setres.exe

Configures display settings. file version info (xCyclopedia)

LOLBAS Execute 1 ATT&CK technique 1 documented command 3 known copies with hashes

How setres.exe is abused

documented by LOLBAS

Execute T1218 System Binary Proxy Execution

-w

-h

Each abuse is LOLBAS's category and the options and words it uses; the full write-up is on LOLBAS's page for setres.exe.

1 documented command

from LOLBAS, each read by the identifier

Execute T1218 System Binary Proxy Execution User privileges

Sets the resolution and then launches 'choice' command from the working directory.

setres.exe -w 800 -h 600

Identify

The command the identifier reads trips no Sigma process-creation rule. These commands and their descriptions are from LOLBAS’s entry for setres.exe, by Grzegorz Tworek, at commit 2056cb766250 of 2026-09-26, under the GPL-3.0 and LOLBAS’s notice, with no warranty. Changed: Markdown is shown formatted. The source is in lolbas-gtfobins-commands.json.gz, and the full entry is on LOLBAS’s page for setres.exe. The identifier reads it with LOLBAS’s placeholders filled in: a URL as https://example.com/file, a share as \\192.0.2.10\share\file, a path as C:\Data\file and a command as calc.exe.

What detects it

Sigma process creation rules

T1218System Binary Proxy Execution

Is it the real setres.exe?

file version info and known copies

Installed inC:\Windows\system32\

Signed byMicrosoft Windows

ProductMicrosoft Windows Operating System, Microsoft Corporation

DescriptionConfigures display settings.

3 known copies

10.0.17763.1 (WinBuild.160101.0800) · C:\Windows\system32\setres.exe · signed by Microsoft Windows

5465ca0a2666c2b403359b4238fe649e44b9c3e0c7cc696d872525e018121651

10.0.14393.0 (rs1_release.160715-1616) · C:\Windows\system32\setres.exe · signed by Microsoft Windows

1c113839c93df3c5c8945390e07936e8e3d22476669cce0ff6c9bdc994610932

6.3.9600.16384 (winblue_rtm.130821-1623) · C:\windows\system32\setres.exe · not signed

40b35149333e31d7253b7cc4a857da4ec9bd8142daf00058b023c2bf7cf74355

From the file’s version info and the copies recorded by xCyclopedia (MIT). A copy in another folder, signed by someone else or with another hash is not necessarily malicious, but it is worth a closer look. In Ceplin, "<sha256>".whatis() says which known copy a hash is.