malware

Pcexter S1102

Type: malware
Platform: Windows
Created: 22 January 2024
Last modified: 22 January 2024

Pcexter is an uploader that has been used by ToddyCat since at least 2023 to exfiltrate stolen files.[1]

TechniquesBottom 17%

Tactics41st pct

Threat groupunranked

CampaignsNone recorded

Enterprise ATT&CK only. Any Mobile or ICS rows on the same ATT&CK page are not carried.

Pcexter MITRE reference S1102

Data from Local System T1005 ↗

Pcexter can upload files from targeted systems.2

Collection22 detection rules

File and Directory Discovery T1083 ↗

Pcexter has the ability to search for files in specified directories.3

Discovery29 detection rules

Exfiltration to Cloud Storage T1567.002 ↗

Pcexter can upload stolen files to OneDrive storage accounts via HTTP POST.4

Exfiltration20 detection rules

DLL T1574.001 ↗

Pcexter has been distributed and executed as a DLL file named Vspmsg.dll via DLL side-loading.5

Execution · Stealth112 detection rules

Standing S1102

Reach is how much of ATT&CK this malware touches. Coverage is how well defended each thing it does is, as a median per technique rather than a total — a total would just restate the reach. Each figure is ranked against all 825 ATT&CK software entries only where that population actually spreads. Where most of the population shares one value, a percentile would rank the tie instead of the entity, so the raw value is shown and no rank is claimed.

Reach

Techniques4Bottom 17%

17th percentile · 83% of 825 ATT&CK software entries have more Enterprise techniques.

Tactics541st pct

41st percentile · 59% of 825 ATT&CK software entries have more tactics spanned.

Threat group161% tie · 22 values

61% of the population shares a single value across only 22 distinct values, so a percentile here would rank the tie, not the entity.

Campaigns085% tie · 8 values

85% of the population shares a single value across only 8 distinct values, so a percentile here would rank the tie, not the entity.

Coverage

Rules / technique25.5med62nd pct

62nd percentile · 62% of 825 ATT&CK software entries have this many detection rules per technique or fewer.

Tests / technique5med42nd pct

42nd percentile · 58% of 825 ATT&CK software entries have more atomic tests per technique.

Data comps / technique4.5med54% tie · 11 values

54% of the population shares a single value across only 11 distinct values, so a percentile here would rank the tie, not the entity.

Mitigations / technique1med57th pct

57th percentile · 57% of 825 ATT&CK software entries have this many mitigations per technique or fewer.

5 of 8 axes carry an honest rank on this page. Coverage medians are taken across this malware’s 4 Enterprise techniques.

Range

Technique Campaign use over its cumulative rule count.

Campaigns · 0Sigma rules (cumulative) · 147Splunk ESCU (cumulative) · 36

Standing S1102

Select	Description	Category	Status	Event	OS	Product	MITRE ATT&CK	CVEs	Severity	Author	Created	Updated	ID	Refs
	Detects suspicious local connections via a named pipe to the AD FS configuration database (Windows Internal Database). (...)	Generic	test	pipe_created	windows	Sysmon	Collection Data from Local System	-	medium	Roberto Rodriguez @Cyb3rWard0g	2021-10-08	2023-11-30	1ea13e8c-03ea-409b-877d-ce5c3d2c1cb3
	Detects the execution of DLL side-loading malware used by threat group Emissary Panda aka APT27	Emerging	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution, Stealth Hijack Execution Flow DLL	-	critical	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)	2018-09-03	2023-03-09	9aa01d62-7667-4d3b-acb8-8cb5103e2014
	Detects suspicious user agent string of APT40 Dropbox tool	Emerging	test	proxy	-	-	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol Web Protocols Exfiltration Exfiltration Over Web Service Exfiltration to Cloud Storage	-	high	Thomas Patzke	2019-11-12	2023-05-18	5ba715b6-71b7-44fd-8245-f66893e81b3d
	Detects potential DLL sideloading activity via the Aruba Networks Virtual Intranet Access "arubanets (...)	Generic	test	image_load	windows	Sysmon	Execution, Stealth Hijack Execution Flow DLL	-	high	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2023-01-22	2023-03-15	90ae0469-0cee-4509-b67f-e5efcef040f7
	Detects automated lateral movement by Turla group	Unsupported	unsupported	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution Command and Scripting Interpreter Discovery File and Directory Discovery Discovery Network Share Discovery Lateral Movement Remote Services SMB/Windows Admin Shares	-	medium	Markus Neis	2017-11-07	2023-02-24	75925535-ca97-4e0a-a850-00b5c00779dc
	An attempt to export an AWS EC2 instance has been detected. (...)	Generic	test	cloud_audit	-	AWS CloudTrail · AWS	Collection Data from Local System Exfiltration Transfer Data to Cloud Account	-	low	Diogo Braz	2020-04-16	2022-10-05	54b9a76a-3c71-4673-b4b3-2edb4566ea7b
	Detects usage of "getcap" binary. (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	linux	Sysmon	Discovery File and Directory Discovery	-	low	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2022-12-28	2026-01-24	d8d97d51-122d-4cdd-9e2f-01b4b4933530
Splunk	This analytic detects file copy activity on Cisco ASA devices via CLI or ASDM. (...)	Anomaly	stable	firewall	-	Cisco Secure Firewall · Cisco	Collection Data from Cloud Storage Collection Data from Local System	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali, Splunk	2025-11-21	2026-05-13	4d7e8f3a-9c2b-4e6f-8a1d-5b9c7e2f4a8c
Splunk	This analytic detects file copy operations to remote locations on Cisco ASA devices via CLI or ASDM. (...)	Anomaly	stable	firewall	-	Cisco Secure Firewall · Cisco	Collection Data from Local System Exfiltration Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol Exfiltration Over Unencrypted Non-C2 Protocol Exfiltration Exfiltration Over C2 Channel	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali, Splunk	2025-11-21	2026-05-13	8a9e5f2b-6d4c-4e7f-9b3a-1c8d7f5e2a9b
	Collect pertinent data from the configuration files	Generic	test	authentication	-	Cisco AAA · Cisco	Discovery Account Discovery Local Account Collection Data from Local System Credential Access Unsecured Credentials Credentials In Files	-	low	Austin Clark	2019-08-11	2023-01-04	cd072b25-a418-4f98-8ebc-5093fb38fe1a
	Find information about network devices that is not stored in config files	Generic	test	authentication	-	Cisco AAA · Cisco	Discovery File and Directory Discovery Discovery Password Policy Discovery Discovery Process Discovery Discovery Remote System Discovery Discovery System Information Discovery Discovery System Network Configuration Discovery Discovery System Network Connections Discovery Discovery System Owner/User Discovery Discovery System Time Discovery	-	low	Austin Clark	2019-08-12	2023-01-04	9705a6a1-6db6-4a16-a987-15b7151e299b
Splunk	This detection identifies execution of the file synchronization utility "rclone". (...)	Anomaly	stable	network_connection	-	Cisco NVM · Cisco	Exfiltration Exfiltration Over Web Service Exfiltration to Cloud Storage	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali, Splunk	2025-07-01	2026-09-22	719f8c78-b20d-4bb9-8c33-6d1a762e7a9a
Splunk	The following analytic detects outbound connections to commonly abused file sharing and pastebin-style hosting domains. (...)	Anomaly	stable	firewall	-	Cisco Secure Firewall · Cisco	Command and Control Application Layer Protocol Web Protocols Exfiltration Exfiltration Over Web Service Exfiltration to Cloud Storage Command and Control Ingress Tool Transfer Resource Development Obtain Capabilities Tool Command and Control Proxy External Proxy	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali, Splunk	2025-04-03	2026-05-13	f7e5e792-d907-46c1-a58e-4ff974dc462a
Splunk	The following analytic detects potentially suspicious large volumes of data sent by the connection initiator on flows from internal to external networks. (...)	Anomaly	stable	firewall	-	Cisco Secure Firewall · Cisco	Exfiltration Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol Exfiltration Over Unencrypted Non-C2 Protocol Exfiltration Exfiltration Over C2 Channel Exfiltration Exfiltration Over Web Service Exfiltration to Cloud Storage	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali, Splunk	2025-04-03	2026-05-13	3d8536b6-52b4-4c3e-b695-3f2e90bb22be
Splunk	This analytic detects the configuration of TFTP services on Cisco IOS devices that could be used to exfiltrate sensitive configuration files. (...)	Generic	stable	configuration_change	-	Cisco IOS · Cisco	Collection Data from Local System Exfiltration Exfiltration Over Web Service	CVE-2018-0171	medium	Bhavin Patel, Michael Haag, Splunk	2025-08-21	2026-05-13	1abce487-f480-4d5f-a551-01de0bece0bd
	Detects "BugCheck" errors indicating the system rebooted due to a crash, capturing the bugcheck code, dump file path, and report ID.	Generic	experimental	-	windows	WinEventLog System	Collection Data from Local System Credential Access OS Credential Dumping Security Account Manager	-	medium	Jason Mull	2025-05-12	—	882fbe50-d8d7-4e29-ae80-0648a8556866
	Detects creation of specific system DLL files that are usually not present on the system (or at least not in system directories) but may be loaded by legitimate processes. (...)	Generic	test	file_event	windows	Sysmon	Execution, Stealth Hijack Execution Flow DLL	CVE-2020-7315	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems), fornotes	2022-12-01	2026-01-24	df6ecb8b-7822-4f4b-b412-08f524b4576c
	Detects the creation of a file named "WerFault.exe" or "wer.dll" in an uncommon folder, which could be a sign of WerFault DLL hijacking.	Generic	test	file_event	windows	Sysmon	Execution, Stealth Hijack Execution Flow DLL	-	medium	frack113	2022-05-09	2026-05-18	28a452f3-786c-4fd8-b8f2-bddbe9d616d1
	Detects usage of curl to upload files to known file sharing domains, which may indicate data exfiltration.	Generic	experimental	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Exfiltration Exfiltration Over Web Service Exfiltration to Cloud Storage	-	high	Swachchhanda Shrawan Poudel (Nextron Systems)	2026-03-29	—	e328cc73-f92a-42fb-b3fa-7c2cffda981a
	Detects the installation of a Callout DLL via CalloutDlls and CalloutEnabled parameter in Registry, (...)	Generic	test	registry_set	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution, Stealth Hijack Execution Flow DLL Persistence, Defense Impairment Modify Registry	-	high	Dimitrios Slamaris	2017-05-15	2023-08-17	9d3436ef-9476-4c43-acca-90ce06bdf33a
	This rule detects a DHCP server error in which a specified Callout DLL (in registry) could not be lo (...)	Generic	test	-	windows	WinEventLog System	Execution, Stealth Hijack Execution Flow DLL	-	high	Dimitrios Slamaris, @atc_project (fix)	2017-05-15	2022-12-25	75edd3fd-7146-48e5-9848-3013d7f0282c
	This rule detects a DHCP server in which a specified Callout DLL (in registry) was loaded	Generic	test	-	windows	WinEventLog System	Execution, Stealth Hijack Execution Flow DLL	-	high	Dimitrios Slamaris	2017-05-15	2022-12-25	13fc89a9-971e-4ca6-b9dc-aa53a445bf40
	Detects DLL sideloading activity seen used by Diamond Sleet APT	Emerging	test	image_load	windows	Sysmon	Execution, Stealth Hijack Execution Flow DLL	CVE-2023-42793	high	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2023-10-24	—	d1b65d98-37d7-4ff6-b139-2d87c1af3042
	Detect the usage of "DirLister.exe" a utility for quickly listing folder or drive contents. (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Discovery File and Directory Discovery	-	low	frack113	2022-08-20	2023-02-04	b4dc61f5-6cce-468e-a608-b48b469feaa2
	Hunts known SVR-specific DLL names.	Emerging	test	image_load	windows	Sysmon	Execution, Stealth Hijack Execution Flow DLL	-	medium	CISA	2023-12-18	—	e64c8ef3-9f98-40c8-b71e-96110991cb4c
	Detects when an attacker create a similar folder structure to windows system folders such as (Window (...)	Generic	test	file_event	windows	Sysmon	Execution, Stealth Hijack Execution Flow DLL	-	high	frack113, Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2022-07-30	—	b6f91281-20aa-446a-b986-38a92813a18f
	Detects execution of VMware Xfer utility (VMwareXferlogs.exe) from the non-default directory which m (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Execution, Stealth Hijack Execution Flow DLL	-	high	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2022-08-02	—	ebea773c-a8f1-42ad-a856-00cb221966e8
	Detects processes loading the non-existent DLL "ShellChromeAPI". (...)	Generic	test	image_load	windows	Sysmon	Execution, Stealth Hijack Execution Flow DLL	-	high	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2022-12-01	—	ee4c5d06-3abc-48cc-8885-77f1c20f4451
	Detects DNS queries for anonfiles.com, which is an anonymous file upload platform often used for mal (...)	Generic	test	-	windows	DNS Client	Exfiltration Exfiltration Over Web Service Exfiltration to Cloud Storage	-	high	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2023-01-16	—	29f171d7-aa47-42c7-9c7b-3c87938164d9
	Detects DNS queries for "anonfiles.com", which is an anonymous file upload platform often used for m (...)	Generic	test	dns	windows	Sysmon	Exfiltration Exfiltration Over Web Service Exfiltration to Cloud Storage	-	high	pH-T (Nextron Systems)	2022-07-15	2023-01-16	065cceea-77ec-4030-9052-fc0affea7110
	Detects DNS queries for subdomains related to MEGA sharing website	Generic	test	dns	windows	Sysmon	Exfiltration Exfiltration Over Web Service Exfiltration to Cloud Storage	-	medium	Aaron Greetham (@beardofbinary) - NCC Group	2021-05-26	2023-09-18	613c03ba-0779-4a53-8a1f-47f914a4ded3
	Detects DNS queries for subdomains related to MEGA sharing website	Generic	test	-	windows	DNS Client	Exfiltration Exfiltration Over Web Service Exfiltration to Cloud Storage	-	medium	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2023-01-16	—	66474410-b883-415f-9f8d-75345a0a66a6
	Detects DNS queries to "ufile.io", which was seen abused by malware and threat actors as a method fo (...)	Generic	test	dns	windows	Sysmon	Exfiltration Exfiltration Over Web Service Exfiltration to Cloud Storage	-	low	yatinwad, TheDFIRReport	2022-06-23	2023-09-18	1cbbeaaf-3c8c-4e4c-9d72-49485b6a176b
	Detects DNS queries to "ufile.io", which was seen abused by malware and threat actors as a method fo (...)	Generic	test	-	windows	DNS Client	Exfiltration Exfiltration Over Web Service Exfiltration to Cloud Storage	-	low	Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2023-01-16	2023-09-18	090ffaad-c01a-4879-850c-6d57da98452d
	Detects a DNS server error in which a specified plugin DLL (in registry) could not be loaded	Generic	test	-	windows	DNS Server	Execution, Stealth Hijack Execution Flow DLL	-	high	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems)	2017-05-08	2023-02-05	cbe51394-cd93-4473-b555-edf0144952d9
	One way Qbot steals sensitive information is by extracting browser data from Internet Explorer and M (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Collection Data from Local System	-	medium	frack113	2022-02-13	2024-03-05	6a69f62d-ce75-4b57-8dce-6351eb55b362
Splunk	This detection identifies access to sensitive system and configuration files on an ESXi host, including authentication data, service configurations, and VMware-specific management settings. (...)	Generic	stable	-	esxi	VMware ESXi · VMware	Collection Data from Local System Credential Access OS Credential Dumping /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow	-	medium	Raven Tait, Splunk	2025-07-11	2026-05-13	6fa0073d-6ca0-4f93-913d-fb420c9de15b	-
Splunk	This detection identifies the use of a remote tool to download virtual machine disk files from a datastore. (...)	Generic	stable	-	esxi	VMware ESXi · VMware	Collection Data from Local System	-	medium	Raven Tait, Splunk	2025-07-11	2026-05-13	2e155547-aaac-49d3-b0ef-ceabc31fd364	-
	The Fax service attempts to load ualapi.dll, which is non-existent. (...)	Generic	test	image_load	windows	Sysmon	Execution, Stealth Hijack Execution Flow DLL	-	high	NVISO	2020-05-04	2022-06-02	828af599-4c53-4ed2-ba4a-a9f835c434ea
	Detects usage of system utilities such as "find", "tree", "findmnt", etc, to discover files, directories and network shares.	Generic	test	process_creation	linux	Sysmon	Discovery File and Directory Discovery	-	informational	Daniil Yugoslavskiy, oscd.community, CheraghiMilad	2020-10-19	2024-12-01	d3feb4ee-ff1d-4d3d-bd10-5b28a238cc72
	Detects usage of system utilities to discover files and directories	Generic	test	process_creation	macos	-	Discovery File and Directory Discovery	-	informational	Daniil Yugoslavskiy, oscd.community	2020-10-19	2022-11-25	089dbdf6-b960-4bcc-90e3-ffc3480c20f6
Splunk	The following analytic detects Google Drive or Google Docs files shared externally from an internal domain. (...)	Anomaly	experimental	cloud_audit	-	Google Cloud	Exfiltration Exfiltration Over Web Service Exfiltration to Cloud Storage	-	medium	Teoderick Contreras, Splunk	2021-08-16	2026-05-13	f6ee02d6-fea0-11eb-b2c2-acde48001122
	Detects suspicious use of PCHunter, a tool like Process Hacker to view and manipulate processes, ker (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	windows	Sysmon · WinEventLog Security	Discovery File and Directory Discovery Discovery Process Discovery Discovery Query Registry Discovery System Information Discovery Discovery System Service Discovery	-	high	Florian Roth (Nextron Systems), Nasreddine Bencherchali	2022-10-10	2024-11-23	fca949cc-79ca-446e-8064-01aa7e52ece5
	Powerup tool's Write Hijack DLL exploits DLL hijacking for privilege escalation. (...)	Generic	test	file_event	windows	Sysmon	Execution, Stealth Hijack Execution Flow DLL	-	high	Subhash Popuri (@pbssubhash)	2021-08-21	2024-06-27	602a1f13-c640-4d73-b053-be9a2fa58b96
	Detects sideloading of trojanized DLLs used in Lazarus APT campaign in the case of a Spanish aerospa (...)	Emerging	test	image_load	windows	Sysmon	Execution, Stealth Hijack Execution Flow DLL	-	high	Thurein Oo, Nasreddine Bencherchali (Nextron Systems)	2023-10-18	—	24007168-a26b-4049-90d0-ce138e13a5cf
Splunk	The following analytic detects suspicious database file and directory discovery activities, which may signal an attacker attempt to locate and assess critical database assets on a compromised system. (...)	Anomaly	stable	process_creation	linux	Linux Auditd	Discovery File and Directory Discovery	-	medium	Teoderick Contreras, Splunk	2024-08-23	2026-05-13	f616c4f3-bde9-41cf-856c-019b65f668bb
Splunk	The following analytic detects suspicious file and directory discovery activities, which may indicate an attacker's effort to locate sensitive documents and files on a compromised system. (...)	Anomaly	stable	process_creation	linux	Linux Auditd	Discovery File and Directory Discovery	-	medium	Teoderick Contreras, Splunk	2024-08-22	2026-10-02	0bbfb79c-a755-49a5-a38a-1128d0a452f1
Splunk	The following analytic detects suspicious creation of hidden files and directories, which may indicate an attacker's attempt to conceal malicious activities or unauthorized data. (...)	Anomaly	stable	process_creation	linux	Linux Auditd	Discovery File and Directory Discovery	-	medium	Teoderick Contreras, Splunk	2024-08-12	2026-05-13	555cc358-bf16-4e05-9b3a-0f89c73b7261
Splunk	The following analytic detects suspicious discovery of virtual disk files and directories, which may indicate an attacker's attempt to locate and access virtualized storage environments. (...)	Anomaly	stable	process_creation	linux	Linux Auditd	Discovery File and Directory Discovery	-	medium	Teoderick Contreras, Splunk	2024-08-12	2026-05-13	eec78cef-d4c8-4b35-8f5b-6922102a4a41
	Detects attempts to discover the files with setuid/setgid capability on them. (...)	Generic	test	process_creation	linux	Linux Auditd	Privilege Escalation Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism Discovery File and Directory Discovery	-	low	Pawel Mazur	2021-11-28	2022-12-25	fe10751f-1995-40a5-aaa2-c97ccb4123fe

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Description