This is a Debian 12 machine running a web site vulnerable to reflected-XSS and HTTP header injection. We steal an admin cookie exploiting these vulnerabilities that will permit us to get access to an administration dashboard. Here, a command injection vulnerability is exploited to get an user shell. Regarding escalation, we find a relative path vulnerability affecting a sudo binary.
> nmap $target -p- --min-rate=5000 -Pn --open --reason
Starting Nmap 7.93 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2024-03-23 15:13 EDT
Nmap scan report for 10.10.11.8
Host is up, received user-set (0.14s latency).
Not shown: 40603 closed tcp ports (conn-refused), 24930 filtered tcp ports (no-response)
Some closed ports may be reported as filtered due to --defeat-rst-ratelimit
PORT STATE SERVICE REASON
22/tcp open ssh syn-ack
5000/tcp open upnp syn-ack
Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 21.18 seconds
Enumerate the open ports.
> nmap $target -p22,5000 -sV -sC -Pn -vv -n
Starting Nmap 7.93 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2024-03-23 15:18 EDT
Nmap scan report for 10.10.11.8
Host is up, received user-set (0.11s latency).
Scanned at 2024-03-23 15:18:23 EDT for 90s
PORT STATE SERVICE REASON VERSION
22/tcp open ssh syn-ack OpenSSH 9.2p1 Debian 2+deb12u2 (protocol 2.0)
| ssh-hostkey:
| 256 900294283dab2274df0ea3b20f2bc617 (ECDSA)
| ecdsa-sha2-nistp256 AAAAE2VjZHNhLXNoYTItbmlzdHAyNTYAAAAIbmlzdHAyNTYAAABBBJXBmWeZYo1LR50JTs8iKyICHT76i7+fBPoeiKDXRhzjsfMWruwHrosHoSwRxiqUdaJYLwJgWOv+jFAB45nRQHw=
| 256 2eb90824021b609460b384a99e1a60ca (ED25519)
|_ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3NzaC1lZDI1NTE5AAAAICkBEMKoic0Bx5yLYG4DIT5G797lraNQsG5dtyZUl9nW
5000/tcp open upnp? syn-ack
| fingerprint-strings:
| GetRequest:
| HTTP/1.1 200 OK
| Server: Werkzeug/2.2.2 Python/3.11.2
| Date: Sat, 23 Mar 2024 19:18:56 GMT
| Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
| Content-Length: 2799
| Set-Cookie: is_admin=InVzZXIi.uAlmXlTvm8vyihjNaPDWnvB_Zfs; Path=/
| Connection: close
| <!DOCTYPE html>
| <html lang="en">
| <head>
| <meta charset="UTF-8">
| <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
| <title>Under Construction</title>
| <style>
| body {
| font-family: 'Arial', sans-serif;
| background-color: #f7f7f7;
| margin: 0;
| padding: 0;
| display: flex;
| justify-content: center;
| align-items: center;
| height: 100vh;
| .container {
| text-align: center;
| background-color: #fff;
| border-radius: 10px;
| box-shadow: 0px 0px 20px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.2);
| RTSPRequest:
| <!DOCTYPE HTML>
| <html lang="en">
| <head>
| <meta charset="utf-8">
| <title>Error response</title>
| </head>
| <body>
| <h1>Error response</h1>
| <p>Error code: 400</p>
| <p>Message: Bad request version ('RTSP/1.0').</p>
| <p>Error code explanation: 400 - Bad request syntax or unsupported method.</p>
| </body>
|_ </html>
1 service unrecognized despite returning data. If you know the service/version, please submit the following fingerprint at https://nmap.org/cgi-bin/submit.cgi?new-service :
SF-Port5000-TCP:V=7.93%I=7%D=3/23%Time=65FF2B06%P=x86_64-pc-linux-gnu%r(Ge
SF:tRequest,BE1,"HTTP/1\.1\x20200\x20OK\r\nServer:\x20Werkzeug/2\.2\.2\x20
SF:Python/3\.11\.2\r\nDate:\x20Sat,\x2023\x20Mar\x202024\x2019:18:56\x20GM
SF:T\r\nContent-Type:\x20text/html;\x20charset=utf-8\r\nContent-Length:\x2
SF:02799\r\nSet-Cookie:\x20is_admin=InVzZXIi\.uAlmXlTvm8vyihjNaPDWnvB_Zfs;
SF:\x20Path=/\r\nConnection:\x20close\r\n\r\n<!DOCTYPE\x20html>\n<html\x20
SF:lang=\"en\">\n<head>\n\x20\x20\x20\x20<meta\x20charset=\"UTF-8\">\n\x20
SF:\x20\x20\x20<meta\x20name=\"viewport\"\x20content=\"width=device-width,
SF:\x20initial-scale=1\.0\">\n\x20\x20\x20\x20<title>Under\x20Construction
SF:</title>\n\x20\x20\x20\x20<style>\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20body
SF:\x20{\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20font-family:\x20
SF:'Arial',\x20sans-serif;\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x
SF:20background-color:\x20#f7f7f7;\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x
SF:20\x20\x20margin:\x200;\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x
SF:20padding:\x200;\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20displ
SF:ay:\x20flex;\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20justify-c
SF:ontent:\x20center;\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20ali
SF:gn-items:\x20center;\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20h
SF:eight:\x20100vh;\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20}\n\n\x20\x20\x20\x20
SF:\x20\x20\x20\x20\.container\x20{\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\
SF:x20\x20\x20text-align:\x20center;\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20
SF:\x20\x20\x20background-color:\x20#fff;\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x2
SF:0\x20\x20\x20\x20border-radius:\x2010px;\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\
SF:x20\x20\x20\x20\x20box-shadow:\x200px\x200px\x2020px\x20rgba\(0,\x200,\
SF:x200,\x200\.2\);\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20")%r(RTSPRequest,16C,"<!DOCTYPE\x
SF:20HTML>\n<html\x20lang=\"en\">\n\x20\x20\x20\x20<head>\n\x20\x20\x20\x2
SF:0\x20\x20\x20\x20<meta\x20charset=\"utf-8\">\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\
SF:x20\x20<title>Error\x20response</title>\n\x20\x20\x20\x20</head>\n\x20\
SF:x20\x20\x20<body>\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20<h1>Error\x20respons
SF:e</h1>\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20<p>Error\x20code:\x20400</p>\n\
SF:x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20<p>Message:\x20Bad\x20request\x20version
SF:\x20\('RTSP/1\.0'\)\.</p>\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20<p>Error\x20
SF:code\x20explanation:\x20400\x20-\x20Bad\x20request\x20syntax\x20or\x20u
SF:nsupported\x20method\.</p>\n\x20\x20\x20\x20</body>\n</html>\n");
Service Info: OS: Linux; CPE: cpe:/o:linux:linux_kernel
Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 90.75 seconds
Browse the site with Firefox, in the /support URI we can inject a payload.
A hacking protection alert is triggered, the application replies with info taken from the user HTTP request headers. This means the application is a candidate for a reflected-XSS vulnerability when injecting a payload in any of the HTTP request headers.
Capture an HTTP request and send to Repeater, then inject a cookie-stealing payload in any on the reflected headers such as "User-Agent", "Accept", etc. In this case we will use the "Accept" header.
An is_admin cookie is received on a built-in PHP web server under our control.
Add the cookie to Firefox (or Burpsuite headers) and navigate to /dashboard, an administrator panel appears.
Turns out the dashboard is used to execute a system diagnostic command. This looks like a candidate for command injection. Capture a request and add a reverse shell in the date parameter.
A reverse shell for user dvir is received on port 1919.
Which can be used to retrieve the user flag.
ROOT
From the low-priv shell, take the opportunity to enumerate the system.
> sudo -l
Matching Defaults entries for dvir on headless:
env_reset, mail_badpass,
secure_path=/usr/local/sbin\:/usr/local/bin\:/usr/sbin\:/usr/bin\:/sbin\:/bin,
use_pty
User dvir may run the following commands on headless:
(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/syscheck
So we can run syscheck as root, no password will be prompted. Enumerate the binary.
> strings /usr/bin/syscheck
#!/bin/bash
if [ "$EUID" -ne 0 ]; then
exit 1
last_modified_time=$(/usr/bin/find /boot -name 'vmlinuz*' -exec stat -c %Y {} + | /usr/bin/sort -n | /usr/bin/tail -n 1)
formatted_time=$(/usr/bin/date -d "@$last_modified_time" +"%d/%m/%Y %H:%M")
/usr/bin/echo "Last Kernel Modification Time: $formatted_time"
disk_space=$(/usr/bin/df -h / | /usr/bin/awk 'NR==2 {print $4}')
/usr/bin/echo "Available disk space: $disk_space"
load_average=$(/usr/bin/uptime | /usr/bin/awk -F'load average:' '{print $2}')
/usr/bin/echo "System load average: $load_average"
if ! /usr/bin/pgrep -x "initdb.sh" &>/dev/null; then
/usr/bin/echo "Database service is not running. Starting it..."
./initdb.sh 2>/dev/null
else
/usr/bin/echo "Database service is running."
exit 0
There is a vulnerability in this code: in the execution of the ./initdb.sh script the path is not fully defined. This means we can create our own initdb.sh script in a directory with write permissions (for example, our home directory) then run sudo /usr/bin/syscheck from there. This will make the script to be run as root.
Create a script in the home directory /home/dvir/initdb.sh and add a reverse shell in the code.
> sudo /usr/bin/syscheck
Last Kernel Modification Time: 01/02/2024 10:05
Available disk space: 2.0G
System load average: 1.86, 1.23, 0.55
Database service is not running. Starting it...
