ATT&CK coverage › Technique
Hide Artifacts: NTFS File Attributes T1564.004
Adversaries may use NTFS file attributes to hide their malicious data in order to evade detection. Every New Technology File System (NTFS) formatted partition contains a Master File Table (MFT) that maintains a record for every file/directory on the partition. Within MFT entries are file attributes, such as Extended Attributes (EA) and Data [known as Alternate Data Streams (ADSs) when more than one Data attribute is present], that can be used to store arbitrary data (and even complete files).
Events covered
6 catalog events are tagged with this technique by at least one rule.
Authoring guide
Patterns shared across the 25 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 (18 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 (281 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.
Common exclusions (2 distinct)
Field/operator/value combinations that rules under this technique routinely exclude (top-level not() clauses). 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.
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 21 rules
- Execute From Alternate Data Streams
- Exports Registry Key To an Alternate Data Stream
- HackTool Named File Stream Created
- Hidden Executable In NTFS Alternate Data Stream
- Insensitive Subfolder Search Via Findstr.EXE
- NTFS Alternate Data Stream
- Potential Hidden Directory Creation Via NTFS INDEX_ALLOCATION Stream
- Potential Hidden Directory Creation Via NTFS INDEX_ALLOCATION Stream - CLI
- Potential Rundll32 Execution With DLL Stored In ADS
- Powershell Store File In Alternate Data Stream
- PrintBrm ZIP Creation of Extraction
- Remote File Download Via Findstr.EXE
- Run PowerShell Script from ADS
- Suspicious Diantz Alternate Data Stream Execution
- Suspicious Extrac32 Alternate Data Stream Execution
- Suspicious File Download From File Sharing Websites - File Stream
- Unusual File Download from Direct IP Address
- Unusual File Download From File Sharing Websites - File Stream
- Use NTFS Short Name in Command Line
- Use NTFS Short Name in Image
- Use Short Name Path in Image
Splunk 3 rules
- Windows Alternate DataStream - Base64 Content
- Windows Alternate DataStream - Executable Content
- Windows Alternate DataStream - Process Execution