This project converts a Cobalt Strike profile to a functional mod_rewrite .htaccess or Nginx config file to support HTTP reverse proxy redirection to a Cobalt Strike teamserver. The use of reverse proxies provides protection to backend C2 servers from profiling, investigation, and general internet background radiation.
Note: You should test and tune the output as needed before deploying, but these scripts should handle the heavy lifting.
- Now requires Python 3.0+ (this is 2020 after all)
- Supports the Cobalt Strike custom URI features as of CS 4.0
- Rewrite Rules based on valid C2 URIs (HTTP GET, POST, and Stager) and specified User-Agent string.
- Result: Only requests to valid C2 endpoints with a specified UA string will be proxied to the Team Server by default.
- Uses a custom Malleable C2 profile to build a .htaccess file with corresponding mod_rewrite rules
- Uses a custom Malleable C2 profile to build a Nginx config with corresponding proxy_pass rules
- HTTP or HTTPS proxying to the Cobalt Strike Team Server
- HTTP 302 Redirection to a Legitimate Site for Non-Matching Requests
The havex.profile example is included for a quick test.
- Run the script against a profile
- Save the output to
.htaccessor/etc/nginx/nginx.confon your redirector - Modify as needed
- Reload\restart the web server
python3 cs2modrewrite.py -i havex.profile -c https://TEAMSERVER -r https://GOHERE > /var/www/html/.htaccess
#### Save the following as .htaccess in the root web directory (i.e. /var/www/html/.htaccess)
########################################
## .htaccess START
RewriteEngine On
## Uncomment to enable verbose debugging in /var/logs/apache2/error.log
# LogLevel alert rewrite:trace5
## (Optional)
## Scripted Web Delivery
## Uncomment and adjust as needed
#RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/css/style1.css?$
#RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} ^$
#RewriteRule ^.*$ "http://TEAMSERVER%{REQUEST_URI}" [P,L]
## Default Beacon Staging Support (/1234)
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/..../?$
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} "Mozilla/5.0 \(Windows; U; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.2\) Java/1.5.0_08"
RewriteRule ^.*$ "http://TEAMSERVER%{REQUEST_URI}" [P,L]
## C2 Traffic (HTTP-GET, HTTP-POST, HTTP-STAGER URIs)
## Logic: If a requested URI AND the User-Agent matches, proxy the connection to the Teamserver
## Consider adding other HTTP checks to fine tune the check. (HTTP Cookie, HTTP Referer, HTTP Query String, etc)
## Refer to http://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/mod/mod_rewrite.html
## Profile URIs
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^(/include/template/isx.php.*|/wp06/wp-includes/po.php.*|/wp08/wp-includes/dtcla.php.*|/modules/mod_search.php.*|/blog/wp-includes/pomo/src.php.*|/includes/phpmailer/class.pop3.php.*|/api/516280565958.*|/api/516280565959.*)$
## Profile UserAgent
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} "Mozilla/5.0 \(Windows; U; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.2\) Java/1.5.0_08"
RewriteRule ^.*$ "https://TEAMSERVER%{REQUEST_URI}" [P,L]
## Redirect all other traffic here (Optional)
RewriteRule ^.*$ HTTPS://GOHERE/ [L,R=302]
## .htaccess END
########################################
apt-get install apache2
a2enmod rewrite headers proxy proxy_http ssl cache
a2dismod -f deflate
service apache2 reload
Note: https://bluescreenofjeff.com/2016-06-28-cobalt-strike-http-c2-redirectors-with-apache-mod_rewrite/ "e0x70i pointed out in the comments below that if your Cobalt Strike Malleable C2 profile contains an Accept-Encoding header for gzip, your Apache install may compress that traffic by default and cause your Beacon to be unresponsive or function incorrectly. To overcome this, disable mod_deflate (via a2dismod deflate and add the No Encode ([NE]) flag to your rewrite rules. (Thank you, e0x70i!)"
Ensure the following entries are in the site's config (i.e. /etc/apache2/available-sites/*.conf)
# Enable SSL
SSLEngine On
# Enable SSL Proxy
SSLProxyEngine On
# Trust Self-Signed Certificates generated by CobaltStrike
SSLProxyVerify none
SSLProxyCheckPeerCN off
SSLProxyCheckPeerName off
SSLProxyCheckPeerExpire off
If you plan on using mod_rewrite in .htaccess files (instead of the site's config file), you also need to enable the use of .htaccess files by changing AllowOverride None to AllowOverride All. For all websites, edit /etc/apache2/apache.conf
<Directory /var/www/>
Options FollowSymLinks MultiViews
AllowOverride All
Order allow,deny
allow from all
</Directory>
Finally, restart apache once more for good measure.
service apache2 restart
If you need to troubleshoot redirection rule behavior, enable detailed error tracing in your site's configuration file by adding the following line.
LogLevel alert rewrite:trace5
Next, reload apache, and monitor /var/log/access.log /var/log/error.log to see which rules are matching.
apt-get install nginx nginx-extras
Note: nginx-extras is needed for custom server headers. If you can't get this package, then comment out the server header line in the resulting configuration file.
Save the cs2nginx.py output to /etc/nginx/nginx.conf and modify as needed (SSL parameters).
python3 ./cs2nginx.py -i havex.profile -c https://127.0.0.1 -r https://www.google.com -H mydomain.local >/etc/nginx/nginx.conf
Finally, restart nginx after modifying the server configuration file.
service nginx restart
Once redirection is configured and functioning, ensure your C2 servers only allow ingress from the redirector and your trusted IPs (VPN, office ranges, etc).
Consider adding additional redirector protections using GeoIP restrictions (mod_maxmind) and blacklists of bad user agents and IP ranges. Thanks to @curi0usJack for the ideas.