Detection rules › Splunk

Windows Defacement Modify Transcodedwallpaper File

Author
Teoderick Contreras, Splunk
Source
upstream

The following analytic identifies modifications to the TranscodedWallpaper file in the wallpaper theme directory, excluding changes made by explorer.exe. This detection leverages the Endpoint.Processes and Endpoint.Filesystem data models to correlate process activity with file modifications. This activity is significant as it may indicate an adversary attempting to deface or change the desktop wallpaper of a targeted host, a tactic often used to signal compromise or deliver a message. If confirmed malicious, this could be a sign of unauthorized access and tampering, potentially leading to further system compromise or data exfiltration.

MITRE ATT&CK coverage

TacticTechniques
ImpactT1491 Defacement

Event coverage

ProviderEvent IDTitle
Sysmon1Process creation
Sysmon11FileCreate

Stages and Predicates

Stage 1: tstats

tstats WHERE Processes.process_path!="*\\Windows\\Explorer.EXE" BY _time, Processes.action, Processes.dest, Processes.original_file_name, Processes.parent_process, Processes.parent_process_exec, Processes.parent_process_guid, Processes.parent_process_id, Processes.parent_process_name, Processes.parent_process_path, Processes.process, Processes.process_exec, Processes.process_guid, Processes.process_hash, Processes.process_id, Processes.process_integrity_level, Processes.process_name, Processes.process_path, Processes.user, Processes.user_id, Processes.vendor_product

Stage 2: search

search

Stage 3: rename

rename

Stage 4: join

join type=inner (...)

Stage 5: search

search `macro`

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.

FieldKindValues
Filesystem.file_patheq
  • "*\\AppData\\Roaming\\Microsoft\\Windows\\Themes\\TranscodedWallpaper"
Processes.process_pathne
  • "*\\Windows\\Explorer.EXE"