Bypassing Anti-
Virus using BadUSB
About me
◎ OSCE | OSEP | OSWE | OSCP | CEH | CPTC | PenTest+ | eWPT | ECIH | CREST
◎ Founder @ Zerotak | President @ Romania Cyber Security Training Centre of Excellence
◎ Providing pentesting & security consultation for clients all over the world:
○ Australia, U.S., U.K., Middle East, Singapore, India, Central Africa, Europe.
◎ Trainer for U.S. Department of Defense, Slovenian National Bureau of Investigation, Polish
Military CERT
◎ Speaker @ BSides, CyberSecurity Congress, Defcamp, HEK.SI, RST Con, HackTheZone,
Unbreakable
◎ EC-Council Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) Scheme Committee Member
◎ InfoSec Writer on Medium
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AGENDA
◎ AMSI Bypass
◎ Execution Policy Bypass
◎ Payload Runner Development
◎ Deploying Attack using BadUSB
◎ Post-Exploitation Persistence
◎ DEMO
◎ Prevention
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Scenario
Scenario
Bob found one USB device in the parking lot
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Scenario
Bob went to its office and introduced the USB in PC
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Scenario
Attacker is connected to Bob’s computer, however:
◎ Bob has Windows Defender enabled
◎ Bob is using a low privileged account
◎ Bob’s computer is not allowed to insert removable media storage
So what happened?
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Scenario
Sequence of attacks:
1. AMSI Bypass (AV Evasion)
2. Execution Policy Bypass
3. Payload Runner -> Injected Shellcode in Memory
4. Post-Exploitation -> Migrated to another process
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AMSI Bypass
AMSI - What is it and How it works?
◎ Anti-Malware Scanning Interface (AMSI)
◎ Works as a middle-man between Windows Defender (or 3rd Party
Anti-Virus) and User Input/Scripts (example: PowerShell)
◎ Uses AmsiScanBuffer() from Amsi.dll to scan for malicious
scripts
◎ What we will do:
○ Manipulate AmsiScanBuffer() to return same result every
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AMSI - Bypass Flow
1. Define Windows API Functions (GetProcAddress(), LoadLibrary(), VirtualProtect()) and
translate them to PowerShell:
2. Load Amsi.dll library in memory:
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AMSI - Bypass Flow
3. Getting AmsiScanBuffer() function location in memory & making it writeable:
4. Building the value that we will replace AmsiScanBuffer() function in memory with (mov
eax, 0x80070057, ret - Will explain later):
5. Doing the replacement:
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AMSI - Why 0x80070057
Source: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/amsi/nf-amsi-
amsiscanbuffer
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AMSI - Why 0x80070057
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AMSI - (Almost) Final Payload
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AMSI - Use Obfuscation!
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Execution Policy Bypass
Execution Policy Bypass
◎ Security setting for running PowerShell scripts
◎ Requires administrator privileges to be changed… or does it?
◎ Bypass without UAC for low-privileged users:
○ Set-ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted --Scope CurrentUser
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Payload Runner
Development
Payload Runner Development
1. Define LookupFunc() function -> We will use later to search for assembly references
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Payload Runner Development
2. Define getDelegateType() function -> To set argument types (int, pointer, etc.) for functions that
we will invoke
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Payload Runner Development
3. Allocate the writeable memory for our shellcode:
4. Generate the shellcode:
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Payload Runner Development
5. Inject shellcode into the previously allocated memory:
6. Execute it!
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Deploying Attack using
BadUSB
Introduction to BadUSB
◎ It’s a bird? No
◎ It’s a plane? No
◎ It’s a USB? Maybe…
◎ It’s a Mouse? Somehow…
◎ It’s a Keyboard? Commonly yes…Wait what?
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BadUSB - Payload Development
1. DigiSpark Scripts 2. Ducky Scripts
◎ Arduino Programming ◎ User-friendly Syntax
◎ C++ knowledge needed ◎ Use online convertor for DuckyScripts ->
Arduino
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BadUSB - Ducky Scripts Syntax
◎ STRING = what to type
◎ DELAY = sleep
◎ REM = comment
◎ REPEAT x = last command “x” times
◎ Special keys must be written as they are (ENTER, CTRL, TAB, etc.)
◎ GUI = Windows key
◎ MOUSE_MOVE X Y = move pointer to X Y coordinates
◎ LMOUSE, RMOUSE, MMOUSE = mouse’s buttons
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Post-Exploitation
Persistence Tips
Post-Exploitation Persistence
◎ We need to find a process where to attach our instance
◎ What else than…explorer.exe? :)
◎ Metasploit helps us with that!
○ migrate - command
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DEMO
Prevention
Prevention
◎ Disallow PowerShell for end-user accounts
◎ Access control list on USB ports
◎ Develop a budget for advanced endpoint protection
solutions
◎ Train, train, and train users
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Research & Statistics
Research & Statistics
◎ Microsoft is not considering this worth their attention
◎ Tested on 20 AV vendors - free trial/version
◎ 7/20 Spawned a Meterpreter Reverse Shell
○ Which allowed Mimikatz to be loaded
◎ 9/20 Spawned a normal Reverse Shell
◎ 4/20 Blocked the attempt
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Q&A
Thanks!
Cristian Cornea
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