Command and Scripting Interpreter: Visual Basic (T1059.005)

Tactic: Execution · Platforms: Linux, macOS, Windows

The interactive view maps 1 detection strategy, 5 mitigations, 46 threat groups, 69 software entries, 16 campaigns to this technique, alongside D3FEND countermeasures and data-component coverage.

Sub-technique of Command and Scripting Interpreter (T1059).

Overview

Adversaries may abuse Visual Basic (VB) for execution. VB is a programming language created by Microsoft with interoperability with many Windows technologies such as Component Object Model and the Native API through the Windows API. Although tagged as legacy with no planned future evolutions, VB is integrated and supported in the .NET Framework and cross-platform .NET Core.

Derivative languages based on VB have also been created, such as Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) and VBScript. VBA is an event-driven programming language built into Microsoft Office, as well as several third-party applications. VBA enables documents to contain macros used to automate the execution of tasks and other functionality on the host. VBScript is a default scripting language on Windows hosts and can also be used in place of JavaScript on HTML Application (HTA) webpages served to Internet Explorer (though most modern browsers do not come with VBScript support).

Adversaries may use VB payloads to execute malicious commands. Common malicious usage includes automating execution of behaviors with VBScript or embedding VBA content into Spearphishing Attachment payloads (which may also involve Mark-of-the-Web Bypass to enable execution).

Explore

• Open T1059.005 in the interactive ATT&CK matrix
• ATT&CK Intelligence View guide
• Official MITRE ATT&CK entry for T1059.005
• Sigma detection rules for MITRE ATT&CK
• Built by Shahrukh Khan