Timestomping

Execution

Checking original timestamps of the nc.exe:

.\timestomp.exe .\nc.exe -v

Forging the file creation date:

.\timestomp.exe .\nc.exe -c "Monday 7/25/2005 5:15:55 AM"

Checking the $MFT for changes - first of, dumping the $MFT:

.\RawCopy64.exe /FileNamePath:C:\$MFT /OutputName:c:\experiments\mft.dat

Let's find the nc.exe record and check its timestamps:

Import-Csv .\mft.csv -Delimiter "`t" | Where-Object {$_.Filename -eq "nc.exe"}

Note how fnCreateTime did not get updated:

For this reason, it is always a good idea to check both $STANDARD_INFO and $FILE_NAME times during the investigation to have a better chance at detecting timestomping.

Note that if we moved the nc.exe file to any other folder on the system and re-parsed the $MFT again, the fnCreateTime timestamp would inherit the timestamp from siCreateTime:

References

Indicator Removal on Host: Timestomp, Sub-technique T1070.006 - Enterprise | MITRE ATT&CK®