Analysis

  • max time kernel
    150s
  • max time network
    127s
  • platform
    windows11-ltsc_2024_x64
  • resource
    win11ltsc2024-20260911-en
  • resource tags

    arch:x64arch:x86image:win11ltsc2024-20260911-enlocale:en-usos:windows11-ltsc_2024-x64systemwindows
  • submitted
    11/10/2026, 12:18

General

  • Target
    pulse-installer.exe
  • Size 13.9MB
  • Sample261011-pgvxwsas5m
  • SHA256 66cfbb0aaf99a4856547cca14d817bedf2ae48f6d3ece72dde556f89c0cebb19
  • MD5 SHA1 SHA512 SSDEEP TLSH

Malware Config

Signatures

  • Command and Scripting Interpreter: PowerShell 1 TTPs 2 IoCs

    Run Powershell to modify Windows Defender settings to add exclusions for file extensions, paths, and processes.

  • Loads dropped DLL 21 IoCs
  • Checks installed software on the system 1 TTPs

    Looks up Uninstall key entries in the registry to enumerate software on the system.

  • Drops file in Program Files directory 14 IoCs
  • Hide Artifacts: Ignore Process Interrupts 1 TTPs 1 IoCs

    Command interpreters often include specific commands/flags that ignore errors and other hangups.

  • Enumerates physical storage devices 1 TTPs

    Attempts to interact with connected storage/optical drive(s).

  • System Location Discovery: System Language Discovery 1 TTPs 13 IoCs

    Attempt gather information about the system language of a victim in order to infer the geographical location of that host.

  • Kills process with taskkill 4 IoCs
  • Scheduled Task/Job: Scheduled Task 1 TTPs 2 IoCs

    Schtasks is often used by malware for persistence or to perform post-infection execution.

  • Suspicious behavior: EnumeratesProcesses 8 IoCs
  • Suspicious use of AdjustPrivilegeToken 64 IoCs
  • Suspicious use of WriteProcessMemory 12 IoCs

Processes

  • C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Temp\pulse-installer.exe
    "C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Temp\pulse-installer.exe"
    1⤵
    • Loads dropped DLL
    • Drops file in Program Files directory
    • System Location Discovery: System Language Discovery
    • Suspicious behavior: EnumeratesProcesses
    • Suspicious use of WriteProcessMemory
    PID:908
    • C:\Windows\SysWOW64\taskkill.exe
      taskkill /F /IM PULSE.exe
      2⤵
      • System Location Discovery: System Language Discovery
      • Kills process with taskkill
      • Suspicious use of AdjustPrivilegeToken
      PID:1920
    • C:\Windows\SysWOW64\taskkill.exe
      taskkill /F /IM pulse.exe
      2⤵
      • System Location Discovery: System Language Discovery
      • Kills process with taskkill
      • Suspicious use of AdjustPrivilegeToken
      PID:2636
    • C:\Windows\SysWOW64\taskkill.exe
      taskkill /F /IM pulse-watchdog.exe
      2⤵
      • System Location Discovery: System Language Discovery
      • Kills process with taskkill
      • Suspicious use of AdjustPrivilegeToken
      PID:4124
    • C:\Windows\SysWOW64\taskkill.exe
      taskkill /F /IM pulse-elevated-helper.exe
      2⤵
      • System Location Discovery: System Language Discovery
      • Kills process with taskkill
      • Suspicious use of AdjustPrivilegeToken
      PID:2452
    • C:\Windows\SysWOW64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe
      powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "Add-MpPreference -ExclusionPath \"C:\Program Files\PULSE\" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue"
      2⤵
      • Command and Scripting Interpreter: PowerShell
      • System Location Discovery: System Language Discovery
      • Suspicious behavior: EnumeratesProcesses
      • Suspicious use of AdjustPrivilegeToken
      PID:5272
    • C:\Windows\SysWOW64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe
      powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "Remove-MpPreference -ExclusionPath \"C:\ProgramData\\com.pulse.app\" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue; Remove-MpPreference -ExclusionPath \"C:\ProgramData\\Temp\\pulse_update\" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue"
      2⤵
      • Hide Artifacts: Ignore Process Interrupts
      • System Location Discovery: System Language Discovery
      • Suspicious behavior: EnumeratesProcesses
      • Suspicious use of AdjustPrivilegeToken
      PID:4556
    • C:\Windows\SysWOW64\reg.exe
      reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Exclusions" /v DisableAutoExclusions /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
      2⤵
      • System Location Discovery: System Language Discovery
      PID:5116
    • C:\Windows\SysWOW64\reg.exe
      reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Exclusions\Paths" /v "C:\Program Files\PULSE" /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
      2⤵
      • System Location Discovery: System Language Discovery
      PID:3896
    • C:\Windows\SysWOW64\reg.exe
      reg add "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows Defender\Exclusions\Paths" /v "C:\Program Files\PULSE\pulse.exe" /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f
      2⤵
      • System Location Discovery: System Language Discovery
      PID:6020
    • C:\Windows\SysWOW64\schtasks.exe
      schtasks /Create /TN "PULSE_AdminLaunch" /TR ""C:\Program Files\PULSE\pulse.exe"" /SC ONLOGON /RL HIGHEST /IT /F
      2⤵
      • System Location Discovery: System Language Discovery
      • Scheduled Task/Job: Scheduled Task
      PID:4916
    • C:\Windows\SysWOW64\schtasks.exe
      schtasks /Create /TN "PULSE_Watchdog" /TR ""C:\Program Files\PULSE\pulse-watchdog.exe"" /SC ONLOGON /IT /F
      2⤵
      • System Location Discovery: System Language Discovery
      • Scheduled Task/Job: Scheduled Task
      PID:848
    • C:\Windows\SysWOW64\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe
      powershell -NoProfile -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "@(\"C:\Users\Public\Desktop\PULSE.lnk\", \"C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\PULSE.lnk\", \"C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\PULSE\PULSE.lnk\") | ForEach-Object { if (Test-Path -LiteralPath $_) { try { $b = [System.IO.File]::ReadAllBytes($_); $b[21] = $b[21] -bor 0x20; [System.IO.File]::WriteAllBytes($_, $b) } catch {} } }"
      2⤵
      • Command and Scripting Interpreter: PowerShell
      • System Location Discovery: System Language Discovery
      • Suspicious behavior: EnumeratesProcesses
      PID:2804

Network

        MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v16

        Replay Monitor

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        Downloads

        pulse.exe

        • Path C:\Program Files\PULSE\pulse.exe
        • Size 40.1MB
        • SHA256 a9af8b7f30369172fbc68daab97ecac167917a4b77d2286872b7cad80623041d
        • MD5 SHA1 SHA512 SSDEEP TLSH

        PULSE.lnk

        • Path C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\PULSE.lnk
        • Size 901B
        • SHA256 9553dcfd1d58e66f3ca1c8d21be2d98242a90146735f2217355ddb8a5c077980
        • MD5 SHA1 SHA512 TLSH

        StartupProfileData-NonInteractive

        • Path C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\PowerShell\StartupProfileData-NonInteractive
        • Size 20KB
        • SHA256 5753c74e6f8285030afbbc77380752b6b4c6a297c8b8ef57b3c127dcd0e663b1
        • MD5 SHA1 SHA512 SSDEEP TLSH

        StartupProfileData-NonInteractive

        • Path C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\PowerShell\StartupProfileData-NonInteractive
        • Size 20KB
        • SHA256 352dcce60da0f3128a3e2493d2db0a7d6b96c17e3c1a95ccc0ed0ffc7f31de5d
        • MD5 SHA1 SHA512 SSDEEP TLSH

        __PSScriptPolicyTest_jykamvcv.1qh.psm1

        • Path C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Temp\__PSScriptPolicyTest_jykamvcv.1qh.psm1
        • Size 60B
        • SHA256 96ad1146eb96877eab5942ae0736b82d8b5e2039a80d3d6932665c1a4c87dcf7
        • MD5 SHA1 SHA512 TLSH

        LangDLL.dll

        • Path C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Temp\nswD1B0.tmp\LangDLL.dll
        • Size 5KB
        • SHA256 4cf25411f28f639f72156c24b0f66ea42f5aee5973f6c137d901da6ae42d5b7e
        • MD5 SHA1 SHA512 SSDEEP TLSH

        System.dll

        • Path C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Temp\nswD1B0.tmp\System.dll
        • Size 12KB
        • SHA256 8b4c47c4cf5e76ec57dd5a050d5acd832a0d532ee875d7b44f6cdaf68f90d37c
        • MD5 SHA1 SHA512 SSDEEP TLSH

        modern-wizard.bmp

        • Path C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Temp\nswD1B0.tmp\modern-wizard.bmp
        • Size 25KB
        • SHA256 3ad2dc318056d0a2024af1804ea741146cfc18cc404649a44610cbf8b2056cf2
        • MD5 SHA1 SHA512 SSDEEP TLSH

        nsDialogs.dll

        • Path C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Temp\nswD1B0.tmp\nsDialogs.dll
        • Size 9KB
        • SHA256 b1350f487692057c8ffde75dcc55287a52a3272240d4d4912f24464b27551fc0
        • MD5 SHA1 SHA512 SSDEEP TLSH

        nsExec.dll

        • Path C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Temp\nswD1B0.tmp\nsExec.dll
        • Size 7KB
        • SHA256 b121689861b506dbc9c3797b49bc8a90d555cb7db58cb959165cc758391c00bb
        • MD5 SHA1 SHA512 SSDEEP TLSH

        nsis_tauri_utils.dll

        • Path C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Local\Temp\nswD1B0.tmp\nsis_tauri_utils.dll
        • Size 33KB
        • SHA256 5ba143b5db4a87d32d6e7802e033330aae56cbceabe0d1e3ba41948385ad4709
        • MD5 SHA1 SHA512 SSDEEP TLSH

        memory/2804-125-0x0000000007630000-0x0000000007BEA000-memory.dmp

        memory/2804-124-0x0000000006330000-0x0000000006352000-memory.dmp

        memory/2804-123-0x00000000062A0000-0x00000000062EC000-memory.dmp

        memory/2804-121-0x0000000005960000-0x0000000005CBB000-memory.dmp

        memory/4556-60-0x0000000005C00000-0x0000000005F5B000-memory.dmp

        memory/4556-62-0x000000006F980000-0x000000006F9CC000-memory.dmp

        memory/5272-38-0x0000000005CF0000-0x0000000005D56000-memory.dmp

        memory/5272-50-0x0000000007C00000-0x000000000827C000-memory.dmp

        memory/5272-51-0x00000000075C0000-0x00000000075DA000-memory.dmp

        memory/5272-52-0x0000000007630000-0x000000000763A000-memory.dmp

        memory/5272-53-0x0000000007830000-0x00000000078C6000-memory.dmp

        memory/5272-49-0x0000000007460000-0x0000000007503000-memory.dmp

        memory/5272-45-0x000000006F980000-0x000000006F9CC000-memory.dmp

        memory/5272-48-0x0000000006820000-0x0000000006840000-memory.dmp

        memory/5272-44-0x0000000007210000-0x0000000007246000-memory.dmp

        memory/5272-43-0x0000000006300000-0x000000000634C000-memory.dmp

        memory/5272-42-0x0000000006250000-0x000000000626E000-memory.dmp

        memory/5272-41-0x0000000005E00000-0x000000000615B000-memory.dmp

        memory/5272-37-0x0000000005C80000-0x0000000005CE6000-memory.dmp

        memory/5272-36-0x0000000005480000-0x00000000054A2000-memory.dmp

        memory/5272-35-0x0000000005540000-0x0000000005B8A000-memory.dmp

        memory/5272-34-0x0000000002D80000-0x0000000002DB6000-memory.dmp