Meterpreter script – stickykeys.rb
by zitstif on Jul.18, 2011, under Code, Meterpreter Scripts, Posts
http://zitstif.no-ip.org/meterpreter/stickykeys.txt
Through the past year or so, I’ve had some ideas for meterpreter scripts floating around in my head that I’ve been meaning to put to use. So this is my first unofficial meterpreter script for the Metasploit Framework.
The purpose of this script is to place a backdoor onto a Windows victim system. What it simply does is, copy cmd.exe over to sethc.exe. The sethc.exe program is the sticky keys program. To activate this program you just have to hit the shift key 5 times and sethc.exe will be executed.
While this can be useful for those who are disabled, there is also an abuse for this feature. If you have copied cmd.exe over to sethc.exe, you can then hit shift 5 times and be provided a shell.
If you’re at a log on prompt and if you have this backdoor placed, when you activate sethc.exe (instead of logging in) you get a shell with SYSTEM level privileges!
This may seem trivial, however if you’re doing a penetration test on a remote Windows system that is running remote desktop, this can be a deadly means for maintaining access. You can then use this as pivoting your way back into the system, even if the original means (say for instance http) is blocked by an IPS and/or firewall.
One truly beautiful facet about this method if you’re an attacker, is that cmd.exe renamed as sethc.exe did not trigger any responses from scanners on www.virustotal.com.
I’m planning on adding more to this script, but I just wanted to get this released for the time being. I also want to state that I just put this idea to use for the Metasploit project, this hack has been around for a while:
To install this, simply download the txt file, then change the extension to .rb and throw this file in the framework3/msf3/scripts/meterpreter/ directory.
#Update 7/20/2011
Issue Addressed: Switched all C:\\WINDOWS to %SYSTEMROOT% (Thanks Rod Macpherson )
BUG: On Nokia N900 with Ruby 1.8.7 (arm-linux-eabi), with Metasploit Framework version: svn r13268, I am receiving a compile error message at line 70. (Unexpected ‘)’ )
NOTE: I am not having this issue on Backtrack 5 32bit with Ruby 1.9.2dev (i686-linux)