Live Active security incident? Get immediate response
MITRE ATT&CK® Technique

T1036.008: Masquerade File Type

Adversaries may masquerade malicious payloads as legitimate files through changes to the payload's formatting, including the file’s signature, extension, icon, and contents. Various file types have a typical standard format, including how they are encoded and organized. For example, a file’s signature (also known as header or magic bytes) is the beginning bytes of a file and is often used to identify the file’s type. For example, the header of a JPEG file, is 0xFF 0xD8 and the file extension is either `.JPE`, `.JPEG` or `.JPG`.

Adversaries may edit the header’s hex code and/or the file extension of a malicious payload in order to bypass file validation checks and/or input sanitization. This behavior is commonly used when payload files are transferred (e.g., Ingress Tool Transfer) and stored (e.g., Upload Malware) so that adversaries may move their malware without triggering detections.

Common non-executable file types and extensions, such as text files (`.txt`) and image files (`.jpg`, `.gif`, etc.) may be typically treated as benign. Based on this, adversaries may use a file extension to disguise malware, such as naming a PHP backdoor code with a file name of test.gif. A user may not know that a file is malicious due to the benign appearance and file extension.

Polyglot files, which are files that have multiple different file types and that function differently based on the application that will execute them, may also be used to disguise malicious malware and capabilities.[1]

EnterpriseT1036.008Sub-techniqueObject v2.0 Modified
Discuss defensive coverage Back to ATT&CK
Glexia's Take

Analyst context for executives and security teams

Analyst confidence High

Masquerade File Type matters because attackers can make malicious payloads look like ordinary documents, images, text files, or other benign content by changing extensions, headers, icons, or file contents. For leaders, the decision point is whether file validation, endpoint controls, and SOC workflows trust appearances too much. This is especially relevant when files are uploaded, transferred, or staged before execution across Windows, macOS, and Linux environments.

Executive priority

Prioritize this as a control-validation issue for malware prevention, incident triage, and audit evidence. Ask whether the organization can prove that file type is validated by content and behavior, not only by extension or icon. The ATT&CK relationships show use across espionage, ransomware, stealer, backdoor, and critical-infrastructure-related campaign contexts, so coverage should not be limited to one threat model. For regulated or operationally sensitive environments, this technique can expose gaps between policy claims such as malware scanning or application control and actual enforcement.

Technical view

For SOC, detection engineering, and IR teams, validate coverage for mismatches between file extension, magic bytes/header, MIME/content interpretation, icon/metadata, and runtime behavior. Focus on file creation, upload, transfer, staging, and execution paths on Linux, macOS, and Windows. Because ATT&CK provides no official detection text for this sub-technique, use the related DET0226 detection strategy as the starting point, then test local telemetry and alert logic against benign edge cases such as legitimate malformed files, multi-format/polyglot files, developer artifacts, and user-renamed files. Correlate suspicious file-type masquerading with related behaviors such as ingress transfer or malware upload when present.

Likely telemetry

  • Endpoint file creation, rename, modification, and execution events
  • File metadata including extension, icon, signature/header, magic bytes, and content-derived type
  • Antivirus/antimalware and endpoint behavior-prevention alerts
  • Application control or execution-prevention allow/block decisions
  • File upload, download, and transfer logs where available

Detection direction

  • Compare claimed file type against content-derived type, header/magic bytes, extension, and execution behavior.
  • Tune for files with benign-looking extensions such as text or image types that contain executable, script, web shell, or otherwise active content.
  • Include polyglot or multi-format files in test cases because one application may treat the same file differently than another.
  • Correlate file-type mismatch with transfer, upload, staging, and subsequent process execution rather than relying on a single static indicator.
  • Account for false positives from legitimate renamed files, broken downloads, developer/test files, and uncommon but valid formats.

Mitigation priorities

  • Start with execution prevention so unauthorized or untrusted code cannot run solely because it was disguised as a benign file type.
  • Use endpoint behavior prevention to identify suspicious behavior after a masqueraded file is opened, parsed, or executed.
  • Maintain antivirus/antimalware coverage with current signatures, heuristics, and behavioral analysis across supported endpoint platforms.
  • Harden file upload and transfer validation to inspect content and file structure, not only extension or user-supplied metadata.
  • Document control evidence for compliance: what is blocked, what is logged, and what exceptions are allowed.
Analyst notes and limits

This is a stealth sub-technique under Masquerading. The supplied relationships connect it to multiple campaigns, groups, and software families, including Windows, macOS, and Linux examples, but those relationships should be used for prioritization and emulation context rather than assumptions of local exposure. The most important local validation question is whether tools inspect the real file structure and runtime behavior instead of trusting the apparent file type.

ATT&CK does not provide official detection guidance for this object in the supplied fields. Specific detection logic, severity, and response playbooks require local data about endpoint tooling, upload paths, application behavior, file handling policy, and acceptable business use cases. No active exploitation or organization-specific exposure is implied.

Official MITRE ATT&CK definition

Masquerade File Type

Adversaries may masquerade malicious payloads as legitimate files through changes to the payload's formatting, including the file’s signature, extension, icon, and contents. Various file types have a typical standard format, including how they are encoded and organized. For example, a file’s signature (also known as header or magic bytes) is the beginning bytes of a file and is often used to identify the file’s type. For example, the header of a JPEG file, is 0xFF 0xD8 and the file extension is either `.JPE`, `.JPEG` or `.JPG`.

Adversaries may edit the header’s hex code and/or the file extension of a malicious payload in order to bypass file validation checks and/or input sanitization. This behavior is commonly used when payload files are transferred (e.g., Ingress Tool Transfer) and stored (e.g., Upload Malware) so that adversaries may move their malware without triggering detections.

Common non-executable file types and extensions, such as text files (`.txt`) and image files (`.jpg`, `.gif`, etc.) may be typically treated as benign. Based on this, adversaries may use a file extension to disguise malware, such as naming a PHP backdoor code with a file name of test.gif. A user may not know that a file is malicious due to the benign appearance and file extension.

Polyglot files, which are files that have multiple different file types and that function differently based on the application that will execute them, may also be used to disguise malicious malware and capabilities.[1]

View the same entry on attack.mitre.org (MITRE-hosted reference; in-page links above use the Glexia ATT&CK library.)

Glexia analysis

How security teams should use this page

Treat this object as behavior context, not an attribution claim. Validate the related groups, software, data sources, and mitigations against official ATT&CK relationships and your own telemetry before making control-coverage decisions.

ATT&CK relationship table

Related techniques

This mirrors the MITRE pattern of making group, software, campaign, and technique relationships scannable. Relationship notes come from mirrored ATT&CK relationship text when available.

1 rows
Domain ID Name Relationship / procedure
Enterprise T1036 Masquerading This object subtechnique of Masquerading.
Associated objects

Groups, software, and campaigns

Group Enterprise

G1017: Volt Typhoon

Volt Typhoon is a People's Republic of China (PRC) state-sponsored actor that has been active since at least 2021, primarily targeting critical infrastructure organizations in the US and its territories including Guam. Volt Typhoon's targeting and pattern of behavior have been assessed as pre-positioning to enable lateral movement to operational technology (OT) assets for potential destructive or disruptive attacks. Volt Typhoon has emphasized stealth in operations using web shells, living-off-the-land (LOTL) binaries, hands on keyboard activities, and stolen credentials.[1][2][3][4]. The group has leveraged compromised SOHO routers to proxy command and control traffic and obscure its infrastructure, activity associated with the KV botnet.[5].

Reporting indicates a separate initial access cluster, SYLVANITE, has been observed exploiting internet-facing edge devices and transferring access to Volt Typhoon, also tracked as VOLTZITE, for follow-on operations. [6]

Group Enterprise

G1043: BlackByte

BlackByte is a ransomware threat actor operating since at least 2021. BlackByte is associated with several versions of ransomware also labeled BlackByte Ransomware. BlackByte ransomware operations initially used a common encryption key allowing for the development of a universal decryptor, but subsequent versions such as BlackByte 2.0 Ransomware use more robust encryption mechanisms. BlackByte is notable for operations targeting critical infrastructure entities among other targets across North America.[1][2][3][4][5]

Group Enterprise

G1054: MirrorFace

MirrorFace is a People's Republic of China (PRC)-aligned cyberespionage actor believed to be a subgroup under the menuPass umbrella based on targeting, tools, and infrastructure overlaps. MirrorFace has been active since at least 2019, at first exclusively targeting Japanese organizations across the media, defense, diplomatic, financial, manufacturing, and academic sectors. Subsequent MirrorFace operations included targets in Central Europe and featured use of LODEINFO, HiddenFace, and UPPERCUT malware.[1][2][3][4][5][6]

Group Enterprise

G0129: Mustang Panda

Mustang Panda is a China-based cyber espionage threat actor that has been conducting operations since at least 2012. Mustang Panda has been known to use tailored phishing lures and decoy documents to deliver malicious payloads. Mustang Panda has targeted government, diplomatic, and non-governmental organizations, including think tanks, religious institutions, and research entities, across the United States, Europe, and Asia, with notable activity in Russia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan, and Vietnam. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]

Malware Enterprise

S9018: HeartCrypt

HeartCrypt is a packer-as-a-service (PaaS) used to protect malware that has been available since at least 2024. HeartCrypt has been used to pack a variety of malware including Lumma Stealer, Remcos, and Rhadamanthys. In the HeartCrypt PaaS model, customers submit malware via private messaging services and it is then packed and returned by the operator as a new binary.[1]

LinuxWindows
Malware Enterprise

S0650: QakBot

QakBot is a modular banking trojan that has been used primarily by financially-motivated actors since at least 2007. QakBot is continuously maintained and developed and has evolved from an information stealer into a delivery agent for ransomware, most notably ProLock and Egregor.[1][2][3][4]

Windows
Malware Enterprise

S1130: Raspberry Robin

Raspberry Robin is initial access malware first identified in September 2021, and active through early 2024. The malware is notable for spreading via infected USB devices containing a malicious LNK object that, on execution, retrieves remote hosted payloads for installation. Raspberry Robin has been widely used against various industries and geographies, and as a precursor to information stealer, ransomware, and other payloads such as SocGholish, Cobalt Strike, IcedID, and Bumblebee.[1][2][3] The DLL componenet in the Raspberry Robin infection chain is also referred to as "Roshtyak."[4] The name "Raspberry Robin" is used to refer to both the malware as well as the threat actor associated with its use, although the Raspberry Robin operators are also tracked as Storm-0856 by some vendors.[5]

Windows
Malware Enterprise

S1074: ANDROMEDA

ANDROMEDA is commodity malware that was widespread in the early 2010's and continues to be observed in infections across a wide variety of industries. During the 2022 C0026 campaign, threat actors re-registered expired ANDROMEDA C2 domains to spread malware to select targets in Ukraine.[1]

Windows
Tool Enterprise

S1063: Brute Ratel C4

Brute Ratel C4 is a commercial red-teaming and adversarial attack simulation tool that first appeared in December 2020. Brute Ratel C4 was specifically designed to avoid detection by endpoint detection and response (EDR) and antivirus (AV) capabilities, and deploys agents called badgers to enable arbitrary command execution for lateral movement, privilege escalation, and persistence. In September 2022, a cracked version of Brute Ratel C4 was leaked in the cybercriminal underground, leading to its use by threat actors.[1][2][3][4][5]

Windows
Malware Enterprise

S1053: AvosLocker

AvosLocker is ransomware written in C++ that has been offered via the Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) model. It was first observed in June 2021 and has been used against financial services, critical manufacturing, government facilities, and other critical infrastructure sectors in the United States. As of March 2022, AvosLocker had also been used against organizations in Belgium, Canada, China, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Syria, Taiwan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.[1][2][3]

LinuxWindows
Malware Enterprise

S9019: PureCrypter

PureCrypter is a fully-featured malware loader, developed by a threat actor called “PureCoder," that has been in use since at least 2021 to distribute a variety of remote access trojans and information stealers.[1]

Windows
Malware Enterprise

S1182: MagicRAT

MagicRAT is a remote access tool developed in C++ and exclusively used by the Lazarus Group threat actor in operations. MagicRAT allows for arbitrary command execution on victim machines and provides basic remote access functionality.[1]

Windows
Campaign Enterprise

C0022: Operation Dream Job

Operation Dream Job was a cyber espionage operation likely conducted by Lazarus Group that targeted the defense, aerospace, government, and other sectors in the United States, Israel, Australia, Russia, and India. In at least one case, the cyber actors tried to monetize their network access to conduct a business email compromise (BEC) operation. In 2020, security researchers noted overlapping TTPs, to include fake job lures and code similarities, between Operation Dream Job, Operation North Star, and Operation Interception; by 2022 security researchers described Operation Dream Job as an umbrella term covering both Operation Interception and Operation North Star.[1][2][3][4]

Relationship explorer

All related ATT&CK context

uses · Campaign C0025: 2016 Ukraine Electric Power Attack Enterprise subtechnique of · Technique T1036: Masquerading Enterprise mitigates · Mitigation M1040: Behavior Prevention on Endpoint Enterprise uses · Malware S9018: HeartCrypt Enterprise uses · Campaign C0022: Operation Dream Job Enterprise mitigates · Mitigation M1049: Antivirus/Antimalware Enterprise uses · Group G1017: Volt Typhoon Enterprise uses · Malware S1190: Kapeka Enterprise uses · Group G1043: BlackByte Enterprise uses · Malware S0650: QakBot Enterprise uses · Malware S1130: Raspberry Robin Enterprise uses · Malware S1238: STATICPLUGIN Enterprise mitigates · Mitigation M1038: Execution Prevention Enterprise uses · Malware S1074: ANDROMEDA Enterprise uses · Tool S1063: Brute Ratel C4 Enterprise uses · Malware S1213: Lumma Stealer Enterprise uses · Malware S1053: AvosLocker Enterprise uses · Campaign C0060: Operation AkaiRyū Enterprise uses · Malware S9019: PureCrypter Enterprise uses · Group G1054: MirrorFace Enterprise uses · Group G0129: Mustang Panda Enterprise uses · Malware S1182: MagicRAT Enterprise uses · Malware S0352: OSX_OCEANLOTUS.D Enterprise uses · Malware S1183: StrelaStealer Enterprise
Mitigations

Mitigation direction

Mitigation Enterprise

M1040: Behavior Prevention on Endpoint

Behavior Prevention on Endpoint refers to the use of technologies and strategies to detect and block potentially malicious activities by analyzing the behavior of processes, files, API calls, and other endpoint events. Rather than relying solely on known signatures, this approach leverages heuristics, machine learning, and real-time monitoring to identify anomalous patterns indicative of an attack. This mitigation can be implemented through the following measures:

Suspicious Process Behavior:

- Implementation: Use Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) tools to monitor and block processes exhibiting unusual behavior, such as privilege escalation attempts. - Use Case: An attacker uses a known vulnerability to spawn a privileged process from a user-level application. The endpoint tool detects the abnormal parent-child process relationship and blocks the action.

Unauthorized File Access:

- Implementation: Leverage Data Loss Prevention (DLP) or endpoint tools to block processes attempting to access sensitive files without proper authorization. - Use Case: A process tries to read or modify a sensitive file located in a restricted directory, such as /etc/shadow on Linux or the SAM registry hive on Windows. The endpoint tool identifies this anomalous behavior and prevents it.

Abnormal API Calls:

- Implementation: Implement runtime analysis tools to monitor API calls and block those associated with malicious activities. - Use Case: A process dynamically injects itself into another process to hijack its execution. The endpoint detects the abnormal use of APIs like `OpenProcess` and `WriteProcessMemory` and terminates the offending process.

Exploit Prevention:

- Implementation: Use behavioral exploit prevention tools to detect and block exploits attempting to gain unauthorized access. - Use Case: A buffer overflow exploit is launched against a vulnerable application. The endpoint detects the anomalous memory write operation and halts the process.

Mitigation Enterprise

M1049: Antivirus/Antimalware

Antivirus/Antimalware solutions utilize signatures, heuristics, and behavioral analysis to detect, block, and remediate malicious software, including viruses, trojans, ransomware, and spyware. These solutions continuously monitor endpoints and systems for known malicious patterns and suspicious behaviors that indicate compromise. Antivirus/Antimalware software should be deployed across all devices, with automated updates to ensure protection against the latest threats. This mitigation can be implemented through the following measures:

Signature-Based Detection:

- Implementation: Use predefined signatures to identify known malware based on unique patterns such as file hashes, byte sequences, or command-line arguments. This method is effective against known threats. - Use Case: When malware like "Emotet" is detected, its signature (such as a specific file hash) matches a known database of malicious software, triggering an alert and allowing immediate quarantine of the infected file.

Heuristic-Based Detection:

- Implementation: Deploy heuristic algorithms that analyze behavior and characteristics of files and processes to identify potential malware, even if it doesn’t match a known signature. - Use Case: If a program attempts to modify multiple critical system files or initiate suspicious network communications, heuristic analysis may flag it as potentially malicious, even if no specific malware signature is available.

Behavioral Detection (Behavior Prevention):

- Implementation: Use behavioral analysis to detect patterns of abnormal activities, such as unusual system calls, unauthorized file encryption, or attempts to escalate privileges. - Use Case: Behavioral analysis can detect ransomware attacks early by identifying behavior like mass file encryption, even before a specific ransomware signature has been identified.

Real-Time Scanning:

- Implementation: Enable real-time scanning to automatically inspect files and network traffic for signs of malware as they are accessed, downloaded, or executed. - Use Case: When a user downloads an email attachment, the antivirus solution scans the file in real-time, checking it against both signatures and heuristics to detect any malicious content before it can be opened.

Cloud-Assisted Threat Intelligence:

- Implementation: Use cloud-based threat intelligence to ensure the antivirus solution can access the latest malware definitions and real-time threat feeds from a global database of emerging threats. - Use Case: Cloud-assisted antivirus solutions quickly identify newly discovered malware by cross-referencing against global threat databases, providing real-time protection against zero-day attacks.

**Tools for Implementation**:

- Endpoint Security Platforms: Use solutions such as EDR for comprehensive antivirus/antimalware protection across all systems. - Centralized Management: Implement centralized antivirus management consoles that provide visibility into threat activity, enable policy enforcement, and automate updates. - Behavioral Analysis Tools: Leverage solutions with advanced behavioral analysis capabilities to detect malicious activity patterns that don’t rely on known signatures.

Mitigation Enterprise

M1038: Execution Prevention

Prevent the execution of unauthorized or malicious code on systems by implementing application control, script blocking, and other execution prevention mechanisms. This ensures that only trusted and authorized code is executed, reducing the risk of malware and unauthorized actions. This mitigation can be implemented through the following measures:

Application Control:

- Use Case: Use tools like AppLocker or Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC) to create whitelists of authorized applications and block unauthorized ones. On Linux, use tools like SELinux or AppArmor to define mandatory access control policies for application execution. - Implementation: Allow only digitally signed or pre-approved applications to execute on servers and endpoints. (e.g., `New-AppLockerPolicy -PolicyType Enforced -FilePath "C:\Policies\AppLocker.xml"`)

Script Blocking:

- Use Case: Use script control mechanisms to block unauthorized execution of scripts, such as PowerShell or JavaScript. Web Browsers: Use browser extensions or settings to block JavaScript execution from untrusted sources. - Implementation: Configure PowerShell to enforce Constrained Language Mode for non-administrator users. (e.g., `Set-ExecutionPolicy AllSigned`)

Executable Blocking:

- Use Case: Prevent execution of binaries from suspicious locations, such as `%TEMP%` or `%APPDATA%` directories. - Implementation: Block execution of `.exe`, `.bat`, or `.ps1` files from user-writable directories.

Dynamic Analysis Prevention: - Use Case: Use behavior-based execution prevention tools to identify and block malicious activity in real time. - Implemenation: Employ EDR solutions that analyze runtime behavior and block suspicious code execution.

Change history

Object version and sync metadata

The fields below describe the current mirrored snapshot. When Glexia retains multiple ATT&CK source imports, you can open the table to compare the same object across releases (hashes and MITRE timestamps). For MITRE’s own release notes and roadmap, see ATT&CK resources — Updates .

ATT&CK release
19.1
Object version
2.0
Created
Modified
Raw hash
71bb5d64125f83e3...
Imported snapshots across ATT&CK releases (1)
Release Bundle imported Object version Modified Status Raw hash
19.1 2.0 Current bundle 71bb5d64125f…
Raw source

Mirrored ATT&CK source object

The raw object is retained through the mirrored ATT&CK source bundle and object hash. The raw endpoint returns the exact object from the mirrored bundle when available.

Open mirrored raw JSON Open MITRE-hosted copy
Source references

External references and citations

MITRE external references are preserved separately from Glexia analysis so citations remain traceable to their original source records.

  1. [1]
    polygot_icedID

    Lim, M. (2022, September 27). More Than Meets the Eye: Exposing a Polyglot File That Delivers IcedID. Retrieved September 29, 2022.

    Open source URL
  2. [2]
    mitre-attack T1036.008
    Open source URL
Source and licensing

Source: MITRE ATT&CK®. © 2026 The MITRE Corporation. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of The MITRE Corporation. MITRE ATT&CK and ATT&CK are registered trademarks of The MITRE Corporation. Glexia is not affiliated with or endorsed by MITRE.

Official MITRE ATT&CK site Official STIX data repository MITRE ATT&CK terms of use