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Introduction:
In the shadowy corners of corporate Microsoft 365 environments—buried in email attachments, forgotten SharePoint documents, and sprawling Teams conversations—secrets like API keys, credentials, and connection strings routinely leak, creating a massive, often overlooked attack surface. HadesHunter v1.1 emerges as a specialized offensive security tool designed to autonomously hunt for these secrets across Outlook, SharePoint, OneDrive, and Teams, turning an organization’s collaborative suite into a treasure map for penetration testers. This guide breaks down how to deploy and wield this tool to expose critical vulnerabilities before malicious actors do.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand the architecture and operation of HadesHunter for secret detection in Microsoft 365.
- Learn the step-by-step process to configure, authenticate, and execute targeted scans against Outlook, SharePoint, and Teams.
- Master operational security (OpSec) considerations and mitigation strategies for the vulnerabilities HadesHunter exploits.
You Should Know:
1. Tool Acquisition and Initial Setup
The first step is to acquire and prepare the HadesHunter tool in a controlled, ethical environment. The tool is hosted on a public GitHub repository, which requires careful verification to avoid supply chain attacks or tampered code.
Step‑by‑step guide:
- Environment Preparation: Set up a dedicated virtual machine (Kali Linux or Windows with PowerShell 7+ is recommended). Isolate the machine from production networks to prevent accidental scanning of unauthorized targets.
- Clone the Repository: Use Git to clone the tool’s source code from the official repository. This allows for code review and version control.
git clone https://github.com/anak0ndah/HadesHunter.git cd HadesHunter
- Dependency Installation: HadesHunter is a Python tool. Install the required libraries using the provided `requirements.txt` file to ensure all modules are compatible.
pip install -r requirements.txt
- Code Audit (Critical Step): Before proceeding, manually review the `config.py` and main script files. Look for hardcoded credentials, external callbacks, or obfuscated code that could compromise your testing machine. This is a non-negotiable step for any offensive security tool.
2. Microsoft 365 App Registration and Authentication
HadesHunter does not use stolen passwords; it operates using the legitimate OAuth 2.0 protocol, requiring an Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) application registration with specific API permissions. This mimics how legitimate third-party apps gain access.
Step‑by‑step guide:
- Azure Portal Access: Navigate to `portal.azure.com` and go to Azure Active Directory > App registrations > New registration.
- Create the App: Register a new application (e.g., “SecurityScanApp”). For testing, set the redirect URI to `http://localhost`.
- Configure API Permissions: This is the core of the tool’s access. Add the following delegated permissions under Microsoft Graph:
`Mail.Read` (for scanning Outlook)
`Files.Read.All` (for scanning OneDrive/ShareSharePoint)
`ChannelMessage.Read.All` (for scanning Teams channels)
`User.Read` (basic user profile)
- Generate Credentials: Navigate to Certificates & secrets and create a new client secret. Note down the Application (client) ID, Directory (tenant) ID, and the Client Secret value immediately.
- Admin Consent: A global administrator must grant consent to these permissions for the application in the tenant where testing is authorized.
3. Configuring HadesHunter for Targeted Scanning
With credentials obtained, you must securely configure HadesHunter to authenticate and define your search scope. The tool uses a configuration file to manage its operation.
Step‑by‑step guide:
- Edit the Configuration: Locate or create the `config.py` file within the HadesHunter directory. Input the credentials obtained from Azure.
Example config.py structure TENANT_ID = "your-tenant-id-here" CLIENT_ID = "your-client-id-here" CLIENT_SECRET = "your-client-secret-here" USER_EMAIL = "[email protected]" For delegated scanning of a specific account
- Define Scan Targets: The tool can be scoped. You can target a specific user’s mailbox and files by setting the
USER_EMAIL, or it will use the permissions granted at the tenant level. - Test Authentication: Run a preliminary authentication test using a simple Python script or the tool’s built-in check to verify the credentials and permissions work without triggering the main scan.
python hadeshunter.py --auth-test
4. Executing Scans and “Terminator Mode”
HadesHunter v1.1 introduces modular scanning and a powerful “Terminator Mode.” Understanding each module helps in conducting precise, stealthy operations.
Step‑by‑step guide:
- Modular Scans: Run targeted scans to reduce noise and focus on specific data repositories.
Outlook Scan: Searches the target’s email body and attachments.python hadeshunter.py --module outlook
SharePoint/OneDrive Scan: Crawls document libraries and personal drives for sensitive data in files.
python hadeshunter.py --module sharepoint
- Terminator Mode: This is the full-spectrum attack simulation. It sequentially scans Teams channels, the Outlook mailbox, and all accessible files in a combined operation, providing the most comprehensive view.
python hadeshunter.py --mode terminator
- Output Management: Results are displayed in the console with highlighted secrets and saved to a local timestamped JSON file. The tool’s new “context view” shows the full message or file name where the secret was found.
5. Operational Security (OpSec) and Logging Awareness
Using such a tool leaves traces in Azure AD sign-in logs and potentially Microsoft 365 audit logs. Professional red teams must manage their digital footprint.
Step‑by‑step guide:
- Log Review Simulation: Before your engagement, understand what logs you will generate. As an administrator, check the Azure AD > Sign-in logs and Microsoft 365 Compliance Center > Audit log. Filter by your application’s Client ID to see the access events.
- Limit Scan Rate: Implement throttling in your scans by adding delays between API calls in the tool’s code to avoid generating anomalous spike activity alerts.
- Clean-Up Post-Engagement: Use the tool’s new feature to delete scan history from its local database. Furthermore, as part of engagement closure, have the authorized administrator remove the Azure AD app registration and its permissions, erasing the primary trace of the tool’s existence from the tenant.
6. Defensive Mitigation and Hardening
The true value of an offensive tool is measured by the defenses it inspires. HadesHunter exposes critical gaps in data governance and monitoring.
Step‑by‑step guide for Defenders:
- Audit Application Permissions: Regularly review Azure AD for registered applications with high-privilege permissions (like `Files.Read.All` or
Mail.Read). Use PowerShell to list and audit them:Get-AzureADServicePrincipal | Where-Object { $_.AppRoles -ne $null } | Select-Object DisplayName, AppId - Implement Conditional Access: Create a Conditional Access policy requiring approved client apps and/or device compliance for applications accessing email, files, and Teams data. This can block authentication from unmanaged tools.
- Deploy Secret Scanning Proactively: Use Microsoft Purview Data Loss Prevention (DLP) or GitHub Advanced Security secret scanning patterns to proactively detect and quarantine credentials in emails and documents before they become a target for tools like HadesHunter.
7. Integration Future: AI and Automated Response
The evolution of such tools points toward a more automated offensive and defensive landscape, as hinted at by the LinkedIn comment regarding “Copilot AI/Gen.”
Step‑by‑step guide for Conceptual Integration:
- AI-Powered Secret Classification: The tool’s detection engine could be augmented with a local LLM (like a tuned GPT model) to better classify false positives, understand the context of a found secret (e.g., “this is a test database key”), and prioritize critical findings.
- Automated Response Playbook: Integrate HadesHunter’s output with a Security Orchestration, Automation, and Response (SOAR) platform. A sample playbook logic could be:
Trigger: HadesHunter finds a valid-looking AWS key in a SharePoint file.
Action 1: The SOAR platform validates the key against the AWS API.
Action 2: If valid, it automatically opens a high-severity ticket, assigns it to the file owner and the security team, and places a hold on the file in SharePoint.
Action 3: It triggers an automated workflow to rotate the compromised key. - Predictive Hunting: By analyzing the patterns of where secrets are found (e.g., “developers often leave keys in files named
config_backup.txt“), the tool could generate predictive hunting queries for Microsoft 365’s advanced hunting (KQL) to find similar files across the entire tenant.
What Undercode Say:
- The Perimeter is Now Internal: The most dangerous threats are fueled by legitimate access. HadesHunter demonstrates that with standard API permissions—the kind granted to countless “productivity” apps—an attacker can perform a devastating, silent sweep of an organization’s crown jewel data without triggering classic network intrusion alarms.
- Offense Informs Essential Defense: The tool’s precise methodology provides a blueprint for defenders. Monitoring for the registration of applications with combined
Mail.Read,Files.Read.All, and `Teams` permissions, and auditing the usage of such apps, is no longer optional. It is a critical detection point for a modern attack chain.
Analysis:
HadesHunter is not a revolutionary exploit but a potent evolution of a classic problem: secret sprawl. Its significance lies in its formalization and productization of a technique that advanced attackers already use manually. By packaging it into a tool, it lowers the barrier for entry, making this form of internal reconnaissance accessible to a broader range of threat actors. This forces a paradigm shift in blue team strategy. Defenders can no longer focus solely on keeping attackers out; they must operate on the assumption that an attacker can obtain a foothold with app-level credentials and build their detection and response plans around hunting for malicious use of legitimate access, rather than just the initial breach. The tool highlights a glaring gap in many organizations’ data loss prevention strategies, which often fail to effectively scan collaborative, real-time platforms like Teams and SharePoint with the same rigor applied to email.
Prediction:
Within the next 12-18 months, the technique demonstrated by HadesHunter will become a standardized module in broader adversarial simulation platforms and ransomware affiliate playbooks. We will see a rise in incidents where initial access via phishing is immediately followed by the automated deployment of such OAuth-based secret hunters, accelerating the time-to-exfiltration dramatically. In response, major cloud identity providers like Microsoft will likely introduce more granular, real-time risk scoring for application permission usage and integrate secret detection natively at the API level for Microsoft 365 data in transit. This will catalyze the development of a new market for “Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR)” tools specifically focused on detecting the malicious behavior of authenticated identities and applications, making tools like HadesHunter both a precursor to and a driver of the next essential layer of enterprise security.
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IT/Security Reporter URL:
Reported By: Kondah Jai – Hackers Feeds
Extra Hub: Undercode MoN
Basic Verification: Pass ✅
