T1563.002 RDP Hijacking

T1563.002 RDP Hijacking

Sub-technique of: T1563

High-Level Description

Adversaries may hijack a legitimate user’s remote desktop session to move laterally within an environment. Remote desktop is a common feature in operating systems. It allows a user to log into an interactive session with a system desktop graphical user interface on a remote system. Microsoft refers to its implementation of the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) as Remote Desktop Services (RDS).

Adversaries may perform RDP session hijacking which involves stealing a legitimate user's remote session. Typically, a user is notified when someone else is trying to steal their session. With System permissions and using Terminal Services Console, c:\windows\system32\tscon.exe [session number to be stolen], an adversary can hijack a session without the need for credentials or prompts to the user. This can be done remotely or locally and with active or disconnected sessions. It can also lead to Remote System Discovery and Privilege Escalation by stealing a Domain Admin or higher privileged account session. All of this can be done by using native Windows commands, but it has also been added as a feature in red teaming tools.

Kill Chain Phase

• Lateral Movement (TA0008)

Platforms: Windows

What to Check

• Identify if RDP Hijacking technique is applicable to target environment
• Check Windows systems for indicators of RDP Hijacking
• Verify mitigations are bypassed or absent (7 known mitigations)
• Assess detection coverage (1 detection strategies)

How to Test

Atomic Red Team Tests

The following tests are from Atomic Red Team and provide actionable ways to test this technique:

Atomic Test 1: RDP hijacking

RDP hijacking - how to hijack RDS and RemoteApp sessions transparently to move through an organization

Supported Platforms: windows Elevation Required: Yes

query user
sc.exe create sesshijack binpath= "cmd.exe /k tscon #{Session_ID} /dest:#{Destination_ID}"
net start sesshijack