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
How to Inject Shellcode from Java
Cobalt Strike’s Java Applet attacks inject shellcode into memory. Injecting into memory is valuable as it helps get past application whitelisting and can help evade
Phishing System Profiles without Phone Calls
What type of reconnaissance do you do before a phishing attack? Recently, I was having dinner with new friends and inevitably, our conversation became a
Why is notepad.exe connecting to the internet?
To the observant network defender, notepad.exe connecting to the internet is a key indicator of compromise. In this blog post, I’d like to explain why
Situational Awareness for Meterpreter Users
Hacking involves managing a lot of contextual factors at one time. Most times, the default situation works and a tool will perform beautifully for you.
The Origin of Armitage’s Hail Mary Mass Exploitation Feature
Several times now, an author has introduced Armitage, and the main value add to the hacking process that they emphasize is the “devastating” Hail Mary attack.
Hacking through a Straw (Pivoting over DNS)
Last month, I announced Beacon’s ability to control a host over DNS. I see Beacon as a low and slow lifeline to get an active session,
Staged Payloads – What Pen Testers Should Know
The Metasploit Framework decouples exploits from the stuff that gets executed after successful exploitation (the payload). Payloads in the Metasploit Framework are also divided into
That’ll never work–we don’t allow port 53 out
One of my favorite Cobalt Strike features is its ability to quietly manage a compromised system with DNS. Being rather proud of this feature, I
Metasploit 4.6 – Now with less Open Source GUI
Last week, I received an email from Tod B. at Rapid7 stating that the next binary installer of Metasploit would ship without Armitage and msfgui.