ATT&CK coverage › Technique

Obfuscated Files or Information: Compile After Delivery T1027.004

Adversaries may attempt to make payloads difficult to discover and analyze by delivering files to victims as uncompiled code. Text-based source code files may subvert analysis and scrutiny from protections targeting executables/binaries. These payloads will need to be compiled before execution; typically via native utilities such as ilasm.exe, csc.exe, or GCC/MinGW.

Events covered

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

ProviderEvent IDTitle
Sysmon1Process creation
Sysmon11FileCreate
Security-Auditing4688A new process has been created.

Authoring guide

Patterns shared across the 5 rules above: which fields they filter on, what specific values they look for, and what they exclude. Field names are normalized 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 (6 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
Image4ends_with 4\csc.exe, \dnx.exe, \cvtres.exe
ParentImage3starts_with 2, eq 2, ends_with 2C:\Windows\System32\sdiagnhost.exe, \excel.exe, \onenote.exe, C:\Program Files\, C:\ProgramData\chocolatey\choco.exe
ParentCommandLine2match 2, regex_match 1FromBase64String, \Contacts\, :\Windows\Temp\, \ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender Advanced Threat..., JwB7ACIAZgBhAGkAbABlAGQAIgA6AHQAcgB1AGUALAAiAG0AcwBnACIAO...
OriginalFileName1eq 1csc.exe
CommandLine1regex_match 1, match 1\Contacts\, \AppData\Local\Temp\, \Temporary Internet
TargetFilename1ends_with 1.cmdline

Top indicator values (49 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.

FieldKindValueRules (here)Corpus reach
ParentImagestarts_withC:\Program Files\22
Imageends_with\csc.exe25
ParentCommandLinematchnAHsAIgBmAGEAaQBsAGUAZAAiADoAdAByAHUAZQAsACIAbQBzAGcAIgA6ACIAQQBuAHMAaQBiAGwA...22
ParentCommandLinematch\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection22
ParentImageeqC:\Windows\System32\sdiagnhost.exe22
ParentImageeqC:\Windows\System32\inetsrv\w3wp.exe22
ParentCommandLinematchJwB7ACIAZgBhAGkAbABlAGQAIgA6AHQAcgB1AGUALAAiAG0AcwBnACIAOgAiAEEAbgBzAGkAYgBsA...22
ParentImageeqC:\ProgramData\chocolatey\choco.exe22
ParentImagestarts_withC:\Program Files (x86)\22
ParentCommandLinematchcAewAiAGYAYQBpAGwAZQBkACIAOgB0AHIAdQBlACwAIgBtAHMAZwAiADoAIgBBAG4AcwBpAGIAbAB...22
ParentCommandLinematch\Temporary Internet12
ParentCommandLinematch\Favourites\12
ParentImageends_with\outlook.exe14
ParentImageends_with\wscript.exe114
ParentImageends_with\powerpnt.exe1
ParentImageends_with\mshta.exe110
ParentCommandLinematchFromBase64String1
ParentCommandLinematch:\Users\Public\12
ParentCommandLinematch\Pictures\1
ParentImageends_with\winword.exe1

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 5 rules