I’m pleased to announce Cobalt Strike 1.48. This release introduces a peer-to-peer data channel for Beacon, improves browser pivoting, and updates the signed applet attack with options the latest Java 1.7 updates require. Peer-to-Peer Beacon It’s hard to stay hidden when many compromised systems call out to the internet. To solve this problem, Beacon now supports peer-to-peer command and […]
CTA Type: Resource
Evade Egress Restrictions with Staged Payloads
Sometimes, it’s easy to get code execution in a network, but very difficult to egress out of it. When you are an external actor trying to get a foothold, it’s important that your attack package use a payload that’s likely to leave your target’s network. If you can’t get out, all of your work is […]
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Schtasks Persistence with PowerShell One Liners
One of my favorite Metasploit Framework modules is psh_web_delivery. You can find it in exploits -> windows -> misc. This module starts a local web server that hosts a PowerShell script. This module also provides a PowerShell one liner to download this script and run it. I use this module all of the time in […]
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Getting the Most from Armitage’s Console
I have a philosophy. Armitage should make common actions simple and efficient. As soon as you need to break away into an uncommon action, use a console. Because the console is so important in Armitage’s use, I put a lot of effort into making Armitage a solid interface to use the Metasploit Framework console through. […]
Tradecraft – Red Team Operations Course and Notes
A few days ago, I posted the YouTube playlist on Twitter and it’s made a few rounds. That’s great. This blog post properly introduces the course along with a few notes and references for each segment. Tradecraft is a new nine-part course that provides the background and skills needed to execute a targeted attack as […]
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The ACE Problem Solving Method (I use this)
The reason I’m in security today is because of the US Air Force’s Advanced Course in Engineering Cyber Security internship program. I turned down an internship at NASA (after I accepted it!) to attend this “information warfare bootcamp” in 2003. The Air Force Research Lab modeled the ACE program after General Electric’s Advanced Course in Engineering. Each week, the […]
Email Delivery – What Pen Testers Should Know
I get a lot of questions about spear phishing. There’s a common myth that it’s easy to phish. Start a local mail server and have your hacking tool relay through it. No thinking required. Not quite. Email is not as open as it was ten years ago. Several standards exist to improve the security of email delivery and […]
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Browser Pivoting (Get past two-factor auth)
Several months ago, I was asked if I had a way to get past two-factor authentication on web applications. Criminals do it, but penetration testers don’t. To solve this problem, I built a man-in-the-browser capability for penetration testers and red teams. I call it browser pivoting. A browser pivot is an HTTP proxy server that injects […]
What’s in a Team Server?
Clients (like Armitage) interface with the Metasploit Framework through its Remote API. The Remote API is a way for clients to call functions in the Metasploit Framework’s RPC server. To pass different data types to/from the Metasploit Framework, clients use the MessagePack object serialization format. Because clients may interface with the Metasploit Framework in this […]
Beacon – An Operator’s Guide
Beacon is a payload in Cobalt Strike that has a lot of communication flexibility. This blog post is not a replacement for the documentation, but rather a guide to how I use it. Reading this post will help you get the most out of Beacon during your operations. Setup To use Beacon, you must first create a […]