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Potential Fake Instance Of Hxtsr.EXE Executed

HxTsr.exe is a Microsoft compressed executable file called Microsoft Outlook Communications. HxTsr.exe is part of Outlook apps, because it resides in a hidden "WindowsApps" subfolder of "C:\Program Files". Any instances of hxtsr.exe not in this folder may be malware camouflaging itself as HxTsr.exe

MITRE ATT&CK

T1036

defense-evasion

Detection Query

selection:
  Image|endswith: \hxtsr.exe
filter_main_hxtsr:
  Image|contains: :\program files\windowsapps\microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps_
  Image|endswith: \hxtsr.exe
condition: selection and not 1 of filter_main_*

Author

Sreeman

Created

2020-04-17

Data Sources

windowsProcess Creation Events

Platforms

windows

References

Internal Research

Tags

attack.defense-evasionattack.t1036

Raw Content

title: Potential Fake Instance Of Hxtsr.EXE Executed
id: 4e762605-34a8-406d-b72e-c1a089313320
status: test
description: |
    HxTsr.exe is a Microsoft compressed executable file called Microsoft Outlook Communications.
    HxTsr.exe is part of Outlook apps, because it resides in a hidden "WindowsApps" subfolder of "C:\Program Files".
    Any instances of hxtsr.exe not in this folder may be malware camouflaging itself as HxTsr.exe
references:
    - Internal Research
author: Sreeman
date: 2020-04-17
modified: 2024-02-08
tags:
    - attack.defense-evasion
    - attack.t1036
logsource:
    product: windows
    category: process_creation
detection:
    # TODO: Link this to the more generic system process rule
    selection:
        Image|endswith: '\hxtsr.exe'
    filter_main_hxtsr:
        Image|contains: ':\program files\windowsapps\microsoft.windowscommunicationsapps_'
        Image|endswith: '\hxtsr.exe'
    condition: selection and not 1 of filter_main_*
falsepositives:
    - Unknown
level: medium