Macro-Laden Microsoft Office Files DetectionĪn example of a Cobalt Strike payload being delivered to victims via Microsoft Excel spreadsheets demonstrates that this tool is also used in mass phishing campaigns, not just targeted APT attacks. Let’s take a look at some real world examples of how Cobalt Strike is being used in the wild. For an in-depth technical analysis of Cobalt Strike’s deployment options and how they differ, check out Avast’s blog or this Cisco Talos white paper. This flexibility has helped attackers find many unconventional and creative ways to infect victims with a payload. How has Cobalt Strike been deployed?Ĭobalt Strike has many different ways for deployment.
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Depending on how the code is delivered, the code can be injected into other legitimate running processes, bypassing defenses that do not scan legitimate processes or code in-memory. This opens up a ton of possibilities for how this shellcode is shipped, making signature-based detection on the delivery method a cat and mouse game. Cobalt Strike stagers are designed to be loaded and executed only in-memory. This, combined with the ability to configure many parts of the payload, makes hash-based detection almost impossible. This makes static analysis difficult to conduct. Cobalt Strike payloads are usually shellcode encrypted with a rolling XOR key. Why is it difficult to detect Cobalt Strike?Ĭobalt Strike is difficult to detect because of its several defense techniques. It also comes with the feature to generate reporting in which the attacking team or threat actor can continuously study and improve their campaigns. It is evident why Cobalt Strike is used by organizations and threat actors alike because of the extensive suite of capabilities it possesses, and also due to its ability to bypass defenses.
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This tool is mainly used in red team operations for government agencies and private enterprises, but it’s also a popular tool leveraged by cybercrime and APT groups in cracked versions. Inject malicious code into legitimate processes.Egress communications over HTTP, HTTPS, and DNS.Receive commands (either passively or from an interactive console).The main payload of Cobalt Strike is called “Beacon.” The Beacon payload is used to model advanced APT malware, and can do the following: It is a popular platform that allows users to emulate advanced threats, perform reconnaissance, hide communications, escalate privileges, move laterally across the network, and deploy additional payloads. What is Cobalt Strike?Ĭobalt Strike is marketed as “Software for Adversary Simulations and Red Team Operations.” We will demonstrate some real world examples of Cobalt Strike delivery and steps to detect each. This blog explains Cobalt Strike and practical steps to take if you believe that you are being targeted by Cobalt Strike or already compromised. Companies still struggle to detect Cobalt Strike also due to the various defensive techniques it has.
Since Cobalt Strike is widely used by a range of actors, this lack of exclusivity makes attribution harder. It is for these reasons that threat actors also like Cobalt Strike. Cobalt Strike is popular due to its range of deployment options, ease of use, ability to avoid detection by security products, and the number of capabilities it has. To this day, it remains extremely popular both in red team activities and for malicious purposes by threat actors. Cobalt Strike is a penetration testing tool created by Raphael Mudge in 2012.
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