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sigmamediumHunting

PUA - Potential PE Metadata Tamper Using Rcedit

Detects the use of rcedit to potentially alter executable PE metadata properties, which could conceal efforts to rename system utilities for defense evasion.

MITRE ATT&CK

defense-evasion

Detection Query

selection_img:
  - Image|endswith:
      - \rcedit-x64.exe
      - \rcedit-x86.exe
  - Description: Edit resources of exe
  - Product: rcedit
selection_flags:
  CommandLine|contains: --set-
selection_attributes:
  CommandLine|contains:
    - OriginalFileName
    - CompanyName
    - FileDescription
    - ProductName
    - ProductVersion
    - LegalCopyright
condition: all of selection_*

Author

Micah Babinski

Created

2022-12-11

Data Sources

windowsProcess Creation Events

Platforms

windows

Tags

attack.defense-evasionattack.t1036.003attack.t1036attack.t1027.005attack.t1027
Raw Content
title: PUA - Potential PE Metadata Tamper Using Rcedit
id: 0c92f2e6-f08f-4b73-9216-ecb0ca634689
status: test
description: Detects the use of rcedit to potentially alter executable PE metadata properties, which could conceal efforts to rename system utilities for defense evasion.
references:
    - https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/210843/is-it-possible-to-change-original-filename-of-an-exe
    - https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/02e8e8c5d430d8b768980f517b62d7792d690982b9ba0f7e04163cbc1a6e7915
    - https://github.com/electron/rcedit
author: Micah Babinski
date: 2022-12-11
modified: 2023-03-05
tags:
    - attack.defense-evasion
    - attack.t1036.003
    - attack.t1036
    - attack.t1027.005
    - attack.t1027
logsource:
    category: process_creation
    product: windows
detection:
    selection_img:
        - Image|endswith:
              - '\rcedit-x64.exe'
              - '\rcedit-x86.exe'
        - Description: 'Edit resources of exe'
        - Product: 'rcedit'
    selection_flags:
        CommandLine|contains: '--set-' # Covers multiple edit commands such as "--set-resource-string" or "--set-version-string"
    selection_attributes:
        CommandLine|contains:
            - 'OriginalFileName'
            - 'CompanyName'
            - 'FileDescription'
            - 'ProductName'
            - 'ProductVersion'
            - 'LegalCopyright'
    condition: all of selection_*
falsepositives:
    - Legitimate use of the tool by administrators or users to update metadata of a binary
level: medium