Attack Ent T1027 010 Command Obfuscation

MITRE ATT&CK T1027.010: Command Obfuscation

When to use this skill

Use this skill when the task involves T1027.010, Command Obfuscation, enterprise ATT&CK, TTP mapping, detection engineering, hunting, incident-response enrichment, control validation, or authorized adversary-emulation planning. Treat it as a defensive analysis aid: keep outputs focused on understanding, detecting, mitigating, and safely validating this ATT&CK sub-technique.

Technique context

• ATT&CK domain: enterprise
• ATT&CK ID: T1027.010
• Technique name: Command Obfuscation
• Type: sub-technique
• ATT&CK URL: https://attack.mitre.org/techniques/T1027/010
• Tactics: stealth
• Platforms: Linux, macOS, Windows
• Required permissions: Not specified
• Effective permissions: Not specified
• Defenses bypassed: Not specified

ATT&CK description

Adversaries may obfuscate content during command execution to impede detection. Command-line obfuscation is a method of making strings and patterns within commands and scripts more difficult to signature and analyze. This type of obfuscation can be included within commands executed by delivered payloads (e.g., Phishing and Drive-by Compromise) or interactively via Command and Scripting Interpreter.(Citation: Akamai JS)(Citation: Malware Monday VBE)

For example, adversaries may abuse syntax that utilizes various symbols and escape characters (such as spacing, ^, +. $, and %) to make commands difficult to analyze while maintaining the same intended functionality.(Citation: RC PowerShell) Many languages support built-in obfuscation in the form of base64 or URL encoding.(Citation: Microsoft PowerShellB64) Adversaries may also manually implement command obfuscation via string splitting (“Wor”+“d.Application”), order and casing of characters (rev <<<'dwssap/cte/ tac'), globing (mkdir -p '/tmp/:&$NiA'), as well as various tricks involving passing strings through tokens/environment variables/input streams.(Citation: Bashfuscator Command Obfuscators)(Citation: FireEye Obfuscation June 2017)

Adversaries may also use tricks such as directory traversals to obfuscate references to the binary being invoked by a command (C:\voi\pcw\..\..\Windows\tei\qs\k\..\..\..\system32\erool\..\wbem\wg\je\..\..\wmic.exe shadowcopy delete).(Citation: Twitter Richard WMIC)

Tools such as Invoke-Obfuscation and Invoke-DOSfucation have also been used to obfuscate commands.(Citation: Invoke-DOSfuscation)(Citation: Invoke-Obfuscation)

Agent workflow

1. Clarify scope: identify the system, asset class, log sources, cloud or endpoint platform, and whether the user wants triage, detection, coverage assessment, or safe emulation planning.
2. Load bundled resources as needed: use references/technique-profile.json for structured metadata, references/detection-and-mitigation.md for triage and telemetry guidance, references/known-threat-context.md for ATT&CK relationship context, and templates/ for repeatable outputs.
3. Map observations to ATT&CK: compare the user's evidence to the ATT&CK description, tactics, platforms, and known procedure patterns before asserting a match.
4. Produce defensive outputs: prioritize hypotheses, telemetry requirements, detection logic ideas, validation steps, containment guidance, and mitigations.
5. Preserve uncertainty: distinguish confirmed evidence, plausible indicators, assumptions, and gaps. Recommend what to collect next.
6. Stay safe: do not provide malware, credential theft, persistence, evasion, destructive automation, or unauthorized exploitation instructions. For adversary emulation, keep steps bounded to approved lab or control-validation contexts and omit operational abuse details.

Bundled resources

• references/technique-profile.json: machine-readable ATT&CK metadata for this technique.
• references/detection-and-mitigation.md: detection notes, telemetry checklist, triage questions, mitigation candidates, and false-positive considerations.
• references/known-threat-context.md: ATT&CK relationship context with attribution cautions.
• templates/detection-brief.md: detection engineering brief template.
• templates/hunt-plan.md: threat hunt plan template.
• templates/incident-response-note.md: incident response note template.
• templates/coverage-assessment.md: ATT&CK coverage assessment template.
• scripts/render_brief.py: local helper that renders a Markdown defensive brief from technique-profile.json.
• assets/output-schema.json: JSON schema for structured technique analysis outputs.

To generate a quick brief, run python scripts/render_brief.py --output brief.md from inside this skill directory, or adapt the templates directly.

Detection guidance

No ATT&CK detection guidance was present in the source STIX object.

Useful telemetry and data sources

• Not specified in the STIX object.

Mitigations to consider

• Antivirus/Antimalware
• Behavior Prevention on Endpoint

Known threat context

Use these examples only as contextual leads, not as proof that an observed event is this technique:

• APT19 (intrusion-set)
• APT32 (intrusion-set)
• Aquatic Panda (intrusion-set)
• Astaroth (malware)
• BADHATCH (malware)
• BackConfig (malware)
• C0018 (campaign)
• C0021 (campaign)
• CARROTBAT (malware)
• Chimera (intrusion-set)
• Cobalt Group (intrusion-set)
• ComRAT (malware)
• Contagious Interview (intrusion-set)
• CookieMiner (malware)
• DarkWatchman (malware)
• Denis (malware)
• Emotet (malware)
• Empire (tool)
• FIN6 (intrusion-set)
• FIN7 (intrusion-set)

Recommended output pattern

When responding with this skill, structure the answer as:

• Assessment: whether the evidence supports this ATT&CK mapping and why.
• Evidence: specific indicators, logs, behaviors, and assumptions.
• Detection: telemetry sources, analytic logic, and tuning considerations.
• Response: containment, eradication, recovery, and validation actions.
• Coverage gaps: missing logs, sensors, controls, or environmental details.
• References: include the ATT&CK URL and any user-provided evidence references.

ATT&CK contributors

• George Thomas
• Tim Peck
• TruKno