Discord as a C2 and the cached evidence left behind

[carlospolop]

🤖 Automated Content Update

This PR was automatically generated by the HackTricks News Bot based on a technical blog post.

📝 Source Information

• Blog URL: https://www.pentestpartners.com/security-blog/discord-as-a-c2-and-the-cached-evidence-left-behind/
• Blog Title: Discord as a C2 and the cached evidence left behind
• Suggested Section: Generic Hacking -> Exfiltration (add a subsection: Using Webhooks (Discord/Slack/Teams) for C2 & Data Exfiltration, including PoC and forensic artifacts)

🎯 Content Summary

This post shows, end-to-end, how to weaponize Discord webhooks as a lightweight C2 for beaconing and data exfiltration, and how defenders can recover rich evidence from Discord’s Chromium Simple Cache on the compromised host. It ships a full PowerShell PoC and a purpose-built forensic suite (CLI and GUI) for parsing cache artifacts, carving files, and generating HTML/CSV timelines.

Why Discord webhooks work for C2
• Webhooks are write‑only HTTPS endpoints bound...

🔧 Technical Details

Using Discord webhooks as covert C2/exfil. Create a Discord webhook and POST JSON plus files via PowerShell (HttpClient + MultipartFormDataContent). Implement a loop to: beacon host/user, list key user folders, exfil a known path, dump recon (whoami, ipconfig), and hunt/exfil specific filenames (e.g., confidential.jpg), with a tunable sleep interval. Success is confirmed by HTTP statuses like NoContent/OK. This pattern generalizes to any environment that allows outbound HTTPS to discord.com.

Recovering evidence from Chromium Simple Cache. On Windows, inspect %AppData%\discord\Cache\Cache_Data and parse index, data_#, and f_###### to recover attachments, thumbnails, emojis, and webhook/API artifacts. Use modification timestamps to build a timeline and compute SHA‑256 to correlate with threat intel. Deletion...

🤖 Agent Actions

I analyzed the blog and repository, identified the right places to incorporate the new techniques, and implemented updates accordingly.

What I added and where:

1. New DFIR page for Discord cache forensics

• File created: src/generic-methodologies-and-resources/basic-forensic-methodology/specific-software-file-type-tricks/discord-cache-forensics.md
• Content:
  • How Discord Desktop (Electron/Chromium) uses Chromium Simple Cache
  • Cache locations for Windows/macOS/Linux
  • Artifacts: index, data_#, f_######, and what can be recovered (attachments, thumbnails, webhook URLs, API calls)
  • Manual triage tips (findstr/strings/grep for webhooks, API, attachments)
  • How to parse f_* entries (headers/body split and Content-Encoding handling)
  • Automated DFIR with the Discord Forensic Suite (CLI/GUI) with a practical CLI command and option explanations
  • Analyst tips for timeline reconstruction and hashing
  • References: blog, DFS repo, Discord Webhooks docs
  • Training banner includes

2. Exfiltration page update to cover Webhooks C2/exfil

• File modified: src/generic-hacking/exfiltration.md
• What I did:
  • Added a new top-level section: “Webhooks (Discord/Slack/Teams) for C2 & Data Exfiltration”
  • Included a practical PowerShell PoC using HttpClient + MultipartFormDataContent to:
    • Send beacon text (payload_json)
    • Exfil files (binary multipart upload)
    • Loop with folder listing and recon dump plus sleep cadence
  • Included notes on using other collaboration platforms (Slack/Teams) with similar patterns
  • Added a link to the new Discord cache forensics page via internal reference blocks
  • Appended a “References” section at the end with:
    • The original blog URL
    • Discord Webhooks docs
    • Discord Forensic Suite GitHub repo
  • Preserved existing content and training banner includes

3. Cross-link in Browser Artifacts page

• File modified: src/generic-methodologies-and-resources/basic-forensic-methodology/specific-software-file-type-tricks/browser-artifacts.md
• What I did:
  • In the Google Chrome section under “Cache”, added a note that Electron-based apps like Discord also use Chromium Simple Cache and included an internal reference to the new Discord cache forensics page.

Why these locations:

• Exfiltration technique belongs to generic-hacking/exfiltration.md, alongside HTTP/FTP/etc.
• Forensics artifacts fit best under basic-forensic-methodology/specific-software-file-type-tricks as a dedicated Discord cache page (Chromium Simple Cache specifics), then linked from Browser Artifacts for discoverability.

References added:

• Blog: https://www.pentestpartners.com/security-blog/discord-as-a-c2-and-the-cached-evidence-left-behind/
• Discord Forensic Suite: https://github.com/jwdfir/discord_cache_parser
• Discord webhooks docs: https://discord.com/developers/docs/resources/webhook#execute-webhook

No other overlapping content was found in the repository, so no redundant pages were created or modified. The changes were implemented directly in the repository using the tools provided.

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This PR was automatically created by the HackTricks Feed Bot. Please review the changes carefully before merging.

🗑️ File Cleanup

• searchindex.js removed: This auto-generated file has been removed to prevent conflicts.

[carlospolop]

🔗 Additional Context

Original Blog Post: https://www.pentestpartners.com/security-blog/discord-as-a-c2-and-the-cached-evidence-left-behind/

Content Categories: Based on the analysis, this content was categorized under "Generic Hacking -> Exfiltration (add a subsection: Using Webhooks (Discord/Slack/Teams) for C2 & Data Exfiltration, including PoC and forensic artifacts)".

Repository Maintenance:

• MD Files Formatting: 877 files processed

Review Notes:

• This content was automatically processed and may require human review for accuracy
• Check that the placement within the repository structure is appropriate
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Bot Version: HackTricks News Bot v1.0