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Subvert Trust Controls: SIP and Trust Provider Hijacking
![Defense Evasion [Mitre] icon](/media/2024/04/08/icons8-burglar.svg){kind=small}
Adversaries may tamper with SIP and trust provider components to mislead the operating system and application control tools when conducting signature validation checks. In user mode, Windows Authenticode digital signatures are used to verify a file's origin and integrity, variables that may be used to establish trust in signed code (ex: a driver with a valid Microsoft signature may be …
Read moreSubvert Trust Controls: Mark-of-the-Web Bypass
Adversaries may abuse specific file formats to subvert Mark-of-the-Web (MOTW) controls. In Windows, when files are downloaded from the Internet, they are tagged with a hidden NTFS Alternate Data Stream (ADS) named Zone.Identifier with a specific value known as the MOTW. Files that are tagged with MOTW are protected and cannot perform certain actions. For example, starting in MS Office …
Read moreSystem Binary Proxy Execution: Control Panel
Adversaries may abuse control.exe to proxy execution of malicious payloads. The Windows Control Panel process binary (control.exe) handles execution of Control Panel items, which are utilities that allow users to view and adjust computer settings.
Control Panel items are registered executable (.exe) or Control Panel (.cpl) files, the latter are actually renamed dynamic-link library (.dll) files that export a …
Read moreSystem Binary Proxy Execution: InstallUtil
Adversaries may use InstallUtil to proxy execution of code through a trusted Windows utility. InstallUtil is a command-line utility that allows for installation and uninstallation of resources by executing specific installer components specified in .NET binaries. The InstallUtil binary may also be digitally signed by Microsoft and located in the .NET directories on a Windows system: C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v\InstallUtil.exe and …
Read moreVirtualization/Sandbox Evasion: System Checks
Adversaries may employ various system checks to detect and avoid virtualization and analysis environments. This may include changing behaviors based on the results of checks for the presence of artifacts indicative of a virtual machine environment (VME) or sandbox. If the adversary detects a VME, they may alter their malware to disengage from the victim or conceal the core functions …
Read moreXSL Script Processing
Adversaries may bypass application control and obscure execution of code by embedding scripts inside XSL files. Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) files are commonly used to describe the processing and rendering of data within XML files. To support complex operations, the XSL standard includes support for embedded scripting in various languages.
Adversaries may abuse this functionality to execute arbitrary files …
Read moreDetecting Virtual Environment Files
Some files are created by Virtualbox and VMware on the system.
Malware can check the different folders to find Virtualbox artifacts like VBoxMouse.sys.
Malware can check the different folders to find VMware artifacts like vmmouse.sys, vmhgfs.sys.
Some Files Example
Below is a list of files that can be detected on virtual machines:
- "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp\agent.pyw", …
Detecting Virtual Environment Artefacts
Malware often checks for artifacts left by virtualization platforms to determine if it is running inside a virtual environment. Detecting such artifacts allows the malware to adapt its behavior, delay execution, or avoid exposing malicious functionality during analysis.
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QEMU: QEMU registers artifacts in the Windows registry. For example, the key
HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\Scsi\Scsi Port 0\Scsi Bus 0\Target Id 0\Logical …
IsDebuggerPresent
This function checks specific flag in the Process Environment Block (PEB) for the field IsDebugged which will return zero if the process is not running into a debugger or a nonzero if a debugger is attached.
If you want to understand the underlying process of IsDebuggerPresent API you can check the code snippet section for the following method: IsDebugged …
Read moreNtSetInformationThread
NtSetInformationThread can be used to hide threads from debuggers using the ThreadHideFromDebugger ThreadInfoClass (0x11 / 17). This is intended to be used by an external process, but any thread can use it on itself.
After the thread is hidden from the debugger, it will continue running but the debugger won’t receive events related to this thread. …
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