HackTool - PCHunter Execution

Status: test
Severity: high
Log source: product windows, category process_creation
Author: Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Nasreddine Bencherchali
Source: github.com/SigmaHQ/sigma

Detects suspicious use of PCHunter, a tool like Process Hacker to view and manipulate processes, kernel options and other low level stuff

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Tactic	Techniques
Discovery	`T1007` System Service Discovery, `T1012` Query Registry, `T1057` Process Discovery, `T1082` System Information Discovery, `T1083` File and Directory Discovery

Event coverage

Provider	Event	Title
Sysmon	Event ID 1	Process creation

Rule body yaml

title: HackTool - PCHunter Execution
id: fca949cc-79ca-446e-8064-01aa7e52ece5
status: test
description: Detects suspicious use of PCHunter, a tool like Process Hacker to view and manipulate processes, kernel options and other low level stuff
references:
    - https://web.archive.org/web/20231210115125/http://www.xuetr.com/
    - https://www.crowdstrike.com/blog/falcon-overwatch-report-finds-increase-in-ecrime/
    - https://www.hexacorn.com/blog/2018/04/20/kernel-hacking-tool-you-might-have-never-heard-of-xuetr-pchunter/
author: Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Nasreddine Bencherchali
date: 2022-10-10
modified: 2024-11-23
tags:
    - attack.execution
    - attack.discovery
    - attack.t1082
    - attack.t1057
    - attack.t1012
    - attack.t1083
    - attack.t1007
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection_image:
        Image|endswith:
            - '\PCHunter64.exe'
            - '\PCHunter32.exe'
    selection_pe:
        - OriginalFileName: 'PCHunter.exe'
        - Description: 'Epoolsoft Windows Information View Tools'
    selection_hashes:
        Hashes|contains:
            - 'SHA1=5F1CBC3D99558307BC1250D084FA968521482025'
            - 'MD5=987B65CD9B9F4E9A1AFD8F8B48CF64A7'
            - 'SHA256=2B214BDDAAB130C274DE6204AF6DBA5AEEC7433DA99AA950022FA306421A6D32'
            - 'IMPHASH=444D210CEA1FF8112F256A4997EED7FF'
            - 'SHA1=3FB89787CB97D902780DA080545584D97FB1C2EB'
            - 'MD5=228DD0C2E6287547E26FFBD973A40F14'
            - 'SHA256=55F041BF4E78E9BFA6D4EE68BE40E496CE3A1353E1CA4306598589E19802522C'
            - 'IMPHASH=0479F44DF47CFA2EF1CCC4416A538663'
    condition: 1 of selection_*
falsepositives:
    - Unlikely
level: high

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

1 of selection_*

Stage 1: `selection_image`

selection_image:
    Image|endswith:
        - '\PCHunter64.exe'
        - '\PCHunter32.exe'

Stage 2: `selection_pe`

selection_pe:
    - OriginalFileName: 'PCHunter.exe'
    - Description: 'Epoolsoft Windows Information View Tools'

Stage 3: `selection_hashes`

selection_hashes:
    Hashes|contains:
        - 'SHA1=5F1CBC3D99558307BC1250D084FA968521482025'
        - 'MD5=987B65CD9B9F4E9A1AFD8F8B48CF64A7'
        - 'SHA256=2B214BDDAAB130C274DE6204AF6DBA5AEEC7433DA99AA950022FA306421A6D32'
        - 'IMPHASH=444D210CEA1FF8112F256A4997EED7FF'
        - 'SHA1=3FB89787CB97D902780DA080545584D97FB1C2EB'
        - 'MD5=228DD0C2E6287547E26FFBD973A40F14'
        - 'SHA256=55F041BF4E78E9BFA6D4EE68BE40E496CE3A1353E1CA4306598589E19802522C'
        - 'IMPHASH=0479F44DF47CFA2EF1CCC4416A538663'

Indicators

Each row is a field, operator, and value that the rule matches. The corpus column counts how many other rules in the catalog look for the same combination: high numbers point to widely-used, community-vetted indicators. Blank or 1 shows that the indicator is specific to this rule.

Field	Kind	Values
`Description`	eq	`Epoolsoft Windows Information View Tools`
`Hashes`	match	`IMPHASH=0479F44DF47CFA2EF1CCC4416A538663` `IMPHASH=444D210CEA1FF8112F256A4997EED7FF` `MD5=228DD0C2E6287547E26FFBD973A40F14` `MD5=987B65CD9B9F4E9A1AFD8F8B48CF64A7` `SHA1=3FB89787CB97D902780DA080545584D97FB1C2EB` `SHA1=5F1CBC3D99558307BC1250D084FA968521482025` `SHA256=2B214BDDAAB130C274DE6204AF6DBA5AEEC7433DA99AA950022FA306421A6D32` `SHA256=55F041BF4E78E9BFA6D4EE68BE40E496CE3A1353E1CA4306598589E19802522C`
`Image`	ends_with	`\PCHunter32.exe` `\PCHunter64.exe`
`OriginalFileName`	eq	`PCHunter.exe`

`j` / `k`	Scroll down / up
`d` / `u`	Half-page down / up
`gg` / `G`	Top / bottom
`h` / `l`	History back / forward
`f`	Follow link (`Shift` = new tab)
`/`	Focus search
`?`	Toggle this help
`↑` / `↓`	Navigate search results
`Enter`	Open highlighted result
`Esc`	Close results / dialog

`type:`	`events` / `rules` / `providers`
`vendor:`	`sigma` / `elastic` / `splunk` / `kusto` / `chronicle` (vendor name alone also works: `sigma:`, `kql:`, `secops:`…)
`tactic:`	TA-id, slug, or name: `credential_access`, `TA0006`
`technique:`	technique or sub-technique ID: `T1003`, `T1003.001` (alias `tech:`)
`severity:`	`critical` / `high` / `medium` / `low` / `informational` (alias `sev:`)
`risk_score`	Numeric comparison on the Elastic risk score (0 to 100): `risk_score>50`, `risk_score<=20`, `risk_score=99` (alias `risk`; Elastic rules only)
`stages:`	Rules with exactly N pipeline stages
`correlation:`	`single_event` / `sequence` / `alternatives` / `alternatives_cross_log` / `all_required` / `correlated`
`with:`	Co-occurrence event-id; stacks (`with:4624 with:4769`) to require all, while a comma list in one occurrence (`with:4624,4769`) is an either-or group. Implies multi-event
`like:`	Structural neighbors of a rule slug (equivalents + subsumption stricter / broader): `like:comsvcs_lsass_memory_dump-splunk-sysmon`
`groupby:`	Entity-grouping substring match against `group_by_keys`: `groupby:user`, `groupby:host`
`uses:`	Rules whose predicate tree touches the field (any kind, any value): `uses:CommandLine`
`excludes:`	Rules with top-level `not()` clauses on the field (FP whitelists): `excludes:ParentImage`
`field:` / `value:`	Predicate search; narrows rule cards to those with a matching leaf and drives the indicator tier. Unquoted = substring, wildcards allowed (`value:mimikatz`)
`indicator:`	Shorthand for `field:F value:V`: `indicator:Image=*\powershell.exe`
`kind:`	Filter by predicate kind. Narrows rule cards to those carrying a matching predicate leaf (`vendor:elastic kind:cidr_match`) and drives the indicator tier: `contains` / `starts_with` / `ends_with` / `regex` / `cidr` / `eq` / `in` … (operator aliases `op:`/`match:`)
`has:` / `no:`	`sample`, `field`, `notes`, `refs`, `trace`, `thirdparty`, `rule`, `pattern`, `timewindow`, `threshold`, `newterms`, `sigma`/`elastic`/`splunk`/`kusto`/`chronicle`
`-op:val`	Exclude matches; works on most operators but not `type:`/`like:`/`has:`/`no:` (use `no:<flag>` to exclude a rule flag): `tactic:execution -vendor:splunk`. Standalone `-kind:`/`-field:`/`-value:` drop every rule carrying a matching predicate leaf (`type:rules -kind:is_null`)
`field:"…"` / `value:"…"`	Quoted value = anchored exact match (also allows spaces): `value:"net user"`
`a,b`	Comma = OR inside one operator (`vendor:sigma,elastic`, `severity:high,critical`); repeating a facet merges the same way. `field:`/`value:` never split (literal commas)
`vendors:` / `stage:`	Singular and plural spellings fold to the canonical operator and value: `tactics:` = `tactic:`, `type:event` = `type:events`, `correlation:sequences` = `correlation:sequence`, `has:thresholds` = `has:threshold`
`"quoted phrase"`	Exact-match a multi-word phrase (free text)

HackTool - PCHunter Execution

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Event coverage

Rule body yaml

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: `condition`

Stage 1: `selection_image`

Stage 2: `selection_pe`

Stage 3: `selection_hashes`

Indicators

Keyboard shortcuts

Search operators

HackTool - PCHunter Execution

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

Event coverage

Rule body yaml

Stages and Predicates

Stage 0: condition

Stage 1: selection_image

Stage 2: selection_pe

Stage 3: selection_hashes

Indicators

Stage 0: `condition`

Stage 1: `selection_image`

Stage 2: `selection_pe`

Stage 3: `selection_hashes`