T1027 — Obfuscated Files or Information
Parent technique
Description
Adversaries may attempt to make an executable or file difficult to discover or analyze by encrypting, encoding, or otherwise obfuscating its contents on the system or in transit. This is common behavior that can be used across different platforms and the network to evade defenses.
Payloads may be compressed, archived, or encrypted in order to avoid detection. These payloads may be used during Initial Access or later to mitigate detection. Sometimes a user's action may be required to open and Deobfuscate/Decode Files or Information for User Execution. The user may also be required to input a password to open a password protected compressed/encrypted file that was provided by the adversary. Adversaries may also use compressed or archived scripts, such as JavaScript.
Portions of files can also be encoded to hide the plain-text strings that would otherwise help defenders with discovery. Payloads may also be split into separate, seemingly benign files that only reveal malicious functionality when reassembled.
Adversaries may also abuse Command Obfuscation to obscure commands executed from payloads or directly via Command and Scripting Interpreter. Environment variables, aliases, characters, and other platform/language specific semantics can be used to evade signature based detections and application control mechanisms.
Sub-techniques
- T1027.001 — Binary Padding
- T1027.002 — Software Packing
- T1027.003 — Steganography
- T1027.004 — Compile After Delivery
- T1027.005 — Indicator Removal from Tools
- T1027.006 — HTML Smuggling
- T1027.007 — Dynamic API Resolution
- T1027.008 — Stripped Payloads
- T1027.009 — Embedded Payloads
- T1027.010 — Command Obfuscation
- T1027.011 — Fileless Storage
- T1027.012 — LNK Icon Smuggling
- T1027.013 — Encrypted/Encoded File
- T1027.014 — Polymorphic Code
- T1027.015 — Compression
- T1027.016 — Junk Code Insertion
- T1027.017 — SVG Smuggling
- T1027.018 — Invisible Unicode
Detected by EasySIEM
This project's own SigmaHQ-derived detection pipeline tags every compiled rule with the ATT&CK technique(s) it maps to -- if a rule in your install covers this technique, it shows up automatically on your own Grafana Alerts dashboard's "Top ATT&CK Techniques" panel, no lookup needed. This page exists so a click from there always lands here on easysiem.com, not on attack.mitre.org.