T1070.008
Email Collection: Mailbox Manipulation
Description from ATT&CK
Adversaries may modify mail and mail application data to remove evidence of their activity. Email applications allow users and other programs to export and delete mailbox data via command line tools or use of APIs. Mail application data can be emails, email metadata, or logs generated by the application or operating system, such as export requests.
Adversaries may manipulate emails and mailbox data to remove logs, artifacts, and metadata, such as evidence of Phishing/Internal Spearphishing, Email Collection, Mail Protocols for command and control, or email-based exfiltration such as Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol. For example, to remove evidence on Exchange servers adversaries have used the ExchangePowerShell PowerShell module, including Remove-MailboxExportRequest to remove evidence of mailbox exports.(Citation: Volexity SolarWinds)(Citation: ExchangePowerShell Module) On Linux and macOS, adversaries may also delete emails through a command line utility called mail or use AppleScript to interact with APIs on macOS.(Citation: Cybereason Cobalt Kitty 2017)(Citation: mailx man page)
Adversaries may also remove emails and metadata/headers indicative of spam or suspicious activity (for example, through the use of organization-wide transport rules) to reduce the likelihood of malicious emails being detected by security products.(Citation: Microsoft OAuth Spam 2022)
Atomic Tests
Atomic Test #1 - Copy and Delete Mailbox Data on Windows
Copies and deletes mail data on Windows
Supported Platforms: windows
auto_generated_guid: d29f01ea-ac72-4efc-8a15-bea64b77fabf
Inputs:
None
Attack Commands: Run with powershell! Elevation Required (e.g. root or admin)
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New-Item -Path "C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\AppData\Local\Comms\Unistore\data\copy" -ItemType Directory -ErrorAction Ignore
Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\AppData\Local\Comms\Unistore\data" -Exclude copy | ForEach-Object { Copy-Item -Path $_.FullName -Destination "C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\AppData\Local\Comms\Unistore\data\copy" -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction Ignore }
Remove-Item -Path "C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\AppData\Local\Comms\Unistore\data\copy" -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction Ignore
Cleanup Commands:
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Remove-Item -Path "C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\AppData\Local\Comms\Unistore\data\copy" -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction Ignore
Atomic Test #2 - Copy and Delete Mailbox Data on Linux
Copies and deletes mail data on Linux
Supported Platforms: linux
auto_generated_guid: 25e2be0e-96f7-4417-bd16-a4a2500e3802
Inputs:
None
Attack Commands: Run with bash! Elevation Required (e.g. root or admin)
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mkdir -p /var/spool/mail/copy
for file in /var/spool/mail/*; do
if [ "$(basename "$file")" != "copy" ]
then
cp -R "$file" /var/spool/mail/copy/
fi
done
rm -rf /var/spool/mail/copy/*
Cleanup Commands:
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rm -rf /var/spool/mail/copy
Atomic Test #3 - Copy and Delete Mailbox Data on macOS
Copies and deletes mail data on macOS
Supported Platforms: macos
auto_generated_guid: 3824130e-a6e4-4528-8091-3a52eeb540f6
Inputs:
None
Attack Commands: Run with bash! Elevation Required (e.g. root or admin)
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mkdir ~/Library/Mail/copy
cp -R ~/Library/Mail/* ~/Library/Mail/copy
rm -rf ~/Library/Mail/copy/*
Cleanup Commands:
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rm -rf ~/Library/Mail/copy
Atomic Test #4 - Copy and Modify Mailbox Data on Windows
Copies and modifies mail data on Windows
Supported Platforms: windows
auto_generated_guid: edddff85-fee0-499d-9501-7d4d2892e79b
Inputs:
None
Attack Commands: Run with powershell! Elevation Required (e.g. root or admin)
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New-Item -Path "C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\AppData\Local\Comms\Unistore\data\copy" -ItemType Directory -ErrorAction Ignore
Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\AppData\Local\Comms\Unistore\data" -Exclude copy | ForEach-Object { Copy-Item -Path $_.FullName -Destination "C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\AppData\Local\Comms\Unistore\data\copy" -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction Ignore }
Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\AppData\Local\Comms\Unistore\data\copy" -File | ForEach-Object { Add-Content -Path $_.FullName -Value "Modification for Atomic Red Test" -ErrorAction Ignore }
Cleanup Commands:
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Remove-Item -Path "C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\AppData\Local\Comms\Unistore\data\copy" -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction Ignore
Atomic Test #5 - Copy and Modify Mailbox Data on Linux
Copies and modifies mail data on Linux
Supported Platforms: linux
auto_generated_guid: 6d99f93c-da56-49e3-b195-163090ace4f6
Inputs:
None
Attack Commands: Run with bash! Elevation Required (e.g. root or admin)
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mkdir -p /var/spool/mail/copy
for file in /var/spool/mail/*; do
if [ "$(basename "$file")" != "copy" ]
then
cp -R "$file" /var/spool/mail/copy/
if [ -f "/var/spool/mail/copy/$(basename "$file")" ]; then
echo "Modification for Atomic Red Test" >> "/var/spool/mail/copy/$(basename "$file")"
fi
fi
done
Cleanup Commands:
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rm -rf /var/spool/mail/copy
Atomic Test #6 - Copy and Modify Mailbox Data on macOS
Copies and modifies mail data on macOS
Supported Platforms: macos
auto_generated_guid: 8a0b1579-5a36-483a-9cde-0236983e1665
Inputs:
None
Attack Commands: Run with bash! Elevation Required (e.g. root or admin)
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mkdir ~/Library/Mail/copy
cp -R ~/Library/Mail/* ~/Library/Mail/copy
echo "Manipulated data" > ~/Library/Mail/copy/manipulated.txt
Cleanup Commands:
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rm -rf ~/Library/Mail/copy