Detecting Active Services

Created the Monday 11 March 2019. Updated 6 months, 2 weeks ago.

VMwareService.exe runs the VMware Tools Service as a child of services.exe. It can be identified by listing services.

Technique Identifier

Featured Windows API's

Below, you will find a list of the most commonly used Windows API's that are currently utilized by malware authors for current evasion technique. This list is meant to provide an overview of the API's that are commonly used for this purpose. If there are any API's that you feel should be included on this list, please do not hesitate to contact us. We will be happy to update the list and provide any additional information or documentation that may be helpful.

Code Snippets

Description

Two methods are demonstrated in this example (Windows Registry and Windows Service Manager API).

program AntiSandboxScanService;

{$APPTYPE CONSOLE}

{$R *.res}

uses
  System.SysUtils,
  WinAPI.Windows,
  WinAPI.WinSvc;


const ANTI_LIST : array[0..4-1] of String = (
      // VMWare
      'VGAuthService',
      'vmvss',
      'vm3dservice',
      'VMTools' 
      // ...
);

{
  Using Service Manager WinAPI + OpenService()

  * https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/winsvc/nf-winsvc-openscmanagerw
  * https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/winsvc/nf-winsvc-openservicew
}
function CheckService_WinSvc() : Boolean;
var AServiceManager : SC_HANDLE;
    I               : Cardinal;
begin
  result := False;
  ///

  AServiceManager := OpenSCManagerW(nil, nil, SC_MANAGER_ENUMERATE_SERVICE);
  if AServiceManager = 0 then
  raise Exception.Create(
      Format('Could not open service manager with error=[%s]', [GetLastError()])
  );
  try
    for I := 0 to Length(ANTI_LIST) -1 do begin
      if (OpenServiceW(AServiceManager, PWideChar(ANTI_LIST[I]), READ_CONTROL) <> 0) then begin
        WriteLn(Format('[*] "%s" service found.', [ANTI_LIST[I]]));

        ///
        result := true;
      end;
    end;
  finally
    CloseServiceHandle(AServiceManager);
  end;
end;

{
  Using Microsoft Windows Registry + RegOpenKeyExW

  * https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/winreg/nf-winreg-regopenkeyexw
}
function CheckService_Registry() : Boolean;
const HIVE : HKEY = HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE;
      PATH = 'SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\%s';
var AStatus : Longint;
    AKey    : HKEY;
    I       : Cardinal;
    APath   : String;
begin
  for I := 0 to Length(ANTI_LIST) -1 do begin
    APath := Format(PATH, [ANTI_LIST[i]]);
    if RegOpenKeyExW(HIVE, PWideChar(APath), 0, KEY_READ, AKey) <> ERROR_SUCCESS then
      continue;
    try
        WriteLn(Format('[*] "%s" service found.', [ANTI_LIST[I]]));

        ///
        result := true;
    finally
      RegCloseKey(AKey);
    end;
  end;
end;

procedure Header(ACaption : String);
begin
  WriteLn(StringOfChar('-', 50));
  WriteLn(ACaption);
  WriteLn(StringOfChar('-', 50));
end;

begin
  try
    Header('Check Service (WinSvc):');
    if not CheckService_WinSvc() then
      WriteLn('Nothing found so far...');

    WriteLn;

    Header('Check Service (Registry):');
    if not CheckService_Registry() then
      WriteLn('Nothing found so far...');

    readln;
  except
    on E: Exception do
      Writeln(E.ClassName, ': ', E.Message);
  end;
end.