Kill Process

Created the Saturday 23 March 2019. Updated 1 month, 2 weeks ago.

Malware can use various techniques to evade detection and disrupt the efforts of security professionals to analyze it. One such technique is to kill processes that are related to anti-virus software or monitoring tools.

For example, malware may target processes such as wireshark.exe, ida.exe, or procmon.exe, which are commonly used by security professionals to monitor and analyze running processes on a system. By killing these processes, malware can prevent security professionals from gaining visibility into its activities and disrupt their efforts to analyze it.

Technique Identifier

U0403

Technique Tags

Wireshark.exe Kill process Ida.exe Procmon.exe Disrupt

Code Snippets

Description

Using the CreateToolhelp32Snapshot API, it is possible to list the running process and compare it with a blacklist to kill them.

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <tchar.h>
#include <process.h>
#include <windows.h>
#include <tlhelp32.h>

using namespace std;

BOOL GetProcessList();
BOOL TerminateMyProcess(DWORD dwProcessId, UINT uExitCode);

int main( void )
{
  GetProcessList( );
  return 0;
}

BOOL GetProcessList( )
{
  HANDLE hProcessSnap;
  HANDLE hProcess;
  PROCESSENTRY32 pe32;
  DWORD dwPriorityClass;

  //Blacklisted processes
  LPSTR ProcessName[] = { "ida.Exe",
                          "ProcMon.exe",
                          "Olldbg.exe",
                          "Wireshark.exe",
                          "iexplore.exe"
                            };

  // Take a snapshot of processes
  hProcessSnap = CreateToolhelp32Snapshot( TH32CS_SNAPPROCESS, 0 );
  if( hProcessSnap == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE )
  {
    return( FALSE );
  }

  pe32.dwSize = sizeof( PROCESSENTRY32 );

  if( !Process32First( hProcessSnap, &pe32 ) )
  {
    CloseHandle( hProcessSnap );
    return( FALSE );
  }

  do
  {
    string str(pe32.szExeFile);

    for (int i = 0; i < (sizeof(ProcessName) / sizeof(LPSTR)); i++)
    {
         if(str == ProcessName[i])
         {
             cout << "[*] processus exists: " << (ProcessName[i]) << endl;
             TerminateBlacklistedProcess(pe32.th32ProcessID, 1);
         }
    }
  } while( Process32Next( hProcessSnap, &pe32 ) );

  CloseHandle( hProcessSnap );
  return( TRUE );
}

// Terminate the blacklisted processes
BOOL TerminateBlacklistedProcess(DWORD dwProcessId, UINT uExitCode)
{
    DWORD dwDesiredAccess = PROCESS_TERMINATE;
    BOOL  bInheritHandle  = FALSE;
    HANDLE hProcess = OpenProcess(dwDesiredAccess, bInheritHandle, dwProcessId);
    if (hProcess == NULL)
        return FALSE;

    BOOL result = TerminateProcess(hProcess, uExitCode);

    CloseHandle(hProcess);

    return result;
}

#include <iostream>
#include <Windows.h>
#include <Psapi.h>
#include <vector>
#include <TlHelp32.h>

#pragma comment(lib, "Psapi")
#pragma comment(lib,"ntdll.lib")

typedef NTSTATUS(NTAPI* _NtGetNextProcess)(
	_In_ HANDLE ProcessHandle,
	_In_ ACCESS_MASK DesiredAccess,
	_In_ ULONG HandleAttributes,
	_In_ ULONG Flags,
	_Out_ PHANDLE NewProcessHandle
	);

std::vector<std::string> procs =
{
	"ProcessHacker.exe", 
	"Wireshark.exe"
};

auto terminate_process() -> void
{
	HMODULE ntdll = GetModuleHandleA("ntdll.dll");
	HANDLE currp = nullptr;
	char buf[1024] = { 0 };

	_NtGetNextProcess NtGetNextProcess = (_NtGetNextProcess)GetProcAddress(ntdll, "NtGetNextProcess");

	for (int i = 0; i < procs.size(); i++) {
		do {
			GetModuleFileNameExA(currp, 0, buf, MAX_PATH);
			if (strstr(buf, procs[i].c_str()))
				TerminateProcess(currp, -1);
		} while (!NtGetNextProcess(currp, MAXIMUM_ALLOWED, 0, 0, &currp));
	}
}

int main()
{
	terminate_process();
	return 0;
}

Detection Rules

                                    rule UNPROTECT_disable_process {
    meta:
	author = "Thomas Roccia | @fr0gger_"
	description = "Disable blacklisted processes"
    strings:
        $api1 = "CreateToolhelp32Snapshot" nocase
        $api2 = "Process32First" nocase
        $api3 = "Process32Next" nocase
        $api4 = "TerminateProcess" nocase
        $api5 = "NtGetNextProcess" nocase
        $p1 = "taskkill.exe" nocase
        $p2 = "tskill.exe" nocase
    condition:
        uint32(uint32(0x3C)) == 0x4550 and 2 of ($api*) or any of ($p*) 
}

                                    title: Kill multiple process
status: experimental
description: Kill multiple process
author: Joe Security
date: 2019-12-30
id: 200039
threatname:
behaviorgroup: 18
classification: 8
mitreattack:

logsource:
      category: process_creation
      product: windows
detection:
      selection:      
          CommandLine:
              - '*cmd*taskkill /f*& taskkill /f*& taskkill /f*& taskkill /f*& taskkill /f*& taskkill /f*& taskkill /f*'
      condition: selection
level: critical

                                    rule:
  meta:
    name: reference analysis tools strings
    namespace: anti-analysis
    author: michael.hunhoff@fireeye.com
    scope: file
    mbc:
      - Discovery::Analysis Tool Discovery::Process Detection [B0013.001]
    references:
      - https://github.com/LordNoteworthy/al-khaser/blob/master/al-khaser/AntiAnalysis/process.cpp
    examples:
      - al-khaser_x86.exe_
  features:
    - or:
      - string: /ollydbg.exe/i
      - string: /ProcessHacker.exe/i
      - string: /tcpview.exe/i
      - string: /autoruns.exe/i
      - string: /autorunsc.exe/i
      - string: /filemon.exe/i
      - string: /procmon.exe/i
      - string: /regmon.exe/i
      - string: /procexp.exe/i
      - string: /idaq.exe/i
      - string: /idaq64.exe/i
      - string: /ImmunityDebugger.exe/i
      - string: /Wireshark.exe/i
      - string: /dumpcap.exe/i
      - string: /HookExplorer.exe/i
      - string: /ImportREC.exe/i
      - string: /PETools.exe/i
      - string: /LordPE.exe/i
      - string: /SysInspector.exe/i
      - string: /proc_analyzer.exe/i
      - string: /sysAnalyzer.exe/i
      - string: /sniff_hit.exe/i
      - string: /windbg.exe/i
      - string: /joeboxcontrol.exe/i
      - string: /joeboxserver.exe/i
      - string: /ResourceHacker.exe/i
      - string: /x32dbg.exe/i
      - string: /x64dbg.exe/i
      - string: /Fiddler.exe/i
      - string: /httpdebugger.exe/i
      - string: /fakenet.exe/i
      - string: /netmon.exe/i
      - string: /WPE PRO.exe/i
      - string: /decompile.exe/i

Additional Resources

External Links

The resources provided below are associated links that will give you even more detailed information and research on current evasion technique. It is important to note that, while these resources may be helpful, it is important to exercise caution when following external links. As always, be careful when clicking on links from unknown sources, as they may lead to malicious content.

Coinminer Comes with a Process "Kill List" to Keep Competitors at Bay