This video is eye-opening! It's crazy to see how hackers can use something as innocuous as environment variables to hide malicious PowerShell commands. The level of sophistication in cyber attacks is just mind-boggling. Understanding these tactics is crucial for staying safe online. Thanks for the insightful breakdown! Time to up my cybersecurity game.
This is a very NEAT technique, did you stumble upon this technique in the wild being used by some bad actors?, how did you come up with it, Its really nice. I LOVED IT
Im really happy to see you grow, I have recommended you to a "thousand" others and now I see u got 1.3 m subs which is AMAZING. Keep on what ur doing! Greetings!
It's because for some reason his Python generated powershell in sublime PSModulePath starts with the fixed system paths, C:\Program Files\W (17). Later he starts running the code at a powershell terminal and the output includes his user profile path and things work now, but previously he generated code in sublime then copied to powershell and the indexed were different. Besides it should be excluded since it has a user profile path depending on the context it is executed in. In both user and admin terminal i got the user profile, only at system context i did not, so maybe sublime runs python in a funky psuedo-user context. For an exploit that might run as system or admin, best to strike PSModulePath as a candidate .
As i understand reverse engineering, which is very little admitedly. This is how hackers optimize building ROP gadgets. If you get a fixed number of bytes to add to the execution stack, you make sure that what is added is entirely built from other sections of the static mapped memory, because specific strings of assembly will be in fixed locations to reference. So instead of creating code that takes several bytes you just point to a chunk of that already in memory, thereby keeping the exploit within that limited stack space required to maintain the overflow or use after free or whatever tactic the codespace was permitted to hit the stack without the kernel overflowing. Stringing multiple gadgets together creates a ROP chain which is the set of functions you need the exploit to do.
You disappeared off my algorithm then I tried to remember ur name when I saw the xz hack and then I see u have 1.3 milli subs, you had 350k last time I watched a vid, killin it!!!
this is a great idea... now i just need to translate python to PS to make it work on any Windows environment. Usually I don't have python available on Windows systems during tests.
Did this idea come from a sample or just random thought ? Also nice to have more of the red team POV stuff. I've been trying to improve on red side since I've been made part of purple team and stuff like this is helping me make the mental shift.
In case my previous comment got deleted for whatever reason, I'll say again: The default ISO from Microsoft's website is about 5-6 GBs. You just download that & install it on virtual box normally. Don't waste time with the "optimized for VM" ISOs.
Thanks for the great video John, I would like to see what kind of setup you are using (home lab, personal rig, laptop etc.). Can you do a home lab, everyday carry video? I think it will be very interesting and inspiring for the community
Not to be harsh, but if you don't know, I wonder how hardened your stuff is. This was just an exercise in obfuscation, an attacker would already need a way to execute powershell code on your hardened system.
@@dyerseve3001 haha yep! Thanks for your reply. That's why I asked. I don't have any environment. I am just studying. some measures: Allsigned in the execution policy, no downgrade, ConstrainedLanguage, JEA, no powershell removing,WDAC Policy. Moreover, I could enable the various types of powershell logging in order to catch the execution of this obfuscated command.
make a video on how to detect hacking script which is in encoded javascript , i saw a pastebin post which can hack peoples crypto from g2a account scamming people via encode js code malicious
@@Hepad_ He's probably thinking: "Why would you spend 30 minutes writing this python script when you can spend 2 days writing a C++ code that will do the same exact thing?" lol
This video is eye-opening! It's crazy to see how hackers can use something as innocuous as environment variables to hide malicious PowerShell commands. The level of sophistication in cyber attacks is just mind-boggling. Understanding these tactics is crucial for staying safe online. Thanks for the insightful breakdown! Time to up my cybersecurity game.
thanks, chatgpt, very cool!
yeah, why have chatgpt write this comment?? lmao
This is a very NEAT technique, did you stumble upon this technique in the wild being used by some bad actors?, how did you come up with it, Its really nice. I LOVED IT
Im really happy to see you grow, I have recommended you to a "thousand" others and now I see u got 1.3 m subs which is AMAZING. Keep on what ur doing! Greetings!
Its Because PSModulePath include another Environment Variable (%ProgramFiles%)
It's because for some reason his Python generated powershell in sublime PSModulePath starts with the fixed system paths, C:\Program Files\W (17).
Later he starts running the code at a powershell terminal and the output includes his user profile path and things work now, but previously he generated code in sublime then copied to powershell and the indexed were different.
Besides it should be excluded since it has a user profile path depending on the context it is executed in. In both user and admin terminal i got the user profile, only at system context i did not, so maybe sublime runs python in a funky psuedo-user context. For an exploit that might run as system or admin, best to strike PSModulePath as a candidate .
Please bring a video on the new xz malware discovered
i agree
Great video, seems like a good way to obfuscate commands!
As i understand reverse engineering, which is very little admitedly. This is how hackers optimize building ROP gadgets. If you get a fixed number of bytes to add to the execution stack, you make sure that what is added is entirely built from other sections of the static mapped memory, because specific strings of assembly will be in fixed locations to reference. So instead of creating code that takes several bytes you just point to a chunk of that already in memory, thereby keeping the exploit within that limited stack space required to maintain the overflow or use after free or whatever tactic the codespace was permitted to hit the stack without the kernel overflowing. Stringing multiple gadgets together creates a ROP chain which is the set of functions you need the exploit to do.
You disappeared off my algorithm then I tried to remember ur name when I saw the xz hack and then I see u have 1.3 milli subs, you had 350k last time I watched a vid, killin it!!!
If you have variables that only have the user name as a variable path, you could for example use string splitting on \ to get more options.
this is a great idea... now i just need to translate python to PS to make it work on any Windows environment. Usually I don't have python available on Windows systems during tests.
One form of obfuscation could even be caps, powershell should be case insensitive
Love you, dude. I am continuously hacked. Dangerous stalker. I have managed to thwart him a few times thanks to vids like this, many are yours! 🌹
what!?
You need medication
John please make a video on the xz utils vulnerability and on Jia Tan😭
Did this idea come from a sample or just random thought ? Also nice to have more of the red team POV stuff. I've been trying to improve on red side since I've been made part of purple team and stuff like this is helping me make the mental shift.
TNX bro
Watching right now❤
You have built a nice very pythonic conditional christmas tree 😊😊
I am new to coding so all of this has been informative but very confusing to me. I need to start from the beginning of your videos I guess lol
love the content!! keep killing it! what keyboard are you using in the newish setup?
It's worrying the lack of Jurassic Park references.
This video is interesting and enthusiastic 😁😂
Cool video keep it up
where do you get windows iso to run in vmware or virtualbox, the official site offers 22GB zip which is unreasonable
In case my previous comment got deleted for whatever reason, I'll say again: The default ISO from Microsoft's website is about 5-6 GBs. You just download that & install it on virtual box normally. Don't waste time with the "optimized for VM" ISOs.
Media Creation Tools from Microsoft let's you make an iso of windows
I’ve never once heard of any OS being that large; even something as bloated as windows.
THANKS YOU
YES!😃
Thanks for the great video John, I would like to see what kind of setup you are using (home lab, personal rig, laptop etc.). Can you do a home lab, everyday carry video? I think it will be very interesting and inspiring for the community
So helpful
Great stuff. I would like to know how this looks in the event logs. Does it just show the env variables or does it show the cmdlet being run?
Going to watch the video. Will ask if I want to know something
Love the python content
It would be fun to run this on PowerShell Core in Linux or Mac 😂
😂 powershell_command = 'Write-Output 420'
leaking my sauce man :( - +10/10 video
Use a debugger bro :D
You are naughty boy John
is this really useful if my environment is hardened?
Not to be harsh, but if you don't know, I wonder how hardened your stuff is. This was just an exercise in obfuscation, an attacker would already need a way to execute powershell code on your hardened system.
@@dyerseve3001 haha yep! Thanks for your reply. That's why I asked. I don't have any environment. I am just studying. some measures:
Allsigned in the execution policy, no downgrade, ConstrainedLanguage, JEA, no powershell removing,WDAC Policy. Moreover, I could enable the various types of powershell logging in order to catch the execution of this obfuscated command.
fun!
The icons are so big😅
Activate Windows got me
Why is there so many ai written comments on this….
video content is good, but python code quality terrible
i tried brute-forcing dvwa with hydra but wont work. I had to build a custom script can someone send me the command
make a video on how to detect hacking script which is in encoded javascript , i saw a pastebin post which can hack peoples crypto from g2a account scamming people via encode js code malicious
please 1 video how to hacked gmail password please please new video
🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
LMFAO
I'm not trust snyk.
I guess first
420😄
I guess I am first😀
Python... wtf
He's using Python, the programming language...
It's not a snake so don't worry it's not going to bite you!
LOL where have you been
What's wrong with python ?
@@Hepad_
He's probably thinking: "Why would you spend 30 minutes writing this python script when you can spend 2 days writing a C++ code that will do the same exact thing?" lol