Advanced Red Team Techniques: Evading Modern EDR Solutions

Exploring advanced techniques for evading enterprise detection and response systems in red team engagements.

Introduction

Modern EDR (Endpoint Detection and Response) solutions have become increasingly sophisticated. This post explores advanced evasion techniques used in authorized red team engagements.

Understanding EDR Architecture

EDR solutions typically monitor:

• Process creation and execution
• Network connections
• File system modifications
• Registry changes
• API calls

Evasion Techniques

Direct Syscalls

Bypassing user-mode hooks by calling system calls directly:

NtAllocateVirtualMemory(hProcess, &baseAddr, 0, &size, MEM_COMMIT, PAGE_EXECUTE_READWRITE);

API Unhooking

Removing EDR hooks from loaded DLLs:

• Manual DLL loading
• Reflective DLL injection
• Process hollowing

Memory-Only Execution

Executing payloads entirely in memory without touching disk:

• Reflective DLL loading
• Shellcode injection
• In-memory PE loading

Detection and Response

Organizations can improve detection by:

• Monitoring for direct syscall patterns
• Analyzing API hooking behavior
• Implementing behavioral analysis
• Using threat intelligence feeds

Conclusion

Understanding EDR evasion techniques is crucial for both red teams and blue teams. This knowledge helps improve defensive capabilities.