Finding the LNK: Techniques and methodology for advanced analysis

Malicious exploitation of LNK files, commonly known as Windows shortcuts, is a well-established technique used by threat actors for delivery and persistence. While the value of LNK forensics for cyber threat intelligence (CTI) is fairly well-understood, analysts may overlook less well-known data points and miss valuable insights. In this post, we explore the structure of LNK files using Velociraptor. We will walk through each LNK structure and discuss some analysis techniques frequently used on the Rapid7 Labs team.

How To Hunt For UEFI Malware

UEFI threats have historically been limited in number and mostly implemented by nation state actors as stealthy persistence. However, the recent proliferation of Black Lotus on the dark web, Trickbot enumeration module (late 2022), and Glupteba (November 2023) indicates that this historical trend may be changing. With this context, it is becoming important for security practitioners to understand visibility and collection capabilities for UEFI threats. This post covers some of these areas and presents several recent Velociraptor artifacts that can be used in the field.

Automating Qakbot decode at scale

This is a technical post covering practical methodology to extract configuration data from recent Qakbot samples. In this blog, I will provide some background on Qakbot, then walk through decode themes in an easy to visualize manner. I will then share a Velociraptor artifact to detect and automate the decode process at scale.

WMI Event Consumers: what are you missing?

WMI Eventing is a fairly well known technique in DFIR, however some tools may not provide the coverage you expect. This article covers WMI eventing visibility and detection including custom namespaces.

Cobalt Strike Payload Discovery And Data Manipulation In VQL

Velociraptor’s ability for data manipulation is a core platform capability that drives a lot of the great content we have available in terms of data parsing for artifacts and live analysis. After a recent engagement with less common encoded Cobalt Strike beacons, and finding sharable files on VirusTotal, I thought it would be a good opportunity to walk through some workflow around data manipulation with VQL for analysis. In this post I will walk though some background, collection at scale, and finally talk about processing target files to extract key indicators.

Windows IPSEC for endpoint quarantine

This post is going to talk about using Windows IPSec for a quarantine use case. Im going to explain the background, how to configure a policy and some of the design decisions as I was initially looking at building an endpoint based containment capability.

Local Live Response with Velociraptor ++

In this post im going to talk about a live response use case leveraging the Velociraptor project worth sharing. Specifically, live response with ancillary collection by third party tools embedded to minimise user impact. As usual, im going to provide some background and walk through the steps then share the code.

Live response automation with Velociraptor

This post is going to talk about the Velociraptor project. Specifically, live response and automation I have built for my own engagements. Im going to provide some background and walk through a proof of concept, then share the code.

O365: Hidden InboxRules

In this post Im going to talk about Office365 hidden inbox rules. Im going to give some background, show rule modification, and talk about detection methodology.

Binary Rename 2

This is my second Binary Rename post, in this post I am focusing on static detection, that is assessing files on disk. I am going to describe differences between both Yara and Powershell based detections, then share the code.

Blue Team Hacks - Binary Rename

In this post I thought I would share an interesting proof of concept I developed to detect Binary Rename of commonly abused binaries. Im going to describe the detection, its limitations and share the code.

Live Response Script Builder

In this post I thought I would share some practical new features implemented in a recent refactor of Invoke-LiveResponse. These features enable fast and modular generation of live response scripts compatible with legacy Powershell. Im going to walk through the background then some of the new features and script creation.

Powershell Download Cradles

In this post I thought I would share some information on Powershell download cradles I put together recently. I’m going to provide an overview, highlighting areas I found interesting thinking about detection from both network and endpoint views.

Sharing my BITS

I thought I would share some research on Microsoft BITS after a recent tool released by the French ANSSI to parse BITS job artefacts. This tool has sparked my interest due to previous research on download cradles and an interest in the client side forensics. I’m going to give a brief background, talk about some nuances in collection types and provide some background information when I was thinking about detection.

Invoke-LiveResponse

In this post, I am going to talk about a Powershell module I have authored as a simple implementation for live response and file collections over Powershell remoting. The initial use case was considered after an endpoint vendor appliance failed and capability for raw collections was limited. The module uses Powerforensics over WinRM, and after some interest, I think is worth sharing.

Blue Team Hacks - WMI Eventing

In this post I am going to cover a little Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), and in particular an interesting use case for potential use in older environments with Process Monitoring gaps. Thinking about this gap led to me looking at WMI starting as an alternate near real time detection fix, and during feature investigation ended with another technically novel solution I thought was interesting enough to share.

PowerShell Remoting and Incident Response

PowerShell is quickly becoming a tool of choice for many IT Operations staff and Security Practitioners alike. This post is a quick overview of using Windows Remote Management and PowerShell for Incident Response. I will also provide some proof of concept setup instructions and general themes for those interested in further research on this topic.