Cyber security

SharpCovertTube – Covert Command Execution Via YouTube

SharpCovertTube is a program created to control Windows systems remotely by uploading videos to Youtube.

The program monitors a Youtube channel until a video is uploaded, decodes the QR code from the thumbnail of the uploaded video and executes a command.

The QR codes in the videos can use cleartext or AES-encrypted values.

It has two versions, binary and service binary, and it includes a Python script to generate the malicious videos. Its purpose is to serve as a persistence method using only web requests to the Google API.

Usage

Run the listener in your Windows system:

It will check the Youtube channel every a specific amount of time (10 minutes by default) until a new video is uploaded. In this case, we upload “whoami.avi” from the folder example-videos:

After finding there is a new video in the channel, it decodes the QR code from the video thumbnail, executes the command and the response is base64-encoded and exfiltrated using DNS:

For more information click here

Varshini

Varshini is a Cyber Security expert in Threat Analysis, Vulnerability Assessment, and Research. Passionate about staying ahead of emerging Threats and Technologies.

Recent Posts

git fetch vs git pull: How They Work and When to Use Each

Both git fetch and git pull talk to a remote repository, but they do very different things to your…

2 days ago

git cherry-pick Command: Apply Commits from Another Branch

Sometimes the change you need already exists, just on the wrong branch. A hotfix lands…

2 days ago

Best Email APIs for Secure Business Email: Why Developers Are Moving Beyond SMTP

Email is still one of the most important communication channels inside modern applications. Password resets,…

3 days ago

Nginx Commands in Linux: Start, Stop, Reload, Test, and Log

Nginx is a high-performance web server and reverse proxy trusted by some of the largest…

6 days ago

ufw Command in Linux: Manage Firewall Rules with Examples

ufw (Uncomplicated Firewall) sits on top of iptables (or nftables on newer systems) and replaces…

6 days ago

who Command in Linux: Show All Logged-In Users and Sessions

When you share a server with a team or investigate unexpected activity, the first question…

6 days ago