Indicator Removal: Timestomp

Timestomping is a technique used by adversaries to modify the timestamps of a file, such as the modify, access, create, and change times. This technique is often used to hide the fact that a file has been modified or created by the adversary, making it more difficult for forensic investigators or file analysis tools to detect the changes.

By modifying the timestamps of a file, the adversary can make it appear as if the file has been present on the system for a longer period of time, or that it was last accessed or modified at a different time than it actually was. This can help the adversary avoid detection and continue operating on a compromised system without being detected.

Technique Identifiers

U0303 T1070.006

Technique Tags

Timestomping Timestamp manipulation Change times Forensic investigators File analysis tools APT28 APT29 APT32 APT38

Featured Windows API's

Below, you will find a list of the most commonly used Windows API's that are currently utilized by malware authors for current evasion technique. This list is meant to provide an overview of the API's that are commonly used for this purpose. If there are any API's that you feel should be included on this list, please do not hesitate to contact us. We will be happy to update the list and provide any additional information or documentation that may be helpful.

GetProcAddress

Evasion Categories

Anti-Forensic

Defense Evasion [Mitre]

Code Snippets

Description

Original source and author: https://github.com/limbenjamin/nTimetools

// #######################################################################
// ############ HEADER FILES
// #######################################################################
#include <windows.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <inttypes.h>
#include <math.h>

typedef LONG NTSTATUS;
char* VERSION_NO = "1.1";
HANDLE file = NULL;


typedef struct _IO_STATUS_BLOCK {
	union {
		NTSTATUS Status;
		PVOID Pointer;
	};
	ULONG_PTR Information;
} IO_STATUS_BLOCK, *PIO_STATUS_BLOCK;

typedef enum _FILE_INFORMATION_CLASS {
	FileBasicInformation = 4,
	FileStandardInformation = 5,
	FilePositionInformation = 14,
	FileEndOfFileInformation = 20,
} FILE_INFORMATION_CLASS, *PFILE_INFORMATION_CLASS;

typedef struct _FILE_BASIC_INFORMATION {
	LARGE_INTEGER CreationTime;							// Created             
	LARGE_INTEGER LastAccessTime;                       // Accessed    
	LARGE_INTEGER LastWriteTime;                        // Modifed
	LARGE_INTEGER ChangeTime;                           // Entry Modified
	ULONG FileAttributes;
} FILE_BASIC_INFORMATION, *PFILE_BASIC_INFORMATION;

typedef NTSTATUS(WINAPI *pNtSetInformationFile)(HANDLE, PIO_STATUS_BLOCK, PVOID, ULONG, FILE_INFORMATION_CLASS);
typedef NTSTATUS(WINAPI *pNtQueryInformationFile)(HANDLE, PIO_STATUS_BLOCK, PVOID, ULONG, FILE_INFORMATION_CLASS);

HANDLE LoadFile(char *filename, FILE_BASIC_INFORMATION *fbi);
VOID RetrieveFileBasicInformation(char *filename, FILE_BASIC_INFORMATION *fbi);
DWORD SetFileMACE(HANDLE file, DWORD fileAttributes, char *mtimestamp, char *atimestamp, char *ctimestamp, char *btimestamp);
LARGE_INTEGER ParseDateTimeInput(char *inputstring);
VOID About();
VOID Usage();

// #######################################################################
// ############ FUNCTIONS
// #######################################################################

VOID About() {
	printf("nTimestomp, Version %s\r\n", VERSION_NO);
	printf("Copyright (C) 2019 Benjamin Lim\r\n");
	printf("Available for free from https://limbenjamin.com/pages/ntimetools\r\n");
	printf("\r\n");
}

VOID Usage() {
	printf("\r\n");
	printf("Usage: .\\nTimestomp.exe [Modified Date] [Last Access Date] [Last Write Date] [Creation Date]\r\n");
	printf("Date Format: yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss.ddddddd\r\n");
	printf("\r\n");
}

HANDLE LoadFile(char *filename, FILE_BASIC_INFORMATION *fbi) {

	HANDLE file = NULL;
	HMODULE ntdll = NULL;

	file = CreateFile(filename, GENERIC_READ | GENERIC_WRITE | FILE_WRITE_ATTRIBUTES, 0, NULL, OPEN_EXISTING, 0, NULL);
	if (file == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) {
		printf("Cannot open file: %S\r\n", filename);
		Usage();
		exit(1);
	}

	/* load ntdll and retrieve function pointer */
	ntdll = GetModuleHandle(TEXT("ntdll.dll"));
	if (ntdll == NULL) {
		printf("Cannot load ntdll\r\n");
		CloseHandle(file);
		exit(1);
	}
	FreeLibrary(ntdll);

	return file;
}

/* returns the handle on success or NULL on failure. this function opens a file and returns
the FILE_BASIC_INFORMATION on it. */
VOID RetrieveFileBasicInformation(HANDLE file, FILE_BASIC_INFORMATION *fbi) {

	HMODULE ntdll = NULL;
	pNtQueryInformationFile NtQueryInformationFile = NULL;
	IO_STATUS_BLOCK iostatus;

	/* load ntdll and retrieve function pointer */
	ntdll = GetModuleHandle(TEXT("ntdll.dll"));
	if (ntdll == NULL) {
		printf("Cannot load ntdll\r\n");
		CloseHandle(file);
		exit(1);
	}

	/* retrieve current timestamps including file attributes which we want to preserve */
	NtQueryInformationFile = (pNtQueryInformationFile)GetProcAddress(ntdll, "NtQueryInformationFile");
	if (NtQueryInformationFile == NULL) {
		CloseHandle(file);
		exit(1);
	}

	/* obtain the current file information including attributes */
	if (NtQueryInformationFile(file, &iostatus, fbi, sizeof(FILE_BASIC_INFORMATION), 4) < 0) {
		CloseHandle(file);
		exit(1);
	}

	/* clean up */
	FreeLibrary(ntdll);

}

DWORD SetFileMACE(HANDLE file, DWORD fileAttributes, char *mtimestamp, char *atimestamp, char *ctimestamp, char *btimestamp) {

	HMODULE ntdll = NULL;
	pNtSetInformationFile NtSetInformationFile = NULL;
	IO_STATUS_BLOCK iostatus;

	FILE_BASIC_INFORMATION fbi;
	fbi.LastWriteTime = ParseDateTimeInput(mtimestamp);
	fbi.LastAccessTime = ParseDateTimeInput(atimestamp);
	fbi.ChangeTime = ParseDateTimeInput(ctimestamp);
	fbi.CreationTime = ParseDateTimeInput(btimestamp);
	
	fbi.FileAttributes = fileAttributes;

	/* load ntdll and retrieve function pointer */
	ntdll = GetModuleHandle(TEXT("ntdll.dll"));
	if (ntdll == NULL) {
		printf("Cannot load ntdll\r\n");
		CloseHandle(file);
		exit(1);
	}

	NtSetInformationFile = (pNtSetInformationFile)GetProcAddress(ntdll, "NtSetInformationFile");
	if (NtSetInformationFile == NULL) {
		CloseHandle(file);
		exit(1);
	}

	if (NtSetInformationFile(file, &iostatus, &fbi, sizeof(FILE_BASIC_INFORMATION), FileBasicInformation) < 0) {
		CloseHandle(file);
		exit(1);
	}

	/* clean up */
	printf("File timestamp successfully set\r\n");
	FreeLibrary(ntdll);

	return 0;
}

LARGE_INTEGER ParseDateTimeInput(char *inputstring) {

	SYSTEMTIME systemtime = { 0 };
	LARGE_INTEGER nanoTime = { 0 };
	FILETIME filetime;
	LARGE_INTEGER dec = { 0 };
	LARGE_INTEGER res = { 0 };

	if (sscanf_s(inputstring, "%hu-%hu-%hu %hu:%hu:%hu.%7d", &systemtime.wYear, &systemtime.wMonth, &systemtime.wDay, &systemtime.wHour, &systemtime.wMinute, &systemtime.wSecond, &dec.QuadPart) == 0) {
		printf("Wrong Date Format");
		CloseHandle(file);
		exit(1);
	}

	/* sanitize input */

	if (systemtime.wMonth < 1 || systemtime.wMonth > 12) {
		printf("Wrong Date Format");
		CloseHandle(file);
		exit(1);
	}
	if (systemtime.wDay < 1 || systemtime.wDay > 31) {
		printf("Wrong Date Format");
		CloseHandle(file);
		exit(1);
	}
	if (systemtime.wYear < 1601 || systemtime.wYear > 30827) {
		printf("Wrong Date Format");
		CloseHandle(file);
		exit(1);
	}

	if (systemtime.wMinute < 0 || systemtime.wMinute > 59) {
		printf("Wrong Date Format");
		CloseHandle(file);
		exit(1);
	}
	if (systemtime.wSecond < 0 || systemtime.wSecond > 59) {
		printf("Wrong Date Format");
		CloseHandle(file);
		exit(1);
	}

	systemtime.wMilliseconds = 0;
	if (SystemTimeToFileTime(&systemtime, &filetime) == 0) {
		printf("Invalid filetime\r\n");
		CloseHandle(file);
		exit(1);
	}

	nanoTime.LowPart = filetime.dwLowDateTime;
	nanoTime.HighPart = filetime.dwHighDateTime;

	res.QuadPart = nanoTime.QuadPart + dec.QuadPart;

	return res;
}

/* returns 0 on error, 1 on success. this function converts a LARGE_INTEGER to a SYSTEMTIME structure */
DWORD ConvertLargeIntegerToLocalTime(SYSTEMTIME *localsystemtime, LARGE_INTEGER largeinteger) {

	FILETIME filetime;
	FILETIME localfiletime;
	DWORD result = 0;

	filetime.dwLowDateTime = largeinteger.LowPart;
	filetime.dwHighDateTime = largeinteger.HighPart;

	if (FileTimeToSystemTime(&filetime, localsystemtime) == 0) {
		printf("Invalid filetime\r\n");
		exit(1);
	}

	return 1;
}

int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {

	if (argc < 5) {
		Usage();
		exit(1);
	}

	FILE_BASIC_INFORMATION fbi; 
	struct _SYSTEMTIME time = { 0 };
	wchar_t filename[4096] = { 0 };
	char str[256];
	CHAR lpVolumeNameBuffer[MAX_PATH + 1] = { 0 };
	CHAR lpFileSystemNameBuffer[MAX_PATH + 1] = { 0 };
	LARGE_INTEGER lpFileSizeHigh = { 0 };

	About();
	MultiByteToWideChar(CP_ACP, 0, argv[1], -1, filename, 4096);
	file = LoadFile(filename, &fbi);
	GetVolumeInformationByHandleW(file, &lpVolumeNameBuffer, ARRAYSIZE(lpVolumeNameBuffer), 0, 0, 0, &lpFileSystemNameBuffer, ARRAYSIZE(lpVolumeNameBuffer));
	GetFileSizeEx(file, &lpFileSizeHigh);

	printf("Filesystem type:		%S\r\n", lpFileSystemNameBuffer);
	printf("Filename:			%S\r\n", filename);
	printf("File size:			%d\r\n", lpFileSizeHigh.QuadPart);
	printf("\r\n");

	SetFileMACE(file, fbi.FileAttributes, argv[2], argv[3], argv[4], argv[5]);
	RetrieveFileBasicInformation(file, &fbi);

	printf("\r\n");
	ConvertLargeIntegerToLocalTime(&time, fbi.LastWriteTime);
	if (fbi.LastWriteTime.QuadPart != 0) {
		sprintf_s(str, 256, "%lld", fbi.LastWriteTime.QuadPart);
		printf("[M] Last Write Time:		%04d-%02d-%02d %02d:%02d:%02d.%7s UTC\r\n", time.wYear, time.wMonth, time.wDay, time.wHour, time.wMinute, time.wSecond, &str[11]);
	}
	else {
		printf("[M] Last Write Time:		%04d-%02d-%02d %02d:%02d:%02d.0000000 UTC\r\n", time.wYear, time.wMonth, time.wDay, time.wHour, time.wMinute, time.wSecond);
	}
	memset(&time, 0, sizeof(time));

	ConvertLargeIntegerToLocalTime(&time, fbi.LastAccessTime);
	if (fbi.LastAccessTime.QuadPart != 0) {
		sprintf_s(str, 256, "%lld", fbi.LastAccessTime.QuadPart);
		printf("[A] Last Access Time:		%04d-%02d-%02d %02d:%02d:%02d.%7s UTC\r\n", time.wYear, time.wMonth, time.wDay, time.wHour, time.wMinute, time.wSecond, &str[11]);
	}
	else {
		printf("[A] Last Access Time:		%04d-%02d-%02d %02d:%02d:%02d.0000000 UTC\r\n", time.wYear, time.wMonth, time.wDay, time.wHour, time.wMinute, time.wSecond);
	}
	memset(&time, 0, sizeof(time));

	ConvertLargeIntegerToLocalTime(&time, fbi.ChangeTime);
	if (fbi.ChangeTime.QuadPart != 0) {
		sprintf_s(str, 256, "%lld", fbi.ChangeTime.QuadPart);
		printf("[C] Metadata Change Time:	%04d-%02d-%02d %02d:%02d:%02d.%7s UTC\r\n", time.wYear, time.wMonth, time.wDay, time.wHour, time.wMinute, time.wSecond, &str[11]);
	}
	else {
		printf("[C] Metadata Change Time:	%04d-%02d-%02d %02d:%02d:%02d.0000000 UTC\r\n", time.wYear, time.wMonth, time.wDay, time.wHour, time.wMinute, time.wSecond);
	}
	memset(&time, 0, sizeof(time));

	ConvertLargeIntegerToLocalTime(&time, fbi.CreationTime);
	if (fbi.CreationTime.QuadPart != 0) {
		sprintf_s(str, 256, "%lld", fbi.CreationTime.QuadPart);
		printf("[B] Creation Time:		%04d-%02d-%02d %02d:%02d:%02d.%7s UTC\n", time.wYear, time.wMonth, time.wDay, time.wHour, time.wMinute, time.wSecond, &str[11]);
	}
	else {
		printf("[B] Creation Time:		%04d-%02d-%02d %02d:%02d:%02d.0000000 UTC\n", time.wYear, time.wMonth, time.wDay, time.wHour, time.wMinute, time.wSecond);
	}
	printf("\r\n");
	CloseHandle(file);
}

About Author Open Snippet

Author: Unprotect / Target Platform: Windows

Description

This tiny code snippet demonstrate the principle of file time stomping.

Steps:

Enumerate files in current directory (excluding the target file).
Sort enumerated files by modification date.
Takes the most recent file and apply its File Creation Date, File Last Modification and File Last Access to our target file.

Additional information:

Supports relative target file.
If no files lives inside the current directory, then current directory (parent folder) date information are used.
If no files lives inside the current directory and current directory is a root path, then timestomp procedure fails.

using System;
using System.IO;

void timeStomp(String targetFile)
{
    targetFile = Path.GetFullPath(targetFile);

    if (!File.Exists(targetFile))
    {
        throw new FileNotFoundException(String.Format("File \"{0}\" does not exists.", targetFile));
    }

    string? parentDirectory = Path.GetDirectoryName(targetFile);
    bool isInRoot = false;

    if (parentDirectory == null)
    {
        parentDirectory = Directory.GetDirectoryRoot(targetFile);
        isInRoot = true;
    }

    var options = new EnumerationOptions()
    {
        IgnoreInaccessible = true,
        RecurseSubdirectories = true,
        AttributesToSkip = FileAttributes.System | FileAttributes.Hidden,
    };

    var candidates = new DirectoryInfo(parentDirectory)
        .GetFiles("*.*", options)
        .Where(file => !file.FullName.Equals(targetFile, StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
        .OrderByDescending(file => file.LastWriteTime)
        .ToList();

    FileInfo? candidate = null;    
    
    if (candidates.Count > 0)
    {
        candidate = candidates.First();
    }   
    else if (!isInRoot)
    {
        candidate = new FileInfo(parentDirectory);
    }

    if (candidate != null)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(string.Format("Using \"{0}\" file for timeStomping...", candidate));

        File.SetCreationTime(targetFile, candidate.CreationTime);
        File.SetLastAccessTime(targetFile, candidate.LastAccessTime);
        File.SetLastWriteTime(targetFile, candidate.LastWriteTime);

        Console.WriteLine("Done.");
    }
    else
    {
       throw new Exception("Could not find suitable existing file for timeStomping...");
    }
}

timeStomp("G:\\test\\sub7.exe");

About Author Open Snippet

Author: Jean-Pierre LESUEUR (DarkCoderSc) / Target Platform: Windows

Detection Rules

rule:
  meta:
    name: timestomp file
    namespace: anti-analysis/anti-forensic/timestomp
    authors:
      - moritz.raabe@mandiant.com
    scope: function
    att&ck:
      - Defense Evasion::Indicator Removal on Host::Timestomp [T1070.006]
    examples:
      - Practical Malware Analysis Lab 03-04.exe_:0x4014e0
  features:
    - and:
      - or:
        - api: kernel32.GetSystemTime
        - api: kernel32.FileTimeToLocalFileTime
        - api: kernel32.GetSystemTimeAsFileTime
        - api: kernel32.SystemTimeToFileTime
        - api: kernel32.GetFileTime
      - api: kernel32.SetFileTime

Additional Resources

External Links

The resources provided below are associated links that will give you even more detailed information and research on current evasion technique. It is important to note that, while these resources may be helpful, it is important to exercise caution when following external links. As always, be careful when clicking on links from unknown sources, as they may lead to malicious content.

Indicator Removal on Host: Timestomp, Sub-technique T1070.006 - Enterprise | MITRE ATT&CK®

Created

November 13, 2020

Last Revised

March 24, 2026