✞ inversecos🩸 Profile picture
Feb 19 6 tweets 3 min read Read on X
1\ My thoughts on the Chinese APT contractor leak 🇨🇳

Specifically, I want to talk about the leaked
- iOS Spyware
- Physical implantable devices
- Email surveillance system

Let's consider detection and how these would be installed.
2\ The iOS spyware requires no jailbreak.

This should not "scare" you at all.

The capabilities of the leaked Chinese APT contractor "iOS Spyware" are accessing:

- basic mobile phone data
- GPS location
- Contacts
- Photos / multimedia files
- Recording sounds

If this sounds familiar, it should. These are settings accessible...Accessible ANY application requesting these permissions on a phone :)

This means, the delivery for the "spyware" would likely (my guess) be in the form of an application that the user installs on their device and must approve these permissions. If you've ever done mobile forensics, this is almost one of the first things you would check.Image
3\ The implantable devices are very similar in concept to the Hak5 devices.

This is not a new attack vector and NOT novel.

However, this should serve as a push for businesses to consider their threat models and playbooks for this kind of event.

Specifically the vendor's devices are disguised as:
- A power strip
- A power adapter

The way they work (as per the document) is:
1. Cracks WiFi password, sets up socks proxy
3. Cracks routing device
4. Self destruction to clear all system data

From an ops standpoint this targets a weak point of most businesses as most orgs do not have the best logging set up for their peripheral devices. It's why a lot nation states target edge devices for initial access (EDR blindspot / logging blindspot and difficulty of analysis for blue teamers).

However, once they pivot onto a vulnerable device or onto the network... the work of the detection team stays the same, it may just be difficult (in the absence of logs) to piece together what occurred.Image
Image
4\ Finally the email analysis system is a platform allowing the operator to search and look through gathered emails and intelligence.

From an IR/blue team standpoint, the key point of interest is HOW do they gather this information.

In this paragraph they wrote there is an "execution link". This then grants "permissions".

It sounds a lot like an initial access vector of phishing and fetching an access token :D

Not too bad hey?Image
5\ Given that this vendor contracts to APTs, the two questions in my mind for orgs would be something like:

1. Physical implants are used and purchased by APT groups, do we have playbooks? How do we deal with these threats?

2. Peripheral devices are targeted. How much visibility do we have over these devices? (This also includes work issued mobile devices)
6\ I rarely ever tweet but I’m glad this pulled me away from working and let me procrastinate for a bit hehe xD

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More from @inversecos

Oct 26, 2022
1\ #DFIR: Chrome Forensics - How to Recover CLEARED History

If a user just cleared their browser history, you can still recover everything they were just looking at from the session files:

%appdata%\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Sessions

inversecos.com/2022/10/recove…
2\ In some instances (more on this) the session and tab files inside that folder show the webkit/chrome date for when the session was exited.

This allowed me to put together a full timeline of what this naughty boy was doing *BONK*
3\ Historically, evidence of cleared history was in the Favicons file, but this is INCONSISTENT. Specifically under the table named "icon_mapping".

%appdata%\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Favicons
Read 7 tweets
Oct 13, 2022
1\ #DFIR: How to investigate insider threats

Sharing the forensic methodology I follow when I'm investigating insiders 😍

This is where an employee sells creds/changes configs/runs malware leading to full DA compromise and then say they didn't do it O_o

inversecos.com/2022/10/how-to…
2\ The questions that I use to guide the analysis and prioritisation of analysis are:

1. How was the device accessed around the suspected behaviour?

2. Where was the user/device when this occurred?

3. Was the insider active on their system?

4. What did the user do?
3\ To answer the first question, I look at SRUM, specifically the App Timeline Provider details.

I pull:
> Execution time of the malicious thingz
> Duration of execution
> User SID

Then, I cross correlate that user info with their corresponding ActivitiesCache.db. #DFIRISS3XY
Read 7 tweets
Aug 23, 2022
1\ #ThreatHunting: Detecting OAuth Token Theft in Azure / M365

This technique is STILL being abused by Chinese APT groups. This blog covers several methods of detecting this technique😈.

It's also a good reminder to always perform browser forensics ;)

inversecos.com/2022/08/how-to…
2\ METHOD 1: Look for the OAuth redirect consent link in browser history and/or proxy logs.

Take note of the following fields:
- client_id (malicious app id)
- redirect_uri (malicious domain)
- scope (API permissions requested)
3\ Review permissions requested in the scope field (I'll show you where else to find these permissions in the logs).

Take note of these:
- User.Read
- User.ReadWrite
- User.ReadWrite.All
- Mail.ReadWrite
- Calendars.ReadWrite
- Files.ReadWrite
- User.Export.All
Read 6 tweets
Aug 5, 2022
1\ #DFIR: How to detect Linux Timestomping

Analyse the entries in these two files:
> filesystem.db
> filesystem.db-wal

Most writeups focus on detecting the use of "touch". But you can timestomp without using "touch". 😈

Check out my blog below 👇
inversecos.com/2022/08/detect…
2\ The file "filesystem.db" (enabled by default) tracks:
> fileCreated time
> fileLastAccessed time

Look for discrepancies in the fileCreated time in this DB file vs the times that "stat" show on a file.

There's also a correlating WAL that contains uncommitted data :3
3\ As you can see, this has caught an instance of timestomping where you can observe the creation time is after the access time.

You can query the db using this command:
sqlite3 *filesystem.db .dump | grep <filename>
Read 5 tweets
Jul 21, 2022
1\ #ThreatHunting for APT abuse of Exchange

APT Exchange abuse has been a common theme with techniques ranging from:
> Compiled DLL OWA backdoors
> .req webshells
> EWS / Legacy auth abuse
> Log / File deletion

TL;DR below or check out the full blog 👇👇
inversecos.com/2022/07/huntin… Image
2\ EWS and other legacy auth is commonly abused by APT groups (when enabled).

Check MSExchange Management.evtx log for EWS abuse.

Look for cmdlets like (more cmdlets in blog)
> New-MailboxExportRequest
> Remove-MailboxExportRequest
> Search-Mailbox
> Set-Mailbox Image
3\ Hunt IIS logs in Exchange for:
> Exploitation of unpatched vuln
> Webshell/owa backdoors being used
> Exfil

I've noted across engagements this happens in chunks via several extensions 7Z, TAR, RAR, PST, OST, CAB, ZIP). APTs will use several diff file types on one engagement Image
Read 9 tweets
Jun 22, 2022
1\ #ThreatHunting: How to detect Linux anti-forensics log tampering

Attackers can alter the utmp, wtmp, btmp files to hide malicious logon attempts by:

> Zeroing entries out in hex
> Overwriting the files with a malicious copy

BLOG POST BELOW 👇 UwU
inversecos.com/2022/06/detect…
2\ Method 1: Zeroing entries in hex

This leaves OBVIOUS AF traces. Look for entries with zeros, and datetime defaulting to 1970. You can also review timestamps (covered in thread 4).

I highlighted in purple where you zero out the data in hex.
3\ Method 2: Overwriting the file

Overwrite the entire entry with a "cleaned" version. In this example I removed all lines pertaining to "sansforensics" logging in. Timestamp detection is the best method to discover this technique.
Read 4 tweets

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