Virtualization/Sandbox Evasion: User Activity Based Checks Defense Evasion [Mitre]

Adversaries may employ various user activity checks 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 …

Virtualization/Sandbox Evasion: Time Based Evasion Defense Evasion [Mitre]

Adversaries may employ various time-based methods to detect and avoid virtualization and analysis environments. This may include enumerating time-based properties, such as uptime or the system clock, as well as the use of timers or other triggers to avoid a virtual machine environment (VME) or sandbox, specifically those that are automated or only operate for a limited amount of time.

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Process Camouflage, Masquerading Process Manipulating

Masquerading is a technique used by malware to evade detection by disguising itself as a legitimate file. This is typically achieved by renaming the malicious file to match the name of a commonly found and trusted file, such as svchost.exe, and placing it in a legitimate folder.

Masquerading can occur when the name or location of an executable, …

Base64 Data Obfuscation

Base64 is a simple encoding scheme that is often used by malware to represent binary data in an ASCII string. This allows the malware to encode and transmit binary data, such as a payload or network traffic, in a way that is more compact and easier to transmit over text-based communication channels.

Base64 uses a 64-character alphabet to encode …

Image File Execution Options Injection Process Manipulating

Image File Execution Options Injection, also known as IFEO Injection, is a technique used by malware to evade detection and persist on a compromised system.

The technique involves modifying the Image File Execution Options (IFEO) registry key, which is used by the Windows operating system to set debugging options for executable files. When an executable file is launched, the …

NOP Sled Anti-Disassembly

In computer security, a NOP slide is a sequence of NOP (no-operation) instructions that is inserted at the beginning of a code section. When a program branches to the start of this code section, it will "slide" through the NOP instructions until it reaches the desired, final destination. This technique is commonly used in software exploits to direct program execution …

Fast Flux Network Evasion

Fast flux is a technique used by botnets to conceal the location of their phishing and malware delivery sites by using a constantly changing network of compromised hosts as proxies. This makes it difficult for law enforcement and other security actors to track down and shut down the sites, as the IP addresses of the sites are constantly changing.

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Impair Defenses: Indicator Blocking Defense Evasion [Mitre]

An adversary may attempt to block indicators or events typically captured by sensors from being gathered and analyzed. This could include maliciously redirecting or even disabling host-based sensors, such as Event Tracing for Windows (ETW), by tampering settings that control the collection and flow of event telemetry. These settings may be stored on the system in configuration files and/or in …

Obfuscated Files or Information: Binary Padding Defense Evasion [Mitre]

Adversaries may use binary padding to add junk data and change the on-disk representation of malware. This can be done without affecting the functionality or behavior of a binary, but can increase the size of the binary beyond what some security tools are capable of handling due to file size limitations.

Binary padding effectively changes the checksum of the …

Obfuscated Files or Information: Software Packing Defense Evasion [Mitre]

Adversaries may perform software packing or virtual machine software protection to conceal their code. Software packing is a method of compressing or encrypting an executable. Packing an executable changes the file signature in an attempt to avoid signature-based detection. Most decompression techniques decompress the executable code in memory. Virtual machine software protection translates an executable's original code into a special …

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