T1055.004 - Process Injection: Asynchronous Procedure Call

Description from ATT&CK

Adversaries may inject malicious code into processes via the asynchronous procedure call (APC) queue in order to evade process-based defenses as well as possibly elevate privileges. APC injection is a method of executing arbitrary code in the address space of a separate live process. APC injection is commonly performed by attaching malicious code to the APC Queue (Citation: Microsoft APC) of a process's thread. Queued APC functions are executed when the thread enters an alterable state.(Citation: Microsoft APC) A handle to an existing victim process is first created with native Windows API calls such as OpenThread. At this point QueueUserAPC can be used to invoke a function (such as LoadLibrayA pointing to a malicious DLL). A variation of APC injection, dubbed "Early Bird injection", involves creating a suspended process in which malicious code can be written and executed before the process' entry point (and potentially subsequent anti-malware hooks) via an APC. (Citation: CyberBit Early Bird Apr 2018) AtomBombing (Citation: ENSIL AtomBombing Oct 2016) is another variation that utilizes APCs to invoke malicious code previously written to the global atom table.(Citation: Microsoft Atom Table) Running code in the context of another process may allow access to the process's memory, system/network resources, and possibly elevated privileges. Execution via APC injection may also evade detection from security products since the execution is masked under a legitimate process.

Atomic Tests


Atomic Test #1 - Process Injection via C#

Process Injection using C# reference: https://github.com/pwndizzle/c-sharp-memory-injection Excercises Five Techniques

  1. Process injection
  2. ApcInjectionAnyProcess
  3. ApcInjectionNewProcess
  4. IatInjection
  5. ThreadHijack Upon successful execution, cmd.exe will execute T1055.exe, which exercises 5 techniques. Output will be via stdout.

Supported Platforms: Windows

auto_generated_guid: 611b39b7-e243-4c81-87a4-7145a90358b1

Inputs:

| Name | Description | Type | Default Value | |——|————-|——|—————| | exe_binary | Output Binary | path | PathToAtomicsFolder\T1055.004\bin\T1055.exe|

Attack Commands: Run with 
1

command_prompt
!

"#{exe_binary}"

Dependencies: Run with 
1

powershell
!

Description: #{exe_binary} must be exist on system.
Check Prereq Commands:
1

if (Test-Path "#{exe_binary}") {exit 0} else {exit 1}
Get Prereq Commands:
1
2

New-Item -Type Directory (split-path "#{exe_binary}") -ErrorAction ignore | Out-Null
Invoke-WebRequest "https://github.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/raw/master/atomics/T1055.004/bin/T1055.exe" -OutFile "#{exe_binary}"



Atomic Test #2 - EarlyBird APC Queue Injection in Go

Creates a process in a suspended state and calls QueueUserAPC WinAPI to add a UserAPC to the child process that points to allocated shellcode. ResumeThread is called which then calls NtTestAlert to execute the created UserAPC which then executes the shellcode. This technique allows for the early execution of shellcode and potentially before AV/EDR can hook functions to support detection.

Supported Platforms: Windows

auto_generated_guid: 73785dd2-323b-4205-ab16-bb6f06677e14

Inputs:

| Name | Description | Type | Default Value | |——|————-|——|—————| | spawn_process_path | Path of the binary to spawn | string | C:\Windows\System32\werfault.exe| | spawn_process_name | Name of the process to spawn | string | werfault|

Attack Commands: Run with 
1

powershell
!

1

$PathToAtomicsFolder\T1055.004\bin\x64\EarlyBird.exe -program "#{spawn_process_path}" -debug

Cleanup Commands:

1
2

Stop-Process -Name CalculatorApp -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
Stop-Process -Name "#{spawn_process_name}" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue



Atomic Test #3 - Remote Process Injection with Go using NtQueueApcThreadEx WinAPI

Uses the undocumented NtQueueAPCThreadEx WinAPI to create a “Special User APC” in the current thread of the current process to execute shellcode. Since the shellcode is loaded and executed in the current process it is considered local shellcode execution.

Steps taken with this technique

  1. Allocate memory for the shellcode with VirtualAlloc setting the page permissions to Read/Write
  2. Use the RtlCopyMemory macro to copy the shellcode to the allocated memory space
  3. Change the memory page permissions to Execute/Read with VirtualProtect
  4. Get a handle to the current thread
  5. Execute the shellcode in the current thread by creating a Special User APC through the NtQueueApcThreadEx function

Supported Platforms: Windows

auto_generated_guid: 4cc571b1-f450-414a-850f-879baf36aa06

Attack Commands: Run with 
1

powershell
!

1

$PathToAtomicsFolder\T1055.004\bin\x64\NtQueueApcThreadEx.exe -debug

Cleanup Commands:

1

Stop-Process -Name CalculatorApp -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue