Summary of "Backtrack TryhackMe Walkthrough | Medium Room"

Summary of Technological Concepts, Product Features, and Analysis

Video Topic: Walkthrough of a Medium difficulty room on TryHackMe using Backtrack Linux, focusing on exploiting vulnerabilities to gain root access.

Key Concepts and Steps Covered:

Initial Reconnaissance:
- Use of Nmap with default scripts (-sV) and aggressive timing (-T4) to scan ports 1-10000.
- Identification of open ports: SSH (22), HTTP (6800), Apache Tomcat (8080), and an unknown service on port 8888.
Web Service Enumeration:
- Discovery of Apache Tomcat 8.5.93 running with a manager app requiring credentials.
- Accessing the unknown web UI on port 8888 revealing software version info.
- Searching for exploits based on version info, finding a CVE-2023-39141 path traversal vulnerability.
Path Traversal Exploit:
- Using curl with specific flags to exploit the WebDAV path traversal vulnerability to read sensitive files like /etc/passwd.
- Locating Tomcat credentials in /opt/tomcat/conf/tomcat-users.xml.
Tomcat Manager Exploit:
- Attempt to login to Tomcat manager app using found credentials (access denied to GUI).
- Using CLI to upload a reverse shell JSP payload generated with msfvenom.
- Establishing a reverse shell connection as the Tomcat user.
Privilege Escalation via Ansible Playbook:
- Enumerating user permissions, discovering the user willber can run Ansible Playbook without a password.
- Creating and executing a malicious Ansible Playbook (shell.yml) to escalate privileges to willber.
- Accessing flags and user files in willber’s home directory.
SSH Port Forwarding and Local Web App Testing:
- Finding credentials for user orille in a text file.
- Using SSH local port forwarding (ssh -L) to access a locally running web app.
- Attempting to login and test file upload functionality.
File Upload Vulnerability:
- Testing file upload restrictions on the web app.
- Bypassing file extension checks by double encoding the file name to upload a PHP reverse shell.
- Discovering PHP execution is disabled in the upload directory (php_flag engine off), preventing direct shell execution.
Bypassing PHP Execution Restriction:
- Uploading the shell to the root directory using path traversal in the upload endpoint.
- Gaining shell access as user orille.
Post-Exploitation Enumeration:
- Uploading pspy64 (process monitoring tool) via Python HTTP server to monitor running processes.
- Discovering a user switching to orille without a password and an opportunity for TTY shell upgrade.
TTY Pushback Exploit for Root Access:
- Explanation and demonstration of the TTY pushback technique to escalate from user shell to root.
- Uploading and executing a Python script that modifies permissions of bash to setuid root.
- Gaining root shell and accessing the root flag.

Tools and Techniques Demonstrated:

Nmap for port scanning and service enumeration.
Curl for exploiting path traversal.
msfvenom for generating Java reverse shell payloads.
Tomcat Manager CLI upload for deploying shells.
Ansible Playbook exploitation for privilege escalation.
SSH port forwarding to access local services.
File upload vulnerability exploitation with bypass techniques.
Python HTTP server for file transfer.
pspy64 for process monitoring.
TTY pushback exploit for root escalation.

Tutorial/Guide Highlights:

Step-by-step exploitation of a multi-stage hacking challenge.
Practical demonstration of using public exploits and combining vulnerabilities.
Explanation of privilege escalation via misconfigured Ansible and TTY shell tricks.
Bypassing common web application security controls (file upload restrictions, PHP execution disabling).
Use of various Linux commands and scripting to automate exploitation.

Main Speaker/Source:

M SEC (YouTube channel or individual) conducting the walkthrough and tutorial.

Overall, the video provides a comprehensive, practical guide to exploiting a medium-level TryHackMe room using Backtrack, focusing on vulnerability chaining, privilege escalation, and root access techniques.

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