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Your one-stop guide to learning and implementing Red Team tactics effectively
Red Teaming is used to enhance security by performing simulated attacks on an organization in order to detect network and system vulnerabilities. Hands-On Red Team Tactics starts with an overview of pentesting and Red Teaming, before giving you an introduction to few of the latest pentesting tools. We will then move on to exploring Metasploit and getting to grips with Armitage. Once you have studied the fundamentals, you will learn how to use Cobalt Strike and how to set up its team server.
The book introduces some common lesser known techniques for pivoting and how to pivot over SSH, before using Cobalt Strike to pivot. This comprehensive guide demonstrates advanced methods of post-exploitation using Cobalt Strike and introduces you to Command and Control (C2) servers and redirectors. All this will help you achieve persistence using beacons and data exfiltration, and will also give you the chance to run through the methodology to use Red Team activity tools such as Empire during a Red Team activity on Active Directory and Domain Controller.
In addition to this, you will explore maintaining persistent access, staying untraceable, and getting reverse connections over different C2 covert channels.
By the end of this book, you will have learned about advanced penetration testing tools, techniques to get reverse shells over encrypted channels, and processes for post-exploitation.
Hands-On Red Team Tactics is for you if you are an IT professional, pentester, security consultant, or ethical hacker interested in the IT security domain and wants to go beyond Penetration Testing. Prior knowledge of penetration testing is beneficial.
Himanshu Sharma has already achieved fame for finding security loopholes and vulnerabilities in Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Adobe, Uber, AT&T, Avira, and many more with hall of fame listings. He has helped celebrities such as Harbhajan Singh in recovering their hacked accounts, and also assisted an international singer in recovering his hacked accounts. He was a speaker at the international conference Botconf '13, CONFidence 2018 and RSA Singapore 2018. He also spoke at IEEE Conference as well as for TedX. Currently, he is the cofounder of BugsBounty, a crowd-sourced security platform. Harpreet Singh has more than 5 years experience in the field of Ethical Hacking, Penetration Testing, and Red Teaming. In addition, he has performed red team engagement in multi-national banks and companies. Harpreet is a Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP) and Offensive Security Wireless Professional (OSWP). He has trained 1500+ students including Govt. officials in International projects.Sie lesen das E-Book in den Legimi-Apps auf:
Seitenzahl: 250
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018
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Himanshu Sharma has already achieved fame for finding security loopholes and vulnerabilities in Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Adobe, Uber, AT&T, Avira, and many more with hall of fame listings. He has helped celebrities such as Harbhajan Singh in recovering their hacked accounts, and also assisted an international singer in recovering his hacked accounts. He was a speaker at the international conference Botconf '13, CONFidence 2018 and RSA Singapore 2018. He also spoke at IEEE Conference as well as for TedX. Currently, he is the cofounder of BugsBounty, a crowd-sourced security platform.
Harpreet Singh has more than 5 years experience in the field of Ethical Hacking, Penetration Testing, and Red Teaming. In addition, he has performed red team engagement in multi-national banks and companies. Harpreet is a Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP) and Offensive Security Wireless Professional (OSWP). He has trained 1500+ students including Govt. officials in International projects.
Nipun Jaswal is an International Cyber Security Author and an award-winning IT security researcher with a decade of experience in penetration testing, vulnerability assessments, surveillance and monitoring solutions, and RF and wireless hacking.He has authored Metasploit Bootcamp, Mastering Metasploit, and Mastering Metasploit—Second Edition, and coauthored the Metasploit Revealed set of books. He has authored numerous articles and exploits that can be found on popular security databases, such as packet storm and exploit-db. Please feel free to contact him at @nipunjaswal.
Ashwin Iyer is an M.Tech Graduate in Information Security and Computer Forensics with more than 5 years of experience in Cyber Security and earned a bachelor's degree in computer science. He has exposure to penetration testing and infrastructure security.
He is currently working at SAP ARIBA, as a Red Team Lead. He has experience in Infrastructure Security, Harden the underlying technology / OS / Device. He is also experienced in web and network pentest—both e-commerce and software product domains.
He has got professional certifications in GIAC GSEC #35151 (SANS), OSCP Certified OS-13175, ISO 27001:2013, ITILv3 2011 Foundation, Certified Ethical Hacker (CEHv7), CISRA.
If you're interested in becoming an author for Packt, please visit authors.packtpub.com and apply today. We have worked with thousands of developers and tech professionals, just like you, to help them share their insight with the global tech community. You can make a general application, apply for a specific hot topic that we are recruiting an author for, or submit your own idea.
Title Page
Copyright and Credits
Hands-On Red Team Tactics
Packt Upsell
Why subscribe?
Packt.com
Contributors
About the authors
About the reviewers
Packt is searching for authors like you
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Download the color images
Conventions used
Get in touch
Reviews
Disclaimer
Red-Teaming and Pentesting
Pentesting 101
OWASP
Open Source Security Testing Methodology Manual (OSSTMM)
Information Systems Security Assessment Framework (ISSAF)
Penetration Testing Execution Standard (PTES)
Pre-engagement interactions
Intelligence gathering
Threat modeling
Vulnerability analysis
Exploitation
Post-exploitation
Reporting
A different approach
Methodology
How is it different?
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Pentesting 2018
Technical requirements
MSFvenom Payload Creator
Resource file
Koadic
Installation
Why use MSHTA as the dropper payload?
Terminology
Stager establishment
Payload execution
Running Implants
Pivoting
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Foreplay - Metasploit Basics
Technical requirements
Installing Metasploit
Running Metasploit
Auxiliaries
Exploits
Payloads
Encoders
Meterpreter
Armitage and team server
Metasploit with slack
Armitage and Cortana scripts
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Getting Started with Cobalt Strike
Technical requirements
Planning a red-team exercise
Cyber kill chain (CKC)
Reconnaissance
Weaponization
Delivery
Exploitation
Installation
Command and Control Server
Actions
Objective and goal
Rules of Engagement (RoE)
Scenario/strategy
Deliverables
Introduction to Cobalt Strike
What is a team server?
Cobalt Strike setup
Cobalt Strike interface
Toolbar
Connecting to another team server
Disconnecting from the team server
Configure listeners
Session graphs
Session table
Targets list
Credentials
Downloaded files
Keystrokes
Screenshots
Payload generation – stageless Windows executable
Payload generation – Java signed applet
Payload generation – MS Office macros
Scripted web delivery
File hosting
Managing the web server
Server switchbar
Customizing the team server
Summary
Questions
Further reading
./ReverseShell
Technical requirement
Introduction to reverse connections
Unencrypted reverse connections using netcat
Encrypted reverse connections using OpenSSL
Introduction to reverse shell connections
Unencrypted reverse shell using netcat
Encrypted reverse shell for *nix with OpenSSL packages installed
Encrypted reverse shell using ncat
Encrypted reverse shell using socat
Encrypted reverse shell using cryptcat
Reverse shell using powercat
reverse_tcp
reverse_tcp_rc4
reverse_https
reverse_https with a custom SSL certificate
Meterpreter over ngrok
Reverse shell cheat sheet
Bash reverse shell
Zsh reverse shell
TCLsh/wish reverse shell
Ksh reverse shell
Netcat reverse shell
Telnet reverse shell
(G)awk reverse shell
R reverse shell
Python reverse shell
Perl reverse shell
Ruby reverse shell
Php reverse shell
Lua reverse shell
Nodejs reverse shell
Powershell reverse shell
Socat reverse shell over TCP
Socat reverse shell over UDP
Socat reverse shell over SSL (cert.pem is the custom certificate)
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Pivoting
Technical requirements
Pivoting via SSH
Meterpreter port forwarding
Pivoting via Armitage
Multi-level pivoting
Summary
Further reading
Age of Empire - The Beginning
Technical requirements
Introduction to Empire
Empire setup and installation
Empire fundamentals
Phase 1 – Listener Initiation
Phase 2 – Stager Creation
Phase 3 – Stager Execution
Phase 4 – Acquiring Agent
Phase 5 – Post Module Operations
Empire post exploitation for Windows
Empire post exploitation for Linux
Empire post exploitation for OSX
Popping up a Meterpreter session using Empire
Slack notification for Empire agents
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Age of Empire - Owning Domain Controllers
Getting into a Domain Controller using Empire
Automating Active Directory exploitation using the DeathStar
Empire GUI
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Cobalt Strike - Red Team Operations
Technical requirements
Cobalt Strike listeners
Foreign-based listeners
Cobalt Strike payloads
Beacons
The beacon menu
Explore menu
Beacon console
Pivoting through Cobalt Strike
Aggressor Scripts
Summary
Questions
Further reading
C2 - Master of Puppets
Technical requirements
Introduction to C2
Cloud-based file sharing using C2
Using Dropbox as the C2
Using OneDrive as the C2
C2 covert channels
TCP
UDP
HTTP(S)
DNS
ICMP
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Obfuscating C2s - Introducing Redirectors
Technical requirements
Introduction to redirectors
Obfuscating C2 securely
Short-term and long-term redirectors
Redirection methods
Dumb pipe redirection
Filtration/smart redirection
Domain fronting
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Achieving Persistence
Technical requirements
Persistence via Armitage
Persistence via Empire
Persistence via Cobalt Strike
Summary
Further reading
Data Exfiltration
Technical requirements
Exfiltration basics
Exfiltration via Netcat
Exfiltration via OpenSSL
Exfiltration with PowerShell
CloakifyFactory
Running CloakifyFactory on Windows
Data exfiltration via DNS
Data exfiltration via Empire
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Assessment
Chapter 1: Red-Teaming and Pentesting
Chapter 2: Pentesting 2018
Chapter 3: Foreplay – Metasploit Basics
Chapter 4: Getting Started with Cobalt Strike
Chapter 5: ./ReverseShell
Chapter 7: Age of Empire – The Beginning
Chapter 8: Age of Empire – Owning Domain Controllers
Chapter 9: Cobalt Strike – Red Team Operations
Chapter 10: C2 – Master of Puppets
Chapter 11: Obfuscating C2s – Introducing Redirectors
Chapter 13: Data Exfiltration
Other Books You May Enjoy
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Red Teaming is used to enhance security by performing simulated attacks on the organization in order to detect network and system vulnerabilities. Hands-On Red Team Tactics starts with an overview of pentesting and Red Teaming, before giving an introduction of few of the latest pentesting tools. You will then move on to exploring Metasploit and getting to grips with Armitage. Once you have studied the basics, you will understand Cobalt Strike basic, usage and how to set up a team server of Cobalt Strike.
You will discover some common lesser known techniques for pivoting and how to pivot over SSH, before using Cobalt Strike to pivot. This comprehensive guide demonstrates the advanced methods of post-exploitation using Cobalt Strike and introduces you to Command-and-control servers (C2) and Redirectors. All this will help you achieve persistence using Beacons and Data Exfiltration, and will also give you the chance to run through the methodology to use Red Team activity tools like Empire during a Red Team activity on Active Directory and Domain Controller.
By the end of the book, you will have learned advanced penetration testing tools, techniques to get reverse shells over encrypted channels and processes for post-exploitation. In addition to this, you will explore frameworks such as Empire which include maintaining persistent access, staying untraceable, and getting reverse connections over different C2 covert channels.
Hands-On Red Team Tactics is for you if you are an IT professional, pentester, security consultant, or ethical hacker interested in the IT security domain and wants to go beyond Penetration Testing. Prior knowledge of penetration testing is beneficial.
Chapter 1, Red-Teaming and Pentesting, helps you understand about different standards of pentesting followed across the industry, and we went through the seven phases of the PTES standard in detail.
Chapter 2, Pentesting 2018, introduces you to MSF Payload Creator (MSFPC). We will also look at the use of resource fileswhich were generated by MSFPC besides the payload file
Chapter 3, Foreplay – Metasploit Basics, teaches you about team server and the Armitage client, including the setup and usage of Armitage.
Chapter 4, Getting Started with Cobalt Strike, starts by exploring the red-team exercise as well as the concept of the cyber kill chain, which can be used for an attack plan. The chapter then introduces you to Cobalt Strike, the tool that is used for red-team operations.
Chapter 5, ./ReverseShell, explores what a reverse connection and reverse shell connection is using various tools. Furthermore, we will try different payloads to get reverse shell connections using Metasploit.
Chapter 6, Pivoting, dives into port forwarding and its uses. We will also learn about pivoting and its uses, followed by methods of port forwarding via SSH.
Chapter 7, Age of Empire – The beginning, introduces you to Empire and its fundamentals. We will also cover Empire's basic usage and the post exploitation basics for Windows, Linux and OSX.
Chapter 8, Age of Empire – Owning Domain Controllers, delves into some more advanceduses of the Empire tool to get access to the Domain Controller.
Chapter 9, Cobalt Strike – Red Team Operations, teaches you about the listener module of Cobalt Strike along with its type and usage.
Chapter 10, C2 – Master of Puppets, provides an introduction to command and control (C2) servers and discussed how they are used in a red team operation.
Chapter 11, Obfuscate C2s – Introducing Redirectors, introduces you to redirectors and the reason why obfuscating C2s are required. We have also covered how we can obfuscate C2s in a secure manner so that we can protect our C2s from getting detected by the Blue team.
Chapter 12, Achieving Persistence, dives into achieving persistence using Armitage's inbuilt exploit modules, then we will learn how to do the same via Empire on Windows, Linux, and macOS machines.
Chapter 13, Data Exfiltration, discusses about some basic ways of transferring data using simple tools like Netcat, OpenSSL and PowerShell. Next, we jumped into transforming the data using text-based steganography to avoid detection, as well as looking at the usage of the CloakifyFactory tool.
The readers should have prior knowledge to networking basics, Linux basic commands, Penetration Testing standards and hands-on experience in using tools such as Metasploit, Nmap, and so on.
The readers should have at least Linux installed for Red Team Engagement. Kali is recommended as it comes with pre-configured tools.
We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: https://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/9781788995238_ColorImages.pdf.
There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.
CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "Let's try to use thebackdoor_lnk module by typinginfo."
Any command-line input or output is written as follows:
git clone https://github.com/g0tmi1k/mpc
Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For example, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example: "Click theAdd an appbutton to add an application."
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The information within this book is intended to be used only in an ethical manner. Do not use any information from the book if you do not have written permission from the owner of the equipment. If you perform illegal actions, you are likely to be arrested and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Packt Publishing does not take any responsibility if you misuse any of the information contained within the book. The information herein must only be used while testing environments with proper written authorizations from appropriate persons responsible.
Pentesting is an attack on a computer system, done to evaluate the security of the system/network. This test is performed to identify vulnerabilities and the risks they possess.
The 1960's marked the true beginning of the age of computer security. In this chapter, we will cover the methodology of pentesting that is widely used, as well as the red-teaming approach, which is now being adopted across different corporations.
In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:
Pentesting 101
A different approach
As we all know, penetration testing follows a standard. There are various standards, such as the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP), the Open Source Security Testing Methodology Manual (OSSTMM), the Information Systems Security Assessment Framework (ISSAF), and so on. Most of them follow the same methodology, but the phases have been named differently. We will take a look at each of them in the following sections and cover the Penetration Testing Execution Standards (PTES) in detail.
OWASP is a worldwide not-for-profit charitable organization that focuses on improving the security of software.
It's a community of like-minded professionals who release software and knowledge-based documentation on application security, covering such subjects as:
Information gathering
Configuration and deployment management testing
Identity management testing
Authentication testing
Authorization testing
Session management testing
Input validation testing
Error handling
Cryptography
Business logic testing
Client-side testing
As mentioned on their official website, this is a peer-reviewed manual of security testing and analysis, providing verified facts. These facts provide actionable information that can measurably improve your operational security.
The OSSTMM includes the following key sections:
Operational security metrics
Trust analysis
Work flow
Human security testing
Physical security testing
Wireless security testing
Telecommunications security testing
Data networks security testing
Compliance regulations
Reporting with the
Security Test Audit Report
(
STAR
)
ISSAF is not very active, but the guide it has provided is quite comprehensive. It aims to evaluate the information security policy and process of an organization with regard to its compliance with IT industry standards, along with laws and regulatory requirements. The current version of ISSAF is 0.2.
The stages that it covers can be found at https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Penetration_testing_methodologies.
This standard is the most widely used standard and covers almost everything related to pentesting.
PTES is divided into the following seven phases:
Pre-engagement interactions
Intelligence gathering
Threat modeling
Vulnerability analysis
Exploitation
Post-exploitation
Reporting
Let's take a brief look at what each of these phases involves.
These actions involve multiple processes to be carried out before an activity kicks off, such as defining the scope of the activity, which usually involves mapping the network IPs, web applications, wireless networks, and so on.
Once the scoping is done, lines of communication are established across both the vendors and the incident reporting process is finalized. These interactions also include status updates, calls, legal processes, and the start and end dates of the project.
This is a process that is used to gather as much as information as possible about the target. This is the most critical part of pentesting, as the more information we have, the more attack vectors we can plan to perform the activity. In case of a whitebox activity, all this information is already provided to the testing team.
Threat modeling model depends on the amount of information gathered. Depending on that, the activity can be divided and then performed using automated tools, logical attacks, and so on. The following diagram illustrates an example of a mindmap of a threat model:
This is a process of discovering flaws that can be used by an attacker. These flaws can be anything ranging from open ports/service misconfiguration to an SQL injection. There are lots of tools available that can help in performing a vulnerability analysis.
These include Nmap, Acunetix, and Burp Suite. We can also see new tools being released every few weeks.
This is a process of gaining access to the system by evading the protection mechanism on the system based on the vulnerability assessment. Exploits can be public, or a zero day.
This is a process where the goal is to determine the criticality of the compromise and then maintain access for future use. This phase must always follow the rules of the engagement that is protecting the client and protecting ourselves (covering the tracks as per the activity's requirements).
This is one of the most important phases, as the patching of all the issues totally depends on the details presented in the report. The report must contain three key elements:
Criticality of the bug
Steps of reproduction of the bug
Patch suggestions
In summary, the pentest life cycle phases are presented in the following diagram:
Let's discuss a different approach: red-teaming. The main objective of red-teaming is to assess and obtain the real level of risk a company has at that moment in time. In this activity, networks, applications, physical, and people (social engineering) are tested against weaknesses.
Red-teaming can also be considered as a simulation of a real-world hack.
Red-teaming is based on the PTES standard as the foundation. However, there's much more to it. It can be said that the penetration testing activity is performed with the aim of finding as many vulnerabilities in the given amount of time as possible. However, red-teaming is performed with only one goal and by staying discreet.
The methodology used in a red-team activity involves the following:
Reconnaissance
Compromise
Persistence
Command and control
Privilege escalation
Pivoting
Reporting and cleanup
The following cycle basically repeats for every new piece of information that is found about the client until the goal is met:
Let's look at it with a different perspective to get a clearer picture:
Looking at the preceding diagram, we can see that red-teaming involves using every means to achieve the goals. We can summarize the major difference between red-teaming and pentesting as follows:
Red-teaming involves finding and exploiting only those vulnerabilities that help to achieve our goal, whereas pentesting involves finding and exploiting vulnerabilities in the given scope, which is limited to digital assets
Red-teaming has an extremely flexible methodology, whereas pentesting has fixed static methods
During red-teaming, the security teams of the organizations have no information about it, whereas during pentesting, security teams are notified
Red-teaming attacks can happen 24/7, while pentesting activities are mostly limited to office hours
Red-teaming is more about measuring the business impact of the vulnerabilities, whereas pentesting is about finding and exploiting vulnerabilities.
Wrapping up the chapter, we learned about different standards of pentesting followed across the industry, and we went through the seven phases of the PTES standard in detail. We also looked at red-teaming and how it is different from pentesting.
In the next chapter, we will look at a few of the latest post-exploitation tools and examine in detail how they work.
What are the different pentesting standards?
What are the different phases of PTES?
What is the difference between red-teaming and pentesting?
What are the key elements of a report?
What is the main objective of a red-team activity?
For more information on the topics discussed in this chapter, please visit the following links:
High Level Organization of the Standard
:
http://www.pentest-standard.org/index.php/Main_Page
OSSTMM
:
http://www.isecom.org/mirror/OSSTMM.3.pdf
Web Application Penetration Testing
:
https://www.owasp.org/index.php/Web_Application_Penetration_Testing
Information Systems Security Assessment Framework (ISSAF)
:
http://www.oissg.org/issaf02/issaf0.1-5.pdf
InfoSec Resources
:
https://resources.infosecinstitute.com/the-history-of-penetration-testing/#gref
For the past few years, we have been using tools such as the Metasploit Framework, routersploit, LinuxEnum.sh, nmap, and so on for post-exploitation and scanning. With the growing popularity of new tools, it would be good to learn about some new tools that can be used for post-exploitation. Out of the many available tools, we will be looking at MSFvenom Payload Creator (MSFPC)—a simple MSF-based payload generator; and Koadic—a COM-based Command and Control (C3) server, which can be used in red-team operations or penetration testing for post-exploitation.
In this chapter, we will cover the following tools:
MSFPC
Kaodic
*nix-based system (Kali, Ubuntu, or macOS X)
The Metasploit framework (needed for MSFPC)
Python package version 2 or 3 (needed for Koadic)
MSFvenom Payload Creator (MSFPC) is a user-friendly multiple payload generator that can be used to generate Metasploit payloads based on user-selected options. The user doesn't need to execute the long msfvenom commands to generate payloads anymore. With MSFPC, the user can generate the payloads with far fewer commands.
Before downloading the tool, Metasploit should be installed in the system. MSFPC is just a simple bash script, which means that it can be executed on *nix systems.
We can download the MSFPC package from https://github.com/g0tmi1k/mpc. We can either download the repository in a ZIP file or we can clone the repository on our local system by running the following command:
git clone https://github.com/g0tmi1k/mpc
After cloning the repo, let's issue an execute permission on msfpc.sh file.
cd mpc/chmod +x msfpc.sh ./msfpc.sh./msfpc.sh <TYPE> (<DOMAIN/IP>) (<PORT>) (<CMD/MSF>) (<BIND/REVERSE>) (<STAGED/STAGELESS>) (<TCP/HTTP/HTTPS/FIND_PORT>) (<BATCH/LOOP>) (<VERBOSE>)
TYPE
: The payload could be of any of the following formats (this option is the same as the
-f
switch in
msfvenom
):
APK [android]
,
ASP
,
ASPX
,
Bash [.sh]
,
Java [.jsp]
,
Linux [.elf]
,
OSX [.macho]
,
Perl [.pl]
,
PHP
,
Powershell [.ps1]
,
Python [.py]
,
Tomcat [.war]
,
Windows [.exe //.dll]
.
DOMAIN/IP
: This is the
LHOST
option when generating payloads in
msfvenom
.
PORT
: This is the
LPORT
option when generating payloads in
msfvenom
.
CMD/MSF
: This is the type of shell dropped once the payload is executed on the target system. The
CMD
option can be used when you want to get a standard command shell; that is, the Command Prompt shell (
cmd.exe
) for Windows and Terminal (
/bin/bash
) for *nix. In some cases, where the size of the shellcode matters, it's better to use the classic reverse shell payload.
CMD
can be used in situations like these.
Generating a simple classic reverse shell payload can be done by executing the following command:
sh msfpc.sh cmd windows en0
The preceding command will generate a payload with a cmd as the preferred shell for Windows and set the LHOST to the IP retrieved from the en0 Ethernet interface:
As you can see from the preceding screenshot, MSFPC created two files in the same directory:
The executable payload
:
windows-shell-staged-reverse-tcp-443.exe
The resource file
:
windows-shell-staged-reverse-tcp-443-exe.rc
The naming convention for the files are easy to understand as they are named after the options used while creation. We just created a Windows staged
