Virtualization/Sandbox Evasion T1497
Tactics: Stealth, Discovery
Adversaries may employ various means to detect and avoid virtualization and analysis environments. This may include changing behaviors based on the results of checks for the presence of artifacts indicative of a virtual machine environment (VME) or sandbox. If the adversary detects a VME, they may alter their malware to disengage from the victim or conceal the core functions of the implant. They may also search for VME artifacts before dropping secondary or additional payloads. Adversaries may use the information learned from Virtualization/Sandbox Evasion during automated discovery to shape follow-on behaviors.
Events covered
6 catalog events are tagged with this technique by at least one rule.
| Provider | Event | Title |
|---|---|---|
| Sysmon | Event ID 1 | Process creation |
| Security-Auditing | Event ID 4688 | A new process has been created. |
| ESF | exec | Process Execution (Notify) |
| ESF | rename | File Rename (NOTIFY) |
| ESF | write | File Write (NOTIFY) |
| PowerShell | Event ID 4104 | Creating Scriptblock text (MessageNumber of MessageTotal). |
Authoring guide
Patterns shared across the 20 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 (21 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.
Top indicator values (113 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.
Exclusions (36 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.
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.
Sigma 3 rules
- Powershell Detect Virtualization Environment
- System Information Discovery Using System_Profiler
- System Information Discovery Via Sysctl - MacOS
Elastic 5 rules
- Delayed Execution via Ping
- Potential Microsoft Office Sandbox Evasion
- Suspicious SIP Check by macOS Application
- Virtual Machine Fingerprinting
- Virtual Machine Fingerprinting via Grep
Splunk 12 rules
- Common Recon Commands in Short Burst (Sysmon)
- Common Recon Commands in Short Burst (Windows Event Log)
- Headless Browser Usage
- Ping Sleep Batch Command
- Windows Chromium Browser Launched with Small Window Size
- Windows Chromium Browser No Security Sandbox Process
- Windows Chromium Browser with Custom User Data Directory
- Windows Chromium process Launched with Disable Popup Blocking
- Windows Chromium Process Launched with Logging Disabled
- Windows Chromium Process with Disabled Extensions
- Windows Time Based Evasion
- Windows Time Based Evasion via Choice Exec