRulesHowSample values
process_name4eq 4ping.exe, certutil.exe, choice.exe, cscript.exe, ieexec.exe
CommandLine3contains 2, in 2*& *, *&C:*, *&*, *ping 0 -n *, *ping 0 -n *
ParentCommandLine2in 2, contains 1*& *, *&C:*, *&*, *ping 0 -n *, *ping 0 -n *
EventType1eq 1start
Image1wildcard 1?:\users\*\appdata\*.exe
OriginalFileName1eq 1ping.exe
parent_process_name1eq 1cmd.exe
process.args1eq 1-n
process.code_signature.trusted1ne 1true

Top indicator values (47 distinct)

Specific (field, operator, value) combinations the rules check for, ranked by how many rules under this technique use each one. The Corpus reach column counts how many rules across the entire catalog (any technique) check the same combination. High numbers point to widely-used indicators that are likely noisy on their own; combine them with another condition for useful signal. Blank means the combination is specific to rules under this technique. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that use it.

FieldKindValueRules (here)Corpus reach
process_nameeq
ping.exe
39
CommandLinecontains
-n
1
CommandLinecontains
/n
1
CommandLinecontains
/t
12
CommandLinein
*& *
1
CommandLinein
*&C:*
1
CommandLinein
*&*
1
CommandLinein
*>*
1
CommandLinein
*>*
1
CommandLinein
*ping 0 -n *
1
CommandLinein
*ping 0 -n *
1
CommandLinein
*ping.exe 0 -n *
1
CommandLinein
*ping.exe 0 -n *
1
EventTypeeq
start
116
Imagewildcard
?:\users\*\appdata\*.exe
1
OriginalFileNameeq
ping.exe
12
ParentCommandLinecontains
-n
1
ParentCommandLinecontains
ping
1
ParentCommandLinein
*& *
1
ParentCommandLinein
*&C:*
1
ParentCommandLinein
*&*
1
ParentCommandLinein
*>*
1
ParentCommandLinein
*>*
1
ParentCommandLinein
*ping 0 -n *
1
ParentCommandLinein
*ping 0 -n *
1
ParentCommandLinein
*ping.exe 0 -n *
1
ParentCommandLinein
*ping.exe 0 -n *
1
parent_process_nameeq
cmd.exe
115
process.argseq
-n
12
process.code_signature.trustedne
true
14

Exclusions (21 distinct)

Field/operator/value combinations excluded by rules under this technique (top-level not() clauses), sorted by how many rules exclude each. These are the false-positive paths the community has learned to filter out. A new rule that ignores the high-count entries here will likely fire on the same noisy paths. Click a value to expand the rules under this technique that exclude it.

FieldKindValueRules excluding
CommandLineeq
driver\DPInst_x64 /f
1
CurrentDirectorywildcard
?:\Users\*\AppData\Local\Temp\BackupBootstrapper\Logs\
1
CurrentDirectorywildcard
?:\Users\*\AppData\Local\Temp\QBTools\
1
CurrentDirectorywildcard
?:\Windows\TempInst\*
1
OriginalFileNameeq
dpinst.exe
1
ParentCommandLinecontains
screenconnectconfigurator.cmd
1
process.argseq
?:\Windows\SysWOW64\mschrt20.ocx
1
process.argseq
?:\windows\syswow64\msxml?.dll
1
process.argseq
launchquiet_args.vbs
1
process.argseq
msxml?.dll
1
process.argsstarts_with
?:\Program Files (x86)\
1
process.argsstarts_with
?:\Program Files\
1
process.argsstarts_with
Write-Host ======
1
process.parent.argsstarts_with
?:\Windows\TempInst\7z
1
process_nameeq
certutil.exe
1

Rules under this technique

Every rule in the catalog tagged with this technique, grouped by vendor. Click a rule title for its full predicates, exclusions, and indicators.

Platform (all)
Domain (all)

Elastic 1 rule

Splunk 3 rules