Potential Uses and Enhancements

The PassiveX payload has the ability to be used for a wide array of things regardless of whether or not an HTTP tunnel is even used. The ability for a payload to inject an untrusted ActiveX control into an Internet Explorer instance without any user interaction at all is enough to give an attacker full control over the machine without the attacker so much as typing a single command. The ways in which such a thing could be accomplished could be through the development of a robust and feature-filled ActiveX control that may or may not make use of an HTTP tunnel between the target host and the attacker. This abstract concept will be discussed alongside other more concrete uses for this technique in the sections of this chapter.

• Automation with Scripting
• Passive Information Gathering
• Penetration Testing
• Worm Propagation