Some more thoughts on the infosec culture

Hey, time to dust off this old blog. I don't use it very often, except in cases like this one. The following post is expressing my own personal views and is not in any way connected to or representative of the views of my employer. Okay, that's out of the way. Let's chat.

A few months ago, Rob Fuller wrote a blog post entitled "Go Home InfoSec, you're drunk" . I was not aware of this blog post until last night. A friend of mine told me about the post at a party, and said that I should read it because it would make me "hate [him]".  I consider Rob a friend, and I have a great deal of respect for him both professionally and personally. So yes, I am biased in what i'm going to say. This morning, while recovering from a hangover, I read this post. I did not find myself getting mad at Rob at all. One of my first thoughts was actually how proud I am that I'm friends with him. My second thought was promptly "aww crap, I'm part of this problem."

I have been doing a lot of thinking about our InfoSec community lately. We use that term a lot, but don't often take full stock of what it means. Being a community means, among other things, looking out for each other. It means having dialogues where we discuss the issues we are facing together. I am somewhat disturbed by the trend of hostility towards people who try to open these dialogues. Whether you are talking about drinking, like Rob, or drugs, or sexism, or general bad behaviour. The people who try and stand up and say "I think we have a problem. We need to address this" often get attacked. If you haven't noticed, it go back through some of the discussions about the environment t InfoSec conferences.

A common theme that appeared in the response to Rob's blog post was "Every conference is like this, it's not just InfoSec". That is about the worst argument you can possibly make. It's not even an argument. That's the sort of thing you tell your children is stupid. "Yeah but Billy did it". How does that excuse, or in any way make your behaviour more acceptable? It doesn't. I don't care what Billy did, I care what you did. Well, I don't care what they do at other conferences, or in other Industries. We are talking about OUR conferences, OUR Industry, and OUR community. Because we are not just an Industry, we are a community with all that entails. Let's stop shifting the conversation.

Yes, these problems are much larger than our community, but this is where we can start changing them. We have a slice of society here that is all our own. We are shaping it right now. We have incredible power and control over it, and who cares what outsiders do.  There's still tons of sexism out there. There is still racism, and prejudice against sexual orientation, gender identities, religion, and every other stupid thing people can come up with to divide "them and us".  We seem almost biologically compelled to create these seperations. Fine. Let's do it. Let's define the boundary.  Are you ready:

Us: Hackers. Every kind of Hacker. I don't care what you do, if you think you're a hacker and you are passionate about it, and love it, and want to geek out with other hackers, then you are a hacker. You are one of "Us". Done.

Them: Everyone else.

There we have a dividing line now. I don't care what race, gender, orientation, religion, political view, or anything else you are. If you're a hacker, you're just like me. If you're not, I don't care what you've got going on right now for the purposes of this blog.

So, now that I have magically solved our inclusion problems, let's get back to the alcohol thing. Rob is not attacking people for drinking. He's not asking for everyone at cons to stop drinking. What he's asking is for people to stop and reevaluate the choices they are making. Try going to a con without drinking. How was your experience different? Were you still able to enjoy it? If the answer that question is no, then we have a big problem. Rob suggests conference organizers try and add features that help build inclusion for non-drinkers or people recovering from addiction to alcohol(or any other substance). Let's not have a cycle of co-enablement that sends us down spirals of self destructive behaviour. Rob never says "don't drink" and I don't advocate that either. However, If we are honest with ourselves, can't we admit that we go too far sometimes? Is it necessary for us to get so drunk that we feel awful and useless the next day. I ask you this as I recover from a hangover in Vegas. I am not sitting here preaching to anyone who reads this. I do not have some sort of moral high ground here. I am writing this from someone who is thinking "crap, I'm part of the problem".

I don't have the solutions to our problems, I'm not that guy. I o think though, that we need to open more dialogues. We are a community. We need to band together. Look at the past few years. Think of some of the people we have lost. Not just to substance abuse, but any other problems, such as depression. Think of the people we know and care about who are currently struggling with those issues. We are a community, and we are hurting right now. So, if you are reading this while in Vegas, here's my call to action:

Keep an eye on your fellow hacker, whoever they might be. If they need help, be there for them. If they are drinking too much, at the very least be there to make sure they stay safe. You don't have to stop them from drinking, just look out for them. If you see someone struggling with anxiety or depression, talk to them. Listen to them. You never know just how much of a difference that can make.

Keep an eye on yourself. Stop to think about how you are acting from time to time. Ask yourself, is this really the way I want things to be? Is this how I want people to think of me?

Include people no matter who they are. If you see someone looking lost and lonely at the conference, reach out. It can be very hard to be new in this community. Having someone take you under their wing and introduce you to people is the most amazing thing that can happen. It affects you personally, fills you with pride and self confidence. It improves your professional life, and can be a launching pad for you to do great things. Give that gift to someone every chance you can!

Be better than "them". I defined out Them and Us. Well here's a secret, I don't like alot of "Them". Let them rot for all I care. I care about us. So stop using any of "Them" as an example. Let them go do what they will do. We will prove we are better than they are. We will make our community a shining example of what can be. Let's make them all say "Why can't we be more like the hacker community?"

Well that's it. that is my long rant for now. You can argue with me, you can attack my points. You can attack me if you really want. Just please, don't dismiss it and ignore it. We need to open a dialogue. Thanks for reading.

- David "thelightcosine" Maloney

Women in Gaming/Tech

(Disclaimer: The views expressed here are entirely my own. They do not reflect the views of my employer, or anyone else. They are mine and mine alone)

Every day I am confronted with an overwhelming theme in the snippets of social dialogue of which I peruse. I am probably what Ryon Day would call a spiritual window-shopper (http://ninjaloungehouse.wordpress.com/2012/08/09/felicia-day-ruined-videogaming/#comment-84) in a lot of ways. I sit here comfortably watching the discourse flow by. Often I am just not mtoivated anymore to take part. Other times I am paralyzed by rage, unable to find a meaningful or impactful way to contribute. Our discourse as a society has become shattered and we now fight each other with vehemence and vitriol over the small peices of the puzzle. But, I digress.

Lately I keep hearing/reading about the plight of Women in Tech. Or women in the Games culture. The more I see this come up though, the more my reaction has started to turn to anger. That's right, I am angry at the people who say "women are treated badly in the tech field" or "women are treated badly in the gaming world".  To these people I say this now, being as frank and clear as I possibly can: "Women are treated badly EVERYWHERE". The problem is not with gaming or tech, or any other sub-culture. The problem is with our culture! Why limit this even to women, though? They hardly have a monopoly on this phenomenon? What about Homosexuals? Bisexuals? Transgenders? Transvestites? What about anyone who is not a White Hetero Male, essentially?  As a White Hetereo Male of the fairly standard European stock, I am amazed at what I see. I have had conversations with people who I respected and found to be very intelligent when a bombshell comes out of their mouth like "it's all part of the gay agenda" or some other suitable piece of toxic mind-poison.

When rabid pro-whatever people start causing a ruckus, we find the corners of our mouth tugging in distaste. We say to ourselves "why can't they just be a little more reasonable?" I am surely guilty of this, just as I am surely deserving of someone telling me to shut up for it. The fact is us White Hetero European Descent Males have held a majority of the power across the world for quite a long time now. Yet, no one cries more shrilly when they feel threatened. If you don't beleive me, just turn your attention to politics here in the US for five minutes. There's an entire sect of the Republican Party polarizing around their pride at being White Hetero Christian Males who want to make sure that people like homosexuals stay in their place(although I think some of them would like even more drastic measures).  When women come forward about being marginalized or worse yet, sexually assaulted, they are spewed on from a firehose of filth. On the internet we have come to expect a certain level of verbal sludge spewing forth in our direction whenever somebody says something we don't like. What these people face is a whole different level though. This level comes with threats of violence and sexual assault on a routine basis. Let me just reiterate: we as a culture seem to be okay with the fact that, if somebody doesn't like what you have to say they can threaten to rape and kill you. Maybe i'm overreacting, but that seems like a few steps down the path to essentially condoning crimes of murder and rape. There should be nothing funny or acceptable about this behaviour. If anyone reading this has engaged in this behaviour, let me just say this "You are the one who should be treated as subhuman. Not women, not gays, not transgenders. You! You are contemptible and despicable, and I feel sick to think we are even from the same species."

So, now I have rambled in an irate manner for a while. I'm going to wrap this up. Anytime you start to rationalize dehumanizing another person because they are different than you, you're on a dangerous path. We need to stop focusing on our myopic sub-cultures, and realised there is something fundamentally broken within our society.  As long as things like this: http://www.kansascity.com/2013/10/12/4549775/nightmare-in-maryville-teens-sexual.html can continue to happen, I will feel sick inside.

That's my two-cents.

Wake up Geeks: We Won

It has been a long time since I have posted on here. If I look back at the posts on this blog, I'll probably shake my head at old me. However, I needed a venue to talk about something, and this is the best one I have.

There has been a lot of discussion in the InfoSec community about sexism, and attitude towards women. This is something, that I think, we are all aware of. This discussion isn't just happening in the InfoSec community though. It is across the 'Geek' community writ large. There has been a backlash against the so called 'fake geek girls' or 'fake gamer girls'. This image http://imgur.com/KTVGeCL is the most recent example of this dialogue, and it made me smile a bit.

The "Fake geek Girl" thing has been going for a while now. One of the more notable examples is the attacks on Felicia Day. If Felicia's not a real geek, then I don't know who is, but let's not focus too much on specifics. There is obviously a fair bit of misogyny floating around out there, which fuels part of this. Some of it can be chalked up to immature people being unable to handle smart attractive females in their community. I think it goes deeper than that. While I did not grow up female, I am married and have four daughters, so forgive me the hubris of discussing a bit of growing up female.

Men , as we grow up we are expected to behave a certain way. There are consequences if we fall outside those norms. Mostly though it comes down to the simple forms of bullying we all remember. We might get picked on, or even get into fights. Girls often seem to have a different experience. The expectations on their behaviour and conformity are, for whatever reason, much stronger and more constricting. Girls are often ostracized for being geeky or nerdy. They are verbally and mentally abused on a much more profound level. As children, it seems like girls are much more social than boys. That is not to say that boys do not fall into groups, or that the group dynamic isn't important. However, the 'loner' persona is still some degree of acceptable for boys. A girl who is loner is just further ostracized by people around her. Why is she a loner? she must be weird. There must be something wrong with her. There is an awful downward spiral that seems to exist there. The point I am driving at, is that it is much harder for girls to be openly geeky growing up than boys. That's the way it seems to me anyways. Maybe I am wrong.

One final note before I move on. Even if you found one of these 'fake geek girls', so what? First of all, how does it possibly hurt you? Secondly, why do you think they are doing it? Does it not stand to reason that they must see some inherent value in the things you also value? Maybe they identify with the culture, but don't understand how to be a part of it yet. Maybe they feel trapped on the outside trying to get in. Why shun these people, when you could help them? If they need a hand 'really' getting into the culture. Help them. Show them things they might like, talk to them about stuff. I've got news for you: there is no grand conspiracy of attractive women trying to infiltrate ComicCons in order to destroy them forever. We can only win when we convert new people.

Let's talk about this concept of feeling trapped on the outside a bit more. I think this gets more to the heart of the matter. time to leave gender at the door. I've had a long running theory that we hackers have a common thing binding us in some way. Look around the hacker/infosec community. We are a diverse lot. The same goes for gamers, comic fans, otaku, or even punk rock. I asked myself what explains why such vastly different people all ended up with the same love. My theory is this: a feeling of being powerless.

I believe that most, if not all, hackers have had a period in their life where they feel powerless. That is a horrible feeling, and it can do horrible things to you. Getting into hacking gives you a world where you can feel powerful. It is a world where your drive and your intellect determine just how powerful you really are. I think this same theory extends to a lot of the other 'geek' areas. Gaming ( D&D, board games, video games, doesn't matter), comics, sci-fi and fantasy novels, even Punk Rock. Hell Punk Rock is an easy one. The entire Punk attitude is about feeling stepped on and powerless and trying to take back some of that power by raising your voice.

When we were growing up, we felt that powerlessness, and we looked for avenues to not feel that way anymore. We clung to these things. Maybe liking some of these things is what set us apart in the first place, but that just reinforced how much we needed that part of ourselves. Fellow children of the 80s, I think, will feels this especially.

Fast forward to the modern-day though. Punk Rock music is pretty mainstream, and has influenced the newer genres of music. People in their 30s and 40s go around listening to the Misfits, or the Ramones, or the Dead Kennedys etc. ComicCons are everywhere and have massive attendances. DefCon had ~15,000 people in attendance this year. There are more Hacker/InfoSec conferences around the world than I can count anymore. The Lord of the Rings movies were some of the highest grossing movies ever. Some other box office favorites include practically every comic book movie made in the past 15 years. Video Game sales are off the charts and millions of people play things like Magic the Gathering every day. Rel1k is going on news programs to be interviewed as an expert, instead of 'scary hacker guy'.

Wake up Geeks, we won!

The things we like are everywhere. They are doing better than ever. Our sub-cultures are flourishing. New people want in. They like what they see. In other words: we now have the power.

So what are we doing with that power? Well, some of us are doing the same exact things that we hated when we were young and powerless. We are becoming elitist, and exclusionary. We are using our power to feel big, and make other people feel small. In the end, that behaviour makes us small though. Some of us are squandering our power and influence when we could be doing so much with it.

I say some of us, because there are plenty of people who aren't doing this. Wil Wheaton often says something I really like. I don't have a direct quote handy, but it goes something like "Being a Geek isn't about what you love, it's about how you love it". He goes on to talk about bonding with people who love other cool things the way you do.

I mentioned Punk Rock earlier, because i think it fits in with this same model. There are two great articles written by Greg Graffin, the lead signed of Bad Religion. I cannot find the originals anymore, but copies can be found at  http://punkhistory0.tripod.com/punk/id2.html and http://www.spunk.org/texts/music/sp001774.html . The second one is especially important to me, and really relevant to this discussion.  He talks about how Punk was supposed to be about having an inclusive community of people who were different from the norm. It quickly turned into just another group to exclude people from. It just changed who got to do the excluding.

You can choose to disagree, or even disregard me. Take a look around though. Whether you are a Punk, a Hacker, a Comic Geek, Gamer, Otaku, or whatever.  You have power now. Your culture has value, and influence, and so do you. Use it to change things. Don't repeat the same crap that probably made your childhood hard or unbearable. Let's make life for the next generation better than it was for us. If you see someone struggling to fit in to your community: help them! Show them around, introduce them to people. Introduce them to things you like, find out what they like. Chances are, both of you will grow from it.

Security-Bsides Austin Texas

I am proud to say that my talk has been selected for B-Sides Austin TX this year.  Check out the Abstract below if you're interested.

Name: David Maloney, @thelightcosineTitle: Don't Pick the lock, steal the key
Length: 45 minutes
Abstract: You've got a problem. You're running a pentest and the only vulnerable box is some shmuck's desktop. Is it game over? wait, what is this WinSCP application on his machine? don't give up just yet. The wonderful world of fail that is password storage is about to save your butt. In this talk we will break down how Windows applications store their password. Where they store them, how they encrypt or obfuscate them, and how we can attack them. Then we will follow up with some real world examples from the Metasploit Framework, and show how you can turn one workstation into total network compromise in a very short ammount of time.

Some facts on the First State Superannuation Issue

Some blogger, has recently written a somewhat uninformed post on the whole Patrick Webster FSS issue. The author seems to be under some misapprehension about how these sorts of things work. Which is cocnerning for someone who claim to be a Web Application Security person, and is taking the pulpit to preach on the issue. Then again, why should we expect anything less from the Internet right?

In his post the author states: " It should go without saying that at this point that he could, just by the actions he had taken up to this point, be in violation of any number of data privacy laws."

Really, goes without saying? Actually it doesn't. Let's take a look. The first statue they claim he is in violation state the following:

308H   Unauthorised access to or modification of restricted data held in computer (summary offence)

(1)  A person:
(a)  who causes any unauthorised access to or modification of restricted data held in a computer, and
(b)  who knows that the access or modification is unauthorised, and
(c)  who intends to cause that access or modification,
      is guilty of an offence.
Maximum penalty: Imprisonment for 2 years.

(2)  An offence against this section is a summary offence.
(3)  In this section:
restricted data means data held in a computer, being data to which access is restricted by an access control system associated with a function of the computer.


Let's look at the other statute that is referenced:

478.1  Unauthorised access to, or modification of, restricted data
             (1)  A person is guilty of an offence if:
                     (a)  the person causes any unauthorised access to, or modification of, restricted data; and
                     (b)  the person intends to cause the access or modification; and
                     (c)  the person knows that the access or modification is unauthorised; and
                     (d)  one or more of the following applies:
                              (i)  the restricted data is held in a Commonwealth computer;
                             (ii)  the restricted data is held on behalf of the Commonwealth;
                            (iii)  the access to, or modification of, the restricted data is caused by means of a carriage service.
Penalty:  2 years imprisonment.
             (2)  Absolute liability applies to paragraph (1)(d).
             (3)  In this section:
restricted data means data:
                     (a)  held in a computer; and
                     (b)  to which access is restricted by an access control system associated with a function of the computer.



Look closely at (3) in both statues. This can only apply if an access control was circumvented. Insecure Direct Object Reference is not bypassing an Access control. It is a complete lack of an Access Control. I may not be a lawyer, but I suspect that this charge would have a VERY hard time standing up in court.

It really is not hard to look up these statues online. I would suggest that people actually read up on the subject matter.  all and all, I would be surprised if this whole matter doesn't blow over. The worst that I suspect will happen is that they make Webster sign that agreement on page 2 of their letter or refuse him any further online access. They could, theoretically, even drop him as a customer I suppose. I doubt any serious legal action will occur, but I could be wrong.

Mr Webster,  I am behind you, and i am sure many others are too. Good luck.

When even Responsible Disclosure Fails

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this blog are my own, and do not reflect the views of anyone but myself.

In the latest incident, Patrick Webster of OSI Security, is under threat of legal action. This threat comes after he disclosed a vulnerability to First State Superannuation . The vulnerability was a case of direct Object Reference. By manipulating a GET parameter , Webster was able to access the statements of other customers. The legal threat is based around the idea that Webster violated Australian computer crime laws, and bypassed a security measure. Direct Object reference is not bypassing an access control. It is, by its very nature, the lack of an access control. Webster did not go public with this information, but rather went directly to the company to notify them of the flaw. On one hand, the company thanked him for his help. On the other hand they sicked the police after him and are trying to hold him responsible for the cost of fixing the flaw. Customers of First State Superannuation should be outraged at this. The company, which is responsible for protecting their customers' information has failed to do so. When one of these customers showed this failing, they held him responsible for it. The fact is, FSS has been negligent in providing proper security for their customers. They should be held accountable for this failing. Let's make a hypothetical analogy:

A customer walks into his bank, and asks to access his safety deposit box. They ask him his box number, and he tells them the wrong box number by accident. They bring him another person's box without verifying his identity. When he explains the mistake to them, they call the police and have him arrested.

If you read about this scenario in the newspaper you would be outraged. Why should it be any different in this case?

What is even more deeply disturbing, is the fact that this is far from an isolated incident. In the past year, there have been at least 2 other cases just like this. Earlier this year, a security researched by the handle of Acidgen disclosed a buffer overflow vulnerability to German Software company Magix. Acidgen contacted the company with the information, and had supposedly amiable communication with them. During the course of his conversation, he supplied them with a Proof of Concept that opened up calculator when run. He asked the company to let him know when it would be patched so he could release the details after it had been fixed. This is when Magix began threatening legal action against Acidgen. Among their claims, are the claims that sending the PoC to them constituted distribution of 'hacking tools'. They also claim his intent to release the details after a patch constitutes extortion.

Another example is the PlentyofFish.com dating site hack. Security researchers discovered a vulnerability in the site that allowed access to customers' private data. The researchers claim that they simply informed the operators of the site of the vulnerability. In a bizarre twist, the owner of the site posted a bizarre rambling blog post where he claimed that the researchers attempted to extort him. His story was bizarre in the extreme indicating Russian Mob involvement, extortion, and even originally implicated journalist Brian Krebs in this scheme.

What I see here is a very alarming trend. Companies are trying to redirect all blame for their own failings to the very people who are trying to help make them more secure. If this trend continues, researchers will simply stop practicing responsible disclosure to most of these companies. In some cases the disclosure will go back to Full Disclosure practices. Otherwise, some researchers will just keep silent.

So what would First State Superannuation say if Webster had kept silent. Then a month later someone far less scrupulous exploited this vulnerability to attempt to make a profit. FSS should be thanking Webster for saving them all the embarrassment and possible repercussions of their irresponsible 'security' practices. These companies need to wake up and work with the community to help protect themselves, or things are only going to get worse.

DerbyCon Retrospective

Rel1k recently posted his thoughts on how DerbyCon, and I thought I would share my own. I have not exactly made a secret of how I felt about DerbyCon. The speaker lineup was simply amazing. There were very few spots where I didn't have a talk I wanted to see. I unfortunately had to make some hard decisions between talks that were going at the same time.

When I go to conferences, I often find myself wandering aimlessly for periods. I'm not interested in the talks that are on at that time, and I don't really have anyone to talk to. So I wander about until I find someone I know. Every time I started to wander at Derbycon, I would run into someone who wanted to talk about something. I had no real "down time" the entire conference.

I spent time hanging out with, or at least talking to, people who have been something of heroes to me. I have followed some of these people for years, and getting to talk to them was great. What was even more amazing was that many of them knew who I was! Shaking hands with Chris Gates for the first time was surreal for me. I have followed Chris since I started in security. I tracked dookie2000ca down and finally got him to sign my copy of  Metasploit: A Penetration Tester's Guide.I got to spend time hanging out with jduck, corlanc0der, and sinn3r.  Everywhere I went, I felt not jsut like an equal, but like we were all friends. The most telling thing about the Information Security community is that we call it the Community, not the Industry. DerbyCon embodied this spirit. The entire weekend felt more like a family reunion than a conference, and I was sad to leave.

I was privileged to get to take the CoreLan Exploit Dev bootcamp. This training class was intense. We went from 1600-0200 both days, and didn't make it through everything. Peter Van Eeckhoutte (corelanc0d3r), took a class of 30 people from different backgrounds and walked them through windows exploitation. Some people in the class had absolutely no experience in exploitation. Despite this, Peter kept the entire class moving along, and as far as I could tell, nobody was lost. It was a shame that I had to miss parts of the conference for this training, but I would make the same choice again.

Brandon Perry and I wandered into the CTF room out of curiosity at one point. I had no plans to enter the cTF, so I hadn't really brought any tools with me. We decided to start playing around, not to seriously compete, but to have fun. We shared things we found with each other, and were just having a good time. Before we knew it, we were on top of the leaderboard. The organizers came and asked us to either be scored as a team, or to stop working together. I closed my account out and we kept working together under Brandon's. I was tied up with training for most of the conference, so Brandon spent a lot more time on the CTF than I did. In the end, we ended up in 5th place. I think if we had gone in prepared from the start, and I had the time to focus on it, we could have won. See Brandon's writeup on the CTF efforts here.

A few weeks before Derbycon, I started trying to put together a #metasploit meetup. I wanted to get everyone from the metasploit IRC channel together to hang out for a bit, have some drinks and just have fun. Mubix came up with the idea of throwing a birthday party for ms08-067, so the two ideas merged naturally. Mubix got it all organized and pulled off a great event. There was a big cake  and we all sang happy birthday. Then HD started handing out Redbull and Vodkas to EVERYONE at the party!

So I have ranted for long enough, I guess. The summary is this: Derbycon was probably one of the best experiences I have had. I felt at home the entire time I was there. The entire weekend made me more certain than ever that I am where I belong doing what I am meant to do. I can't possibly thank everybody enough, but thank you conference organizers, Rel1k, HD, Jduck, Corelanc0der, sinn3r, nullthreat, lincoln, bperry, Red, and everyone else I hung out with this weekend.

Update to the Metasploit Exploit Port Wishlist

Here is the latest update to the document I have been creating. This is a list of exploits that are in exploit-db but not in Metasploit. This list is generated by referencing the Knowledge Base in QualysGuard. Its accuracy is not guaranteed, but it should serve as a good starting point for anyone interested in porting exploits to Metasploit.

Metasploit: Dumping Microsoft SQL Server Hashes

New module just committed today: auxiliary/scanner/mssql/mssql_hashdump

This modules takes given credentials and a port and attempts to log into one or more MSSQL Servers. Once it has logged in it will check to make sure it has sysadmin permissions. Assuming it has the needed permissions it will then grab all of the Database Username and Hashes. While it is in there, it will also grab all the Database and Table names. It reports all of this back into the Database for later cracking. Support will be added in the future to the John the Ripper functions to include support for these database hashes. When it does, the database, table names, and instance names will also be sued to seed the JtR wordlists to enhance cracking efforts.



msf  auxiliary(mssql_hashdump) > info

       Name: MSSQL Password Hashdump
     Module: auxiliary/scanner/mssql/mssql_hashdump
    Version: 13435
    License: Metasploit Framework License (BSD)
       Rank: Normal

Provided by:
  TheLightCosine

Basic options:
  Name                 Current Setting          Required  Description
  ----                 ---------------          --------  -----------
  PASSWORD             reallybadpassword        no        The password for the specified username
  RHOSTS               192.168.1.1,192.168.1.2  yes       The target address range or CIDR identifier
  RPORT                1433                     yes       The target port
  THREADS              1                        yes       The number of concurrent threads
  USERNAME             sa                       no        The username to authenticate as
  USE_WINDOWS_AUTHENT  false                    yes       Use windows authentification

Description:
  This module extracts the usernames and encrypted password hashes
  from a MSSQL server and stores them for later cracking. This module
  also saves information about the server version and table names,
  which can be used to seed the wordlist.

msf  auxiliary(mssql_hashdump) >

Metasploit Development Environment In Ubuntu

I have spent some time today getting a new Metasploit Development Environment in place. With a lot of help from DarkOperator and egyp7 I think I have succeeded.

Step 1: Installing some Pre-Reqs

sudo aptitude install build-essential libssl-dev zlib1g zlib1g-dev subversion openssh-server screen bison flex jam exuberant-ctags libreadline-dev libxml2-dev libxslt-dev libpcap-dev libmysqlclient-dev libpq-dev curl git libsqlite3-dev
Step 2 Installing RVM

sudo bash < <(curl -s https://rvm.beginrescueend.com/install/rvm)
Edit your .bashrc file for each user that will be using RVM:
And add the following lines to the end of it:
# Load RVM source if [[ -s "/usr/local/rvm/scripts/rvm" ]] ; then source "/usr/local/rvm/scripts/rvm" ; fi # Enable Tab Completion in RVM [[ -r /usr/local/rvm//scripts/completion ]] && source /usr/local/rvm/scripts/completion

Then from bash run: source /usr/local/rvm/scripts/rvm


Next we install some necessary packages for rvm:

rvm pkg install zlib
rvm pkg install openssl
rvm pkg install readline

Then we install the ruby versions we want


rvm install 1.9.2 --with-zlib-dir=$rvm_path/usr --with-openssl-dir=$rvm_path/usr --with-readline-path=$rvm_path/usr 


rvm 1.9.2 --default

rvm install 1.9.1 --with-zlib-dir=$rvm_path/usr --with-openssl-dir=$rvm_path/usr --with-readline-path=$rvm_path/usr

rvm install 1.8.7 --with-zlib-dir=$rvm_path/usr --with-openssl-dir=$rvm_path/usr --with-readline-path=$rvm_path/usr

Then we install some needed Gems:


rvm gem install --no-rdoc --no-ri wirble pry pg nokogiri mysql sdoc msgpack hpricot sqlite3-ruby

Step 3: Adding DarkOperator's IRB customizations:

Create a file ~/.irbrc

The file should look like this:

puts "Loaded ~/.irbrc"
# Load Lobraries
require 'rubygems'
require 'wirble'
require 'irb/completion' 
# Enable Indentation in irb
IRB.conf[:AUTO_INDENT] = true 
# Enable Syntax Coloring 
Wirble.init
Wirble.colorize 
# get all the methods for an object that aren't basic methods from Object
class Object
def local_methods
(methods - Object.instance_methods).sort
end
end 

This customizes irb to give us syntax highlighting, tab completion, auto-indentation, and simple method enumeration.

Step 4: Installing Metasploit:

Metasploit install documentation

Step 5: Running Metasploit:

If you want to run msfconsole with the packaged Ruby, just run 'msfconsole' from bash.

Otherwise select your version like this: rvm 1.8.7

Then call msfconsole with the full path: /opt/metasploit/msf3/msfconsole

That's all there is to it. You are now ready to test your metasploit modules in various different versions of ruby all from the same box.

Once again, thanks to egypt and DarkOperator who provided a lot of this guidance to me.

Book Review: Metasploit a Penetration Tester's Guide

Earlier this month I picked up Metasploit: A Penetration Tester's Guide. I have, on multiple occasions, had the distinct pleasure to talk with two of the authours, Devon Kearns and Dave Kennedy. These two are shining examples of everything that is right with our industry. They are constantly giving back to the community at large and on an individual basis. They help others and share their knowledge and experience freely without any judgement. This book is just an extension of that behaviour. So enough about them, let's talk about the book.

The book seeks to give a complete overview of the Metasploit framework. This is a herculean task. They no doubt had to make hard decisions about what topics to cover as the most important. All things considered, I think they did an amazing job covering the most important facets. They start off with the basics of the framework: how it's laid out, auxiliary modules, scanners, exploits, getting shell, and what to do once you get a meterpreter session. Then we get to see some of the more advanced aspects, including writing custom fuzzers, developing exploits form scratch, and porting existing exploits into the framework. The book finishes up with a small example penetration test from start to finish. The only topic that they really seemed to skip was the Metasploit WMAP web scanning functionality. Although some Web Application topics were covered through the use of FastTrack.

The way the authours cover the subject matter is excellent. They show you each step, and call your attention to the most improtant parts along the way. It's as close as you can get to demonstration in a book, and it works very well in my opinion. They truly highlight what makes Metasploit great: it's flexibility. they show you how to modify existing modules or write your own. They show how you can use Metasploit in the actual exploit development process as well. Allowing you to birth new exploits completely in the Framework.

I have been using Metasploit since version 2, and I learned new things from this book. Whether it was small things like the SETG command, to some of the more advanced features I have never used before like msfpescan. Whether you are just starting to learn about Penetration Testing or you have been doing it from years, this book is a must read. Unless you are H.D. Moore you will be hard pressed not to get value from this book.

UPDATE: On a note of fairness, Metasploit Unleashed does cover WMAP functionality, even if it did not make it into the book.

Metasploit: Windows User Profile Data

The Metasploit team as added one of my latest submissions. It is a Mixin for Post modules that allows you to enumerate the user profile information on a windows machine. A lot of the psot modules that I and others have written relied on static values for determining paths for things like the AppData folder. While this worked, it was hardcoded for the English language and didn't account for other possible changes to the system.

The new Msf::Post::Windows::UserProfiles mixin seeks to address this issue by using the registry. Two new Registry functions were added into every layer of Meterpreter: RegLoadKey() and RegUnloadKey(). These two functions, incidentally, should also work from a windows shell session.

The first step is to look in the Registry under HKLM/Software/Microsoft/WindowsNT/CurrentVersion/ProfileList
There are a series of subkeys here for the different SIDs that exist on the machine. When we look at each SID's subkey we will see a value called ProfileImagePath which is the user's root profile directory.

The first function in the mixin is read_profile_list(). This parses this key and all of it's subkeys. While it's doing that it reads through HKU to see which of these hives are already loaded and marks them appropriately.


This lets us know what users we should expect to see on the system, and where we can find their NTUSER.DAT file. If we look at the HKU key in our example, we see only the Administrator hive is currently loaded.

So, next the load_missing_hives() function takes all of the hives not currently loaded, and the paths to their registry hives, and loads each one that it can. Below we see the additional Hives loaded into HKU.

We then call parse_profiles(), which takes each hive and calls parse_profile() on it. This pulls the locations of directories like AppData, My Documents, Local Settingsd etc, and assembles it all. We can see the reg key under the user (HKU//Software/Microsoft/WindowsNT/CurrentVersion/Explorer/ShellFolders)

When we are done parsing this data, we may be done with the registry hives themselves, assuming we were only after filesystem data. Since we are done with the hives, we will want to unload them again to minimize our impact on the system. To do that we call unload_our_hives() This function unloads only the hives that we specifically loaded.

All of these functions are exposed in the mixin, meaning that module writers can use as much or as little of it as they want. However, if the module writer just wants to grab the profile directory data, they can just call grab_user_profiles() . This function will walk through the entire process for them, returning an array of hashes containing all of this data. Below we see an example/test module to demonstrate the UserProfile functionality.

-------------------------------------------

require 'msf/core'
require 'rex'
require 'msf/core/post/windows/user_profiles'


class Metasploit3 < Msf::Post
include Msf::Post::Windows::Registry
include Msf::Post::Windows::UserProfiles

def initialize(info={})
super( update_info( info,
'Name'          => 'Windows Load Reg Hive Test',
'Description'   => %q{ This module exists simply to test
the user profile enuemration mixin},
'License'       => MSF_LICENSE,
'Author'        => [ 'TheLightCosine '],
'Platform'      => [ 'windows' ],
'SessionTypes'  => [ 'meterpreter' ]
))

end

def run

grab_user_profiles().each do |user|
print_status("***Username: #{user['UserName']} SID: #{user['SID']}***")
print_status("Profile dir: #{user['ProfileDir']} LocalSettings dir: #{user['LocalSettings']}")
print_status("AppData: #{user['AppData']} LocalAppData: #{user['LocalAppData']}")
print_status("History: #{user['History']} Cookies: #{user['Cookies']} Favorites:  #{user['Favorites']} ")
print_status("MyDocs: #{user['MyDocs']} Desktop: #{user['Desktop']}")
end


end

end

-------------------------------

Here is what the output of running this test module would look like:

-------------------------------------------------------

meterpreter > run post/windows/gather/hive_test

[*] ***Username: Testuser1 SID: S-1-5-21-1462624396-1657036728-2537704546-1009***
[*] Profile dir: C:\Documents and Settings\Testuser1 LocalSettings dir: C:\Documents and Settings\Testuser1\Local Settings
[*] AppData: C:\Documents and Settings\Testuser1\Application Data LocalAppData: C:\Documents and Settings\Testuser1\Local Settings\Application Data
[*] History: C:\Documents and Settings\Testuser1\Local Settings\History Cookies: C:\Documents and Settings\Testuser1\Cookies Favorites:  C:\Documents and Settings\Testuser1\Favorites
[*] MyDocs: C:\Documents and Settings\Testuser1\My Documents Desktop: C:\Documents and Settings\Testuser1\Desktop
[*] ***Username: Testuser2 SID: S-1-5-21-1462624396-1657036728-2537704546-1010***
[*] Profile dir: C:\Documents and Settings\Testuser2 LocalSettings dir: C:\Documents and Settings\Testuser2\Local Settings
[*] AppData: C:\Documents and Settings\Testuser2\Application Data LocalAppData: C:\Documents and Settings\Testuser2\Local Settings\Application Data
[*] History: C:\Documents and Settings\Testuser2\Local Settings\History Cookies: C:\Documents and Settings\Testuser2\Cookies Favorites:  C:\Documents and Settings\Testuser2\Favorites
[*] MyDocs: C:\Documents and Settings\Testuser2\My Documents Desktop: C:\Documents and Settings\Testuser2\Desktop
[*] ***Username: Administrator SID: S-1-5-21-1462624396-1657036728-2537704546-500***
[*] Profile dir: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator LocalSettings dir: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings
[*] AppData: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Application Data LocalAppData: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\Application Data
[*] History: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Local Settings\History Cookies: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Cookies Favorites:  C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Favorites
[*] MyDocs: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\My Documents Desktop: C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop

-------------------------------------------------

My latest password extraction module for the SmartFTP client uses this new functionality. I have submitted a patch, that is still pending to implement this functionality across numerous other post modules. Using it to discover profile directories, and in some cases more thoroughly search the registry by loading missing userhives and then unloading them again when done. 

All told this should help make these modules able to function more completely on non-English language pack machines, as well as be more thorough in their searching for critical data in the system.

Take away the Tools

Indi303 recently had a post on twitter

Dear pentester: Throw away metasploit.... are u still a hacker? If you make excuses about why u are,but need it.. you aren't

It seems like a lot of people did not understand what he was saying, which rather proves the point I think.  He is not saying that Pen Tester should not use Metasploit, or that tools are bad. What he is saying here is that knowing how to use tools does not make you a good pentester. It makes you a script kiddie. We have been interviewing candidates for two new PenTest positions at my work, and I can tell you I feel this keenly.

During our in-person panel interview we ask a long series of questions designed to gauge depth. We ask a number of basic questions. These first sets of questions we are jsut looking for typical responses. These questions can range from simple things like: "how does traceroute actually work" or "What is ring0" to more complex questions like "How do you exploit Blind SQL Injection on Oracle" or "Name two places besides the saved return pointer that you could overwrite to control program execution". The results we have seen on these questions alone are somewhat disappointing and very mixed.

Then we get to where the wheels always seem to come off. This is where we ask the candidates to actually demonstrate the things they have claimed knowledge of. We ask things like "Write out an HTTP GET request on the whiteboard". Some of you are probably saying to yourselves "That is simple". I would agree, and yet no candidate has done it correctly yet. We draw out a URL with GET parameters and ask them "Rewrite this request with a blind SQL injection attack".

The fact is that when asked to demonstrate these skills and knowledge disciplines outside the context of any sort of tool or crutch. One of my colleagues across the wall, in Incident Response land, has suggested that I am being too harsh. That people who can only use tools still have some value. He is right, as far as it goes. what happens though, when you have secured the environment past the point where you can just run metasploit modules and pop boxes. When you need to find design flaws, or 0days to exploit systems. A click-monkey is of no real value there, except maybe fetching coffee.


none of this means you should throw your tools away. Metasploit is a valuable tool and a framework for pentesting.  Those of you who know me, of course know, that when i find something Metasploit doesn't do that I want it to, i try and add it.  So while I can operate without Metasploit, and have to often, i try and continually reduce those occurrence by submitting enhancements to Metasploit. In this way I am also giving back to the community. Something i would encourage EVERY pentester to do: If you see something Metasploit should do, but doesn't, write it and submit it!

Or at least open up a feature request on their Redmine interface.

Information Security: Why we Fail

The very first word seems to be our downfall. Information. If we don't have all of it, we have already failed. So suppose you are in a sizable organisation. Suppose that this organisation has grown inorganically over the years.  You have a problem, and that problem is that there is no single authoritative source of information about your environment.

Now as a Security Engineer or Penetration Test how can you protect that environment from compromise? The answer: you can't.  At least not until you rectify this problem first. The simple fact that is often overlooked is this: it takes only 1 machine being compromised for the situation to spin out of control.  If your knowledge of your environment is incomplete and there are systems your security team is not covering because they don't know it exists, you have failed. It is a matter of when, not if, you suffer a serious breach.  you can secure all of those other hosts on the perimeter, and it will amount to nothing. The host with SQLi in that subnet you never knew about will let the attackers in. Then they are on a trusted machine somewhere in your environment, and their possible avenues of attack are countless.  Hgiher ups within the organisation will demand answers "Why didn't we catch this problem before? Why are we paying you people".

So here's the point of my rant: If you are an org that is attempting a major Information Security initiative, make sure you equip your security people with the Information they need. If it isn't available, then you need to apply some breaks and fix that problem before anything else.

1.  Identify all of the systems in your environment and where they are. Chances are you're going to find systems that should have been decommed years ago. There is an instant monetary savings for you when you shut them off, as well as a positive step for Security.  
2. Document all of these systems. What they are, who owns them, etc. Keep this documentation up to date going forward
3. Identify roles and responsibilities of those systems, and segregate portions of your network appropriately. Implement proper access controls between these segregated environments. If you worry about PCI compliance, this is a MUST.
4. Now set your Security people to work. Deploy Vulnerability Scanning solutions, arrange Penetration Test Engagements, implement an SDLC, etc.

If you try to skip these first three steps, you will fail. I guarantee it.

Stealing CoreFTP Passwords with Metasploit

Well folks, I'm at it again. The next client to fall is the CoreFTP client. CoreFTP stores it's saved password in the Windows Registry.

They Can be found under HKEY_USERS\\Software\FTPWare\CoreFTP\Sites, with numbered keys for each saved site. The passwords are stored as ascii representations of their hex values(like most of the others we have seen). The ciphertext is encrypted using AES-128-ECB with a static key of "hdfzpysvpzimorhk".

So once again we rely on our ruby openssl implementations to do our decoding for us. First we pack the text from the registry:
               cipher =[encoded].pack("H*")
Then we set up our AES implementation:

                aes = OpenSSL::Cipher::Cipher.new("AES-128-ECB")
aes.padding = 0
aes.decrypt
aes.key = "hdfzpysvpzimorhk"
password= aes.update(cipher) + aes.final
return password

The  import thing to note here is the aes.padding property. This MUST be set to 0 or you will get bad decrypt errors. It took me quite a while to figure that out. The result, as usual, is an easily decrypted password. This once again highlights that static key encryption in a product like this is next to useless. Products that are going to save sensitive passwords should prompt a user to pick a master password, and sue that as an encryption key. This forever separates the encryption key from the software. It's the only real way to keep that data secure.

I submitted this module today, so it should hopefully get committed sometime in next couple of days. Keep your eyes peeled for post/windows/gather/enum_coreftp_passwords.rb

SmartFTP Password Recovery with Metasploit - The details

So last night I briefly mentioned the new additions I submitted to Metasploit. It looks like they will get merged after the 3.7.2 Release. Metasploit is in a feature freeze at the moment for that release. I wanted to take the opportunity to discuss how the SmartFTP Password recovery module works. It might help other who want to write similar modules in the future.

The Module Can be seen from the Metasploit Website here:



So let's get the simple stuff out of the way first. We pull the OS information and the root System drive information from the Meterpreter stdapi. We then check the OS to see whether we need to be looking for "Documents and Settings" or "Users" off the system root. We then drop into the appropriate users directory and enumerate the individual user Directories. We build the Directory paths based off the combination of all of these factors.

The enum_subdirs function then takes each of these potential SmartFTP data folder paths. If the path does not exist, or we do not have permission to access it, it will throw an exception caught by the rescue statement and will move on to the next path. If it can access the path, then it will enumerate all of the items in that directory.  If the item ends in .xml then it is added to the list of XML files to be parsed. If it is not an XML file, it is assumed to be a directory and is recursively passed back to the enum_subdirs function. In the rare case that this item is not actually a directory, it should throw an exception which will still be caught by the rescue. Once everything has been recursively enumerated, we should have a list of xmlfiles in the session array @xmlfiles.

For each xml file in the array we then run get_xml.  In get_xml we first try to open the file for reading. If for any reason we cannot do that, we catch an exception  let the users know, and move on to the next file. If we can open it, then we read all of the data into memory and send it to the parse_xml function.  parse_xml uses the Metasploit rexml library to parse the XML. We pull the host, port, username, and encrypted password. If no encrypted password is found, we skip this item and move to the next one since there is no password to steal. Once we have the encrypted password we pass it to the real meat and potatoes, our decryption routine.

The first thing we do, is unpack this encoded data as a series of hex bytes. The string is in fact a series of bytes.  So if the encoded string is "9722972FC57CAE5A78DBD64E23968440C794" then it is actually \x97\x22\x97 etc.

So now let's take a moment to look at the new Railgun function definition I have added. These functions come from Advapi32.dll. This DLL is already defined in Railgun so we just have to add the functions to it's definition:


#Functions for Windows CryptoAPI
railgun.add_function('advapi32', 'CryptAcquireContextW', 'BOOL',[
['PDWORD', 'phProv', 'out'],
['PWCHAR', 'pszContainer', 'in'],
['PWCHAR', 'pszProvider', 'in'],
['DWORD', 'dwProvType', 'in'],
['DWORD', 'dwflags', 'in']])

railgun.add_function('advapi32', 'CryptCreateHash', 'BOOL',[
['LPVOID', 'hProv', 'in'],
['DWORD', 'Algid', 'in'],
['DWORD', 'hKey', 'in'],
['DWORD', 'dwFlags', 'in'],
['PDWORD', 'phHash', 'out']])

railgun.add_function('advapi32', 'CryptHashData', 'BOOL',[
['LPVOID', 'hHash', 'in'],
['PWCHAR', 'pbData', 'in'],
['DWORD', 'dwDataLen', 'in'],
['DWORD', 'dwFlags', 'in']])

railgun.add_function('advapi32', 'CryptDeriveKey', 'BOOL',[
['LPVOID', 'hProv', 'in'],
['DWORD', 'Algid', 'in'],
['LPVOID', 'hBaseData', 'in'],
['DWORD', 'dwFlags', 'in'],
['PDWORD', 'phKey', 'inout']])

railgun.add_function('advapi32', 'CryptDecrypt', 'BOOL',[
['LPVOID', 'hKey', 'in'],
['LPVOID', 'hHash', 'in'],
['BOOL', 'Final', 'in'],
['DWORD', 'dwFlags', 'in'],
['PBLOB', 'pbData', 'inout'],
['PDWORD', 'pdwDataLen', 'inout']])

railgun.add_function('advapi32', 'CryptDestroyHash', 'BOOL',[
['LPVOID', 'hHash', 'in']])

railgun.add_function('advapi32', 'CryptDestroyKey', 'BOOL',[
['LPVOID', 'hKey', 'in']])

railgun.add_function('advapi32', 'CryptReleaseContext', 'BOOL',[
['LPVOID', 'hProv', 'in'],
['DWORD', 'dwFlags', 'in']])

There is a lot going on here. So we'll take it a little slow.
For those who don't know, Railgun is a part of Meterpreter that allows a user to hook Windows libraries and access their functions. In this case we are hooking the Advapi32.dll to gain access to the Windows CryptoAPI(CAPI) functions.

CryptAcquireContextW is the Unicode version of the AcquireContext function. This creates the Cryptographic context we will be working in. The first parameter is a pointer to the provider object. the provider object is, in of itself, a pointer to a data structure that will be initialised by this function. So we pass it a pointer to a DWORD for the pointer to be placed in, and set it as an out parameter so the function will return the pointer information to us. We are not using the container object in this case, so we pass it nil. We then tell it what provider to use in this case it is the Microsoft Enhanced Cryptographic Provider. This is passed as a pointer to a string. We then pass it a value to tell it what type of provider to use. WinCrypt.h normally provides Constants for this, but since we don't have access to those constants we pass it the raw numerical value of that constant. In this case we are passing it the value for the RSA_FULL provider. Finally we pass it the appropriate flags. Like the provider type this expects a constant so we need to pass it a numerical value. We pass it CRYPT_VERIFY_CONTEXT(0xF0000000). For more details on the available flags I suggest you look at the MSDN Doc.

CryptCreateHash creates a hash object for us to user in much the same way that AcquireContext created a provider object. We pass it the provider object as the first parameter. Remembering that this object is a pointer to an abstracted in-memory data structure. Then we pass it the algorithm id for what kind of hash algorithm we will be using. Again, this is typically expecting a constant we don't have so we pass it a numerical value. If this hashing algorithm is expecting a key we pass it a key object. Since we are using md5 we pass it a 0 to tell it we are not using a key. We pass it a 0 for the flags. Finally we pass it a pointer to a place in memory for it to store the hash object. Just like the provider object, this is actually a pointer to a memory structure intialised by this function.

CryptHashData is what will actually create the hash for us and put it in the hash object. The first thing we do is pass it our hash object. We then pass it the data to be hashed. In this case we are hashing the string "SmartFTP". We then pass it the data length of 16, and again we pass it no flags with a 0. This is the first step to deriving our Encryption Key.

CryptDeriveKey is going to take our hash and derive an encryption key from it. We pass it our provider object, an integer value for our encryption algorithm(RC4), the Hash object, our flag, and a pointer to a key object. This key object works the same way as the hash and provider objects did before it. The function derives an RC4 key for us and puts it in the memory structure pointed to by our key object.

CryptDecrypt is where the magic finally happens. We pass it our key object as the first parameter. If the data was to be decrypted and hashed at the same time we would pass it a hash object. Since we do not want to hash the results we pass it a 0. The next parameter is whether this is the final section to be decrypted. We pass this a value as true. We pass no flags, and a pointer to the data to be decrypted. Finally  we pass it the length of the data to be decrypted.

The remaining three functions are eseentialy just garbage collection. They close out the memory structures we initalised along the way.

Some of the parameters in these function calls are still not set up in the most ideal fashion. One of the big tricks to remember is that in the end, a pointer is just a number. So even though ruby has no pointer, just treat them as a numbers and pass them back to LPVOIDS.  I will be smoothing out any wrinkles in these function defs soon, and adding the other CAPI functions that I didn't need for this particular module.

Once the decryption is complete. The module displays the results back to the console. It also reports the data back to the backend database. This means the credentials will be stored for the target machines. If you use MetaSploit Pro (which if you are a professional Penetration Tester, I cannot recommend it enough) this will be especially useful. If the remote machines are in your project scope, those credentials will show up in the host information, and can be used for further module usage.

So there you have it. I hope you find this detailed breakdown useful and/or informative. Stay tuned for further updates and developments. I am continuing on my goal of making it into the Metasploit.com Top contributors list, but I suspect I still have a ways to go.

Windows Cryptography with Metasploit and SmartFTP Password Recovery

I have submitted two new additions to Metasploit tonight. The first is a series of function definitions for Railgun. These functions are some of the core Windows CryptoAPI functions. It is not a complete list yet. I only added the ones i needed to complete the other piece I'll tell you about in a minute. I will be working voer the next week to get all of the other CAPI functions defined within Metasploit Railgun. In addition to that, I will try to write a library that will server as an abstraction layer for these function calls. This library will wrap the Windows CAPI Functions as well as serve up alot of the same constants provided by the WinCrypt.h header file. I hope that this will make it easier for other module writers to make use of the windows CryptoAPI whenever they may need it in a Post Module.

The second bit of business is what actually spawned this work. I have submitted a module for Extracting/Recovering saved Passwords from the SmartFTP Client. Like the other modules I have submitted, it finds the passwords saved by users, decrypts them and reports them back to the backend database as well as to the display screen.

I want to take a moment to especially thank jduck and chao-mu who helped me talk through some things while I was working on this. As always the support of the community in the #metasploit IRC channel is amazing.

Metasploit Activities

Well, i know i have been pretty quiet lately, so I thought i'd provide an update. I am very tempted to try and stake a claim on one of the Metasploit bounties , but I don't think I'm quite up to that challenge yet. Instead i will continue to work on some of my other Metasploit Projects:

1. Build Railgun support for the Windows Crypto API(CAPI)
2. Finish my SmartFTP password recovery module
3. Build Meterperter NetStat support for Windows
4. Some other things that have not solidifed yet.

I hope to get those first 3 items completely done in the next month or so. I want to have them completed and committed before Black Hat. It looks like i will be attending Black Hat courtesy of Rapid 7 this year, but only for the briefings. I unfortunately do not have the means at my disposal to stay for DefCon this year. I look forward to meeting some people in person.

Stealing Passwords from mRemote

If you don't know mRemote is a tabbed remote connection manager for Windows. It can store and manage a number of different connections, chief among them RDP,VNC, and SSH. It is a popular tool among IT Support people who have to remote into a lot of machines.

When you save connections in mRemote it outputs all of that data into an XML report in your local AppData folder. The passwords are saved in an encrypted format, however this is trivial to circumvent. The passwords are encrypted with AES-128-CBC Rijndael Encryption, and then the IV is pre-pended to the encoded passwords and the whole thing is base64 encoded for output into the XML. The encryption key that is used is the md5 hash of the string "mR3m". So to decrypt these passwords we follow a simple process:

example password:  28kQ15DF4kdW34Mx2+fh+NWZODNSoSPek7ug+ILvyPE=

1. Get the md5 hash of mR3m and convert it into byte values: \xc8\xa3\x9d\xe2\xa5\x47\x66\xa0\xda\x87\x5f\x79\xaa\xf1\xaa\x8c
2. base64 decode the saved password data
3. Take the first 16 bytes of the decoded data and set that as you Initialization vector(IV)
4. Run AES-128-CBC Decryption feeding your Cipher Text(the remaining bytes from the decoded text), your IV (that first 16 bytes), and your key (\xc8\xa3\x9d\xe2\xa5\x47\x66\xa0\xda\x87\x5f\x79\xaa\xf1\xaa\x8c)
5. You should get a decrypted password of: password1

Simple and easy, you are now ready to decrypt all of those delicious RDP,VNC, and SSH passwords. To make it all that much easier I have written a new Metasploit POST module that will find the XML files on a compromised machine and decrypt those passwords for you. I just submitted it to Redmine so it hasn't been added yet, but keep your eyes peeled. I suspect it will be in there soon.

Metasploit Meterpreter Registry OpenKey and VNC PW Module

As you probably already know I've been doing some work with Metasploit post modules. This recent work has focused heavily on Registry functions. While doing this work I noticed a disturbing behavior. When Meterpreter checks to see if a key exists it was calling RegCreateKey instead of RegOpenKey.  RegCreateKey will attempt to create any and all keys in the supplied path that do not already exist. RegOpenKey, however, will not create the key if it doesn't already exist.

In Metasploit the registry.rb 'client-side' function is set up as a wrapper to the create_key function. Similarly the registry.c code for Meterpreter itself is set up this way. Calls to the OpenKey function were just passed on to the create_key function. I have now submitted a patch to correct this behaviour. The registry.rb function now sends a call via the meterpreter stdapi to the request_registry_open_key function. The request_registry_open_key function will appropriately call RegOpenKey instead. If/when this patch is accepted by the Metasploit team, it will make the Registry functions of Meterpreter much less invasive/noisy.


I have also gone ahead and submitted a patch for the enum_vnc_pw Post Module. The module as it currently stands will check the HKEY_Current_User keys for user-mode vnc passwords. However, this will only work if meterpreter is running udner the permissions of the user who is running the vnc server. I have added behaviour that will try to enumerate all userswith SIDs in HKEY_Users and then check each one that it can access, to see if it has stored VNC passwords. The get_reg function also had to be re-written to deal with possibile permissions issues if meterpreter does not have rights to access each users' registry. The best way to run this module will, of course be under SYSTEM priveleges as it will have access to every user. This will hopefully make the enum_vnc_pw module more effective at gathering it's data.