Stealth Alternate Data Streams and Other ADS Weirdness
Matt • September 20, 2011
C:\temp>echo hi > \\?\C:\temp\NUL
C:\temp>type C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe > \\?\C:\temp\NUL:hidden_ADS.exe
C:\temp>dir /r C:\temp
Directory of C:\temp
09/17/2011 06:35 AM <DIR> .
09/17/2011 06:35 AM <DIR> ..
09/17/2011 06:37 AM 5 NUL
1 File(s) 5 bytes
C:\temp>streams C:\temp
Streams v1.56 - Enumerate alternate NTFS data streams
Copyright (C) 1999-2007 Mark Russinovich
Sysinternals - www.sysinternals.com
No files with streams found.
C:\temp>wmic process call create \\?\C:\temp\NUL:hidden_ADS.exe
Executing (Win32_Process)->Create()
Method execution successful.
Out Parameters:
instance of __PARAMETERS
{
ProcessId = 1620;
ReturnValue = 0;
};
C:\temp>echo hi > C:\temp\test.txt
C:\temp>echo secret text > C:\temp\test.txt:^G^G^G
C:\temp>dir /R C:\temp
Directory of C:\temp
09/17/2011 07:09 AM <DIR> .
09/17/2011 07:09 AM <DIR> ..
09/17/2011 07:08 AM 5 test.txt
14 test.txt::$DATA
1 File(s) 5 bytes
C:\temp>more < C:\temp\test.txt:^G^G^G
secret text
The new season is a great reason to make and keep resolutions. Whether it’s eating right or cleaning out the garage, here are some tips for making and keeping resolutions.
There are so many good reasons to communicate with site visitors. Tell them about sales and new products or update them with tips and information.
Write about something you know. If you don’t know much about a specific topic that will interest your readers, invite an expert to write about it.
Recently, I had the privilege to write a detailed analysis of CVE-2023-34362, which is series of several vulnerabilities in the MOVEit file transfer application that lead to remote code execution. One of the several vulnerabilities involved an ISAPI module - specifically, the MoveITISAPI.dll ISAPI extension. One of the many vulnerabilities that comprised the MOVEit RCE was a header-injection issue, where the ISAPI application parsed headers differently than the .net application. This point is going to dig into how to analyze and reverse engineer an ISAPI-based service! This wasn’t the first time in the recent past I’d had to work on something written as an ISAPI module, and each time I feel like I have to start over and remember how it’s supposed to work. This time, I thought I’d combine my hastily-scrawled notes with some Googling, and try to write something that I (and others) can use in the future. As such, this will be a quick intro to ISAPI applications from the angle that matters to me - how to reverse engineer and debug them! I want to preface this with: I’m not a Windows developer, and I’ve never run an IIS server on purpose. That means that I am approaching this with brute-force ignorance! I don’t have a lot of background context nor do I know the correct terminology for a lot of this stuff. Instead, I’m going to treat these are typical DLLs from typical applications, and approach them as such.
Cybersecurity is a social and policy problem, not a scientific or technical problem. Cybersecurity is also a wicked problem. In a landmark 1973 article, Dilemmas in a General Theory of Planning , urban planners Horst W. J. Rittel and Melvin M. Webber described wicked problems in these terms:
#securityonepercent
MITRE ATT&CK
disturbing story today
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