Tag: threat hunting
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Detecting DNS Tunneling
Intro DNS Tunneling represents a threat often operating under the radar of traditional defense measures. By leveraging a fundamental protocol of the internet, Domain Name System (DNS), this technique allows threat actors to exfiltrate data or establish command and control (C2) channels, often leaving IT security teams none the wiser. What is DNS Tunneling? DNS […]
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Modifying User and System Shell Folder Paths: Collecting Evidence
Intro User and System Shell folders are a bunch of folders in Windows used to store a lot of the user’s personal data and settings. You most likely know these as Desktop, Start Menu, My Documents, and Startup folders. There are many others but those are some of the most popular. These locations are also […]
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Registry Run Keys: Maintaining Persistence
Intro Want to start Outlook on login? Easy. Start malware on login…even in safe mode? Just as easy. Registry run keys in Windows help start programs, scripts, or commands when your computer boots up or when you log in. They make managing apps and services easier when it comes to IT management or enhancing the […]
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Scheduled Tasks: Collecting Evidence
Intro Scheduled tasks are a valuable feature in Windows that enables users to schedule specific actions on their systems at desired times. This feature allows users to start designated programs at login, reboot their computers on a set schedule, and execute custom commands or scripts. However, this feature can also be exploited by adversaries to […]
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Abusing DNS: Hiding Commands in TXT Records
Intro While TXT DNS (text domain name system) records have legitimate purposes, it is important to be aware that adversaries can exploit TXT records to hide content and commands. Adversaries may use DNS to establish communication with systems that are under their control within a victim network, all while appearing as normal, expected traffic. What […]
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Recent Files & Directories: Collecting Evidence
Intro During an incident, it is imperative to gather as much information as possible to establish a comprehensive timeline of events. One crucial aspect of information collection is identifying the most recent files and directories on the impacted host found in %AppData%\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Recent. This information plays a crucial role in helping to understand the sequence of […]
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Applications: Identifying Social Engineering Installations
Intro Windows OS maintains a repository in the registry to keep track of applications that have been installed using the Windows Installer. This database is used by varying parts of the operating system in order to manage the installation, modification, and removal of software on the host. This information can aid incident responders in determining […]
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Hunting Shortcut Files: Mapping “.LNKs” to a Target File
Intro Shortcuts, also known as symbolic links, are simple files that provide convenient access to frequently used programs. These files are popular among users for their ease of use and accessibility. However, adversaries are also drawn to shortcuts as they provide a covert method for executing malicious programs. By disguising commands and harmful software within […]
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Macros: Hunting for Documents that Users Trusted and Enabled
Intro In a previous blog, I visited the topic of identifying internet-sourced files on a host system to help incident response teams quickly collect information to investigate a potential incident by utilizing Zone Identifiers. This information is crucial to gather as it could often answer the questions surrounding source attribution. So now that we found […]
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Hunting Masquerading Executables: The Significance of the MZ header
INTRO A common technique for adversaries to avoid detection when executing malware is to masquerade their tools under the guise of something that appears to be harmless. MITRE gives some wonderful descriptions into the techniques that have been used by various actors under Defense Evasion: T1036 Masquerading. Say, for instance, an adversary managed to coerce […]
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Hunting for Hashes: Algorithm Unknown? No problem!
INTRO Hashes are a fundamental tool in technical fields. Utilizing the values of hashes has become a common practice for ensuring the integrity of data, such as verifying the authenticity of a file during transfer or detecting malicious files through hash hunting. In the realm of security operations, threat hunting for known indicators is a […]