Adversaries may modify mail and mail application data to remove evidence of their activity. Email applications allow users and other programs to export and delete mailbox data via command line tools or use of APIs. Mail application data can be emails, email metadata, or logs generated by the application or operating system, such as export requests.Adversaries may manipulate emails and mailbox data to remove logs, artifacts, and metadata, such as evidence of Phishing/Internal Spearphishing, Email Collection, Mail Protocols for command and control, or email-based exfiltration such as Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol. For example, to remove evidence on Exchange servers adversaries have used the
ExchangePowerShell
PowerShell module, includingRemove-MailboxExportRequest
to remove evidence of mailbox exports.(Citation: Volexity SolarWinds)(Citation: ExchangePowerShell Module) On Linux and macOS, adversaries may also delete emails through a command line utility calledAdversaries may also remove emails and metadata/headers indicative of spam or suspicious activity (for example, through the use of organization-wide transport rules) to reduce the likelihood of malicious emails being detected by security products.(Citation: Microsoft OAuth Spam 2022)
Copies and deletes mail data on Windows
Supported Platforms: Windows
auto_generated_guid: d29f01ea-ac72-4efc-8a15-bea64b77fabf
New-Item -Path "C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\AppData\Local\Comms\Unistore\data\copy" -ItemType Directory -ErrorAction Ignore
Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\AppData\Local\Comms\Unistore\data" -Exclude copy | ForEach-Object { Copy-Item -Path $_.FullName -Destination "C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\AppData\Local\Comms\Unistore\data\copy" -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction Ignore }
Remove-Item -Path "C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\AppData\Local\Comms\Unistore\data\copy" -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction Ignore
Remove-Item -Path "C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\AppData\Local\Comms\Unistore\data\copy" -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction Ignore
Copies and deletes mail data on Linux
Supported Platforms: Linux
auto_generated_guid: 25e2be0e-96f7-4417-bd16-a4a2500e3802
mkdir -p /var/spool/mail/copy && for file in /var/spool/mail/*; do if [ "$(basename "$file")" != "copy" ]; then cp -R "$file" /var/spool/mail/copy/; fi; done && rm -rf /var/spool/mail/copy/*
rm -rf /var/spool/mail/copy
if [ -f "$(ls -A /var/spool/mail/temp)" ]; then rm /var/spool/mail/temp; fi
if [ -z "$(ls -A /var/spool/mail/)" ]; then exit 1; else exit 0; fi
if [ -z "$(ls -A /var/spool/mail/)" ]; then touch /var/spool/mail/temp; fi
Copies and deletes mail data on macOS
Supported Platforms: macOS
auto_generated_guid: 3824130e-a6e4-4528-8091-3a52eeb540f6
mkdir ~/Library/Mail/copy
cp -R ~/Library/Mail/* ~/Library/Mail/copy
rm -rf ~/Library/Mail/copy/*
rm -rf ~/Library/Mail/copy
Copies and modifies mail data on Windows
Supported Platforms: Windows
auto_generated_guid: edddff85-fee0-499d-9501-7d4d2892e79b
New-Item -Path "C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\AppData\Local\Comms\Unistore\data\copy" -ItemType Directory -ErrorAction Ignore
Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\AppData\Local\Comms\Unistore\data" -Exclude copy | ForEach-Object { Copy-Item -Path $_.FullName -Destination "C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\AppData\Local\Comms\Unistore\data\copy" -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction Ignore }
Get-ChildItem -Path "C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\AppData\Local\Comms\Unistore\data\copy" -File | ForEach-Object { Add-Content -Path $_.FullName -Value "Modification for Atomic Red Test" -ErrorAction Ignore }
Remove-Item -Path "C:\Users\$env:USERNAME\AppData\Local\Comms\Unistore\data\copy" -Recurse -Force -ErrorAction Ignore
Copies and modifies mail data on Linux
Supported Platforms: Linux
auto_generated_guid: 6d99f93c-da56-49e3-b195-163090ace4f6
mkdir -p /var/spool/mail/copy; for file in /var/spool/mail/*; do if [ "$(basename "$file")" != "copy" ]; then cp -R "$file" /var/spool/mail/copy/; if [ -f "/var/spool/mail/copy/$(basename "$file")" ]; then echo "Modification for Atomic Red Test" >> "/var/spool/mail/copy/$(basename "$file")"; fi; fi; done
rm -rf /var/spool/mail/copy
if [ -f "$(ls -A /var/spool/mail/temp)" ]; then rm /var/spool/mail/temp; fi
if [ -z "$(ls -A /var/spool/mail/)" ]; then exit 1; else exit 0; fi
if [ -z "$(ls -A /var/spool/mail/)" ]; then touch /var/spool/mail/temp; fi
Copies and modifies mail data on macOS
Supported Platforms: macOS
auto_generated_guid: 8a0b1579-5a36-483a-9cde-0236983e1665
mkdir ~/Library/Mail/copy
cp -R ~/Library/Mail/* ~/Library/Mail/copy
echo "Manipulated data" > ~/Library/Mail/copy/manipulated.txt
rm -rf ~/Library/Mail/copy