Cobalt Strike 3.2, the third release in the 3.x series, is now available. The 3.2 release focuses on fixes and improvements across the Cobalt Strike product.

x64 Beacon

Cobalt Strike’s x86 Beacon plays pretty well in an x64 world. You can inject the keystroke logger and screenshot tools into 64-bit processes. If you run mimikatz or hashdump, Beacon uses the right build of these tools for the system you’re on. Cobalt Strike’s user-driven attacks even do the right thing when they land code execution in an x64 application.

That said, an x86-only payload is a burden. It limits which processes you can inject into. This can hurt your ability to hide. Cobalt Strike 3.2 resolves this with the introduction of the x64 Beacon.

From an operator perspective, not much is different. Cobalt Strike listeners prepare x86 and x64 Beacon stages. Beacon’s inject command has an architecture parameter now. The commands and workflows between the x86 and x64 Beacon are the same.

Target Acquisition via Groups

One of my go-to methods to discover hosts is to query the Domain Computers and Domain Controllers groups in a domain. These groups contain the computer accounts for systems joined to a domain. I usually use nslookup to map these names back to IP addresses.

Cobalt Strike 3.2 introduces automation for this process. The net computers command queries the above groups, resolves the names to IP addresses (where it can), and presents this information to you. Cobalt Strike also populates the targets data model with this target information.

Time to Reset

Jason stands up a Cobalt Strike team server. He configures a listener, sets up an attack package, and clones a website. Jason’s teammate, Jennifer, uses this team server to send a test phishing email to make sure it all works OK. Jason and Jennifer do not want this test to show up in Cobalt Strike’s reports. What do they do?

Jason and Jennifer tear down their team server, delete the data folder, start the team server, reconfigure everything, and hope they do it right. True story.

Cobalt Strike 3.2 adds Reporting -> Reset Data. This option allows you to reset Cobalt Strike’s data model without restarting the team server. This feature doesn’t touch your listeners or hosted sites. It does allow you to stand up a ready-to-go attack, test it, and then reset Cobalt Strike’s data model for reporting purposes.

Check out the release notes to see a full list of what’s new in Cobalt Strike 3.2. Licensed users may use the update program to get the latest. A 21-day Cobalt Strike trial is also available.