Antivmdetection

Background

A script to help you create templates, which you can use with VirtualBox to make VM detection harder.

My first post on the subject was in 2012 and have after that been updated at random times. The blog format might have not been the best way of publishing the information and some people did make nice and "easy to apply" script based on the content.

As a way to make it easier for me to add new content, I have decided to do the very same.

The purpose of this script is to use available settings without modifying the VirtualBox base. There are people who do really neat things by patching Virtualbox. But that is out of the scoop for this script. I think this approach has some merits as it does not (hopefully) break with every new release of VirtualBox. Overtime I have also included "things" that are not directly VM related, but rather things that malware is using to fingerprint installations with, I hope you don't mind..

The main script will create the following files:

• One shell script, that can be used as a template, to be used from the host OS and applied to the VM that you like to modify.
• A dump of the DSDT, that is used in the template script above.
• A Windows Powershell file to be used inside the guest, to handle the settings that is not possible to change from the host. This script will have to be run twice, one for the changes that requires reboot and the second time for the pesky things that resurface at reboot.

Usage

Generate script from host

• Install dependencies sudo apt install python3-pip libcdio-utils acpica-tools mesa-utils smartmontools
• Install Python modules: sudo pip3 install -r requirements.txt
• Download the following Windows binaries and extract them in the antivmdetection directory : wget https://download.sysinternals.com/files/VolumeId.zip https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/devmanview-x64.zip (x64 version).
• Create computer and user text files : hostname > computer.lst, whoami > user.lst . Modify if you want to use different machine names and users for the VMs (recommended is to fill the files with a long list of user and computer names)
• Run python script as sudo sudo python3 antivmdetect.py
• Make generated host script executable from current user sudo chmod a+x xxxxx.sh
• If you do get the following message: "ACPI tables bigger than 64KB (VERR_TOO_MUCH_DATA)", this is due to a limitation in Virtualbox, for more context see this case: #37 . Not verified to work, but https://www.tonymacx86.com/dsdt-database might a good resource...

Setup VM

• Create the VM but don't start it, also exit the VirtualBox GUI. The shell script needs to be run before installation!.
• Verify that "I/O APIC" is enabled (System > Motherboard tab).
• Verify that "Paravirtualization Interface" is set to "None" (System > Acceleration tab).
• Change CPU count to 2 or more if possible.
• Set VM IP (File > Host Network Manager > Configure Adapter Manually > IPV4 adress).
• The script expects that the storage layout to look like the following: + IDE: Primary master (Disk) and Primary slave (CD-ROM) + * ATA: Port 0 (Disk) and Port 1 (CD-ROM)
• Run script as current user (because VMs are located in current user home dir) : /bin/bash xxxxx.sh my-virtual-machine-name
• Install the Windows Operating System (Supports W7 and W10)

Run script from inside the VM

• Move the batch script (xxxx.ps1) to the newly installed guest.

• Run the batch script inside the guest. Remember that most of the settings that gets modified, are reverted after each reboot. So make it run at boot if needed.

• As of version 0.1.4, some applied settings will require a reboot. So run the batch script once, the guest will be rebooted. Then run the script once again to finalize the setup.

• Before you apply the batch script inside the guest, please disable UAC (reboot required) otherwise you will not be able to modify the registry with the script.

• For Windows 10 users: run the PS script as an administrator (right-click on the cmd.exe -> run as admin, navigate to the PS script and execute)

• If applied correctly, a Pafish run will result in this (no need to modify Virtualbox).

• Please note, that this script does other things that is not covered by Pafish (for example W10 artifacts)

Notes

• When the antivmdetect script can't find any suitable values to use, it will comment these settings in the newly created script, with a "#". These needs manual review as they might have impact on what is displayed in the VM.

Version History

• 0.1.9:
  Python3 compatible
  First stab at trying to extract the correct disk, has been a source for headache for many. (Issue #35 (and a few others old issues), thanks @oaustin)
  Improved the string handing in the shell script (Issue #35 and #36 and PR #44, thanks @oaustin, @dashjuvi and @corownik)
  Added a link to a online DSDT resource (Issue #37, thanks @MasterCATZ)
  Updated the README to make installations instructions more clear, thanks @jorants (issue #38)
  Check if the DSDT dump is really created, thanks @nov3mb3r (Issue: #42)
  Added a license notice. thanks @obilodeau (issue #43)
  Code clean-up: removed RAID disk support due to lack of access to server hardware.. and a lot of other small improvements

• 0.1.8:
  Improved support for Windows 10
  Merged markup fix from @bryant1410 (PR #14)
  Solved an issue for people using macOS + VBox/VMWare Fusion to create the templates.
  Creating the template from a virtual machine is not the best way regardless .. (issue #12 and possibly #15)

• 0.1.7:
  Windows 10 is now supported (feedback welcome)
  Several new artifacts "corrected" for W10 installations
  New dependency: mesa-utils
  Merged bug fix from @Fullmetal5 (#10)
  Misc code fix
  Updated the readme

• 0.1.6:
  Added a pop-up after the second run, to make it more clear that you are good to go
  Added a function that spawns a few instances of notepad, this feature will be extended in future versions
  Reworked the RandomDate function, thanks to @Antelox for making me aware of the issue with the old one (#8)
  Acpidump shipped with older versions of Ubuntu, does not support the "-s" switch. This is now handled with an error message. Thanks to @Antelox for this issue (#7)
  Devmanview.exe was not removed after the second run, fixed

• 0.1.5:
  Added support for associating and de-associating (default disabled) file extensions. Reference: https://www.proofpoint.com/us/threat-insight/post/massive-adgholas-malvertising-campaigns-use-steganography-and-file-whitelisting-to-hide-in-plain-sight
  Added support for user supplied clipboard buffer. If not present a random string will be generated. Fill the file with Honeytokens of your choice
  Removed XP support
  Converted the batch script sections to Powershell. Moved more logic to the guest script, in short there is less reason to create/re-generate the template often, as more items are randomized on the guest.
  Added a function that randomizes the Desktop background image
  Added a function that creates documents of "all" sorts on the guest
  Added a function that creates documents of "all" sorts on the guest and moves them to the recycle bin
  Randomizing the DigitalProductId in two more locations:
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Registration\DigitalProductId.
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\DefaultProductKey\DigitalProductId.
  Use paravirtualization Interface: None (verified with VBox 5.1.4) - Check updated to reflect this change. I assume this change in VBox came about thanks to: TiTi87, thanks!

• 0.1.4:
  Fixed a bug for users of python-dmidecode 3.10.13-3, this one was all me..
  Added a function that randomizes VolumeID (new prerequisite: VolumeID.exe), this information is for example collected by Rovnix
  Added a function that randomizes username and computername/hostname (new prerequisites: list of usernames and computernames)
  First attempt to add information to the clipboard buffer, idea (command) came from a tweet by @shanselman . Will be improved in the next release
  Updated the readme: new dependencies and new features that requires reboot

• 0.1.3:
  Copy and set the CPU brand string.
  Check if an audio device is attached to the guest. Reference: http://www.joesecurity.org/reports/report-61f847bcb69d0fe86ad7a4ba3f057be5.html
  Check OS architecture vs DevManView binary.
  Randomizing the ProductId in two more locations:
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Registration\ProductId.
  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\DefaultProductKey\ProductId.
  Purge the Windows product key from the registry (to prevent someone from stealing it...).
  Edit the DigitalProductId (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\DigitalProductId) to match the new ProductId.

• 0.1.2:
  Check if the Legacy paravirtualization interface is being used (Usage of the Legacy interface will mitigate the "cpuid feature" detection).

• 0.1.1:
  Check for CPU count (Less than 2 == alert).
  Check for memory size (Less than 2GB == alert).
  Check if the default IP/IP-range is being used for vboxnet0 (You can ignore the notification if you don't use it).
  Randomizing the ProductId.
  Merged PR #3 from r-sierra (Thanks for helping out!
  Fixed a bug in the AcpiCreatorId (Thanks @Nadacsc for reporting it to me!).
  Fixed a bug in the DmiBIOSReleaseDate parsing.
  Fixed a bug in DmiBIOSReleaseDate, to handle both the "default" misspelled variant and the correctly spelled one (Thanks @WanpengQian for reporting it to me!).
  The DevManView inclusion did not work as expected, It should be fixed in this release.
  Supports SATA controller as well (Previously only IDE settings was modified)
  Updated the readme

• 0.1.0:
  Resolved the WMI detection make famous by the HT. Added
  DevManView.exe (your choice of architecture) to the prerequisites.

• < 0.1.0 No version history kept prior to this, need to start somewhere I guess.

/Mikael

Feedback is always welcome! =)