PHP Lfi

LOCAL FILE
INCLUSION
Types, exploitation, and prevention
The following presentation is for Educational Purposes Only
We do not condone the use of the contents of this talk for nefarious or illegal
purposes.
PHP Basics
 What is PHP? Hypertext Preprocessor
 What does that really mean?
 Code is executed server side at runtime
 HTML is the output
 Can be configured without the use of .php urls
PHP Basics
Example PHP script:
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<title>Example</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
$msg = “Hi, I’m a PHP script!”;
echo $msg;
?>
</body>
</html>
PHP Include
 What is the PHP include function?
The include statement includes and evaluates the
specified file.
PHP Include/Eval
 What is the PHP include function?
The include statement includes and evaluates the
specified file.
Evaluates means executes the file as PHP code.

This is important to understand for later.
Similar to eval function
eval — Evaluate a string as PHP code
PHP Include/ Eval
 Example:
<?php
//include html doctype,header,css,etc
include(“../header.php”);
echo “this text should be in the body”;
//close body tags and html, with logos
require(“../footer.php”);
?>
PHP Superglobals
 Several predefined variables in PHP are "superglobals", which means they
are available in all scopes throughout a script. There is no need to
do global $variable; to access them within functions or methods.
 These superglobal variables are:
 $GLOBALS
 $_SERVER
 $_GET
 $_POST
 $_FILES
 $_COOKIE
 $_SESSION
 $_REQUEST
 $_ENV
PHP Request Parameters
 $_GET
An associative array of variables passed to the current script via the URL
parameters.
http://www.google.com/search?q=banana
Requests made in this manner are typically logged intact with url query
 $_POST
An associative array of variables passed to the current script via
the HTTP POST method.
Requests made in this manner are logged, but only that a POST
occurs to the script, not the included parameters. (usually)
PHP Request Parameters
 $_REQUEST
An associative array that by default contains the contents of
$_GET, $_POST and $_COOKIE.
Using the $_REQUEST[“variable”] syntax the application does
not care whether the variable is filled from GET or POST.
 Using the $_GET or $_POST arrays will only be filled if the

variables are posted or retrieved via GET or POST
respectively.
Choose carefully based on the purpose of the app

Local File Inclusion
 Local file inclusion is when a php app is written to
include files on the local filesytem.
(Remember include() from before?)
LFI exploits
LFI exploitation is typically due to poor user input
sanitization.
On the subject of User Input…
Just listen to Agent Mulder, and Trust NO ONE
Poorly designed LFI
1:
<?php
include($_REQUEST[“file”]);
?>
2:
<?php
if isset($_REQUEST[“file”]) {
$file = $_REQUEST[“file”];
include(“$file.php”);
}
Better LFI design
3:
<?php
if isset($_GET[“file”]) {
//remove any attempts at directory traversal
$file = str_replace(‘../’, ‘’, $_GET[‘file’]);
include(“$file.php”);
}
?>
LFI detection bypasses
 Even our “Better” design has flaws.
 Bypassed by encoding characters into hexadecimal
http://example.com/index.php?file=..%2F..%2F..%2F..%2Fetc
%2Fpasswd
 “.php” can be stripped off the request via Poison null byte
%00
http://example.com/index.php?file=..%2F..%2F..%2F..%2Fetc
%2Fpasswd%00
Most secure LFI - Whitelisting
Allow user input, but only from select choices
Protect your code!
What now?
 So, we can execute local files as php code, what
can this get us?
 If we can get files uploaded to the server, even in /tmp,
we can include them as executable php
 Can you think of typical ways to get files on a system?
Typical Apache Log file
Green = source IP address Yellow = Requested URL and GET Parameters
Pink = HTTP Server return code Blue = User agent of browser
LFI Exploit- Access Log
 Include apache Access Log
 Via telnet HTTP request
 Via curl/wget
 Using a regular browser will likely not work as the
browser makes automatic substitutions before actually
making the request.
 Via modifying User agent to contain PHP
Log Injection
 3 stage attack
 Seed logfile with appropriate PHP code
 Locate logfile on system
 Include logfile to execute PHP code
LFI Exploit – PHP Input
 Execute PHP code using the php://input file and
posting PHP code/commands
 Hackbar Firefox extension makes this very easy
 https://addons.mozilla.org/en-us/firefox/addon/hackbar/
So easy we almost didn’t need a talk…

LFI Exploit - /proc/self/environ
 Include /proc/self/environ
 If apache has rights to view, including will list current
processes, including things like the
HTTP_USER_AGENT
 If you have previously modified your useragent to
contain php code (say “<?phpinfo();?>” instead of
“Mozilla/5.0”) it will execute as php code when
environ is executed.
 Don’t run into this one very often, most systems do not
allow apache to have read permissions to environ
LFI Exploit – PHP Session
 Include your php session file
 Determine your sessionid from browser cookies
 The trick to this one is identifying where your session
file is stored and if the admin has configured unique
settings may prove difficult.
 Try to include in the normal session storage locations
 /tmp/sess_mysessionid%00
 /var/lib/php5/sess_mysessionid%00
LFI Exploit – Allowed Uploads
 Some websites allow users to upload files as part of
the use of the app.
 Typically an avatar or picture upload.
 Edit an image file, and place plaintext php code
somewhere in the middle of the image file. The
image should still pass filetype validation due to
the appropriate header.
 Include the picture using the LFI and voila.
Gibson Powering Up…
Demo time…
Hack the planet!
LFI Exploit – Read Files
 Read any file on the filesystem
 Since all included files that contain php are
executed upon include we can never read any of the
php files, they instead execute.
 PHP Filters will bypass this.
PHP Filters LFI Use
 index.php?page=php://filter/read=convert.base64-
encode/resource=config
 This code will base64 the resource “config” (like if it was
index.php?page=config, but with base64′d) with that,
your code won’t be executed, and you’ll can
base64_decode() it after to take the original config.php
file. This method won’t need magic quotes but you’ll
need to have a PHP Version higher or equal to PHP5.
LFI Reconnaissance
 Does a folder exist?
 Simply attempt to directory traverse in and out of
the directory. If it exists the include will work.
 index.php?page=../../../../../../var/www/doiexist/../../../../../etc/passwd%00
LFI -> Root Steps
 Recon the application / locate LFI injection point
 Use LFI to gather as much data about the system as
you can
 Drop file upload script into /tmp
 Use file upload script to add additional files to
system
 Use shell to LPE to root, copy php shell into
suitable web directory to use for further
exploitation
So, we have many ways to get PHP level access
Now it’s time for LPE!
Local Privilege Escalation
 Now that we have valid PHP / httpd access on the
box can we get root?
 Local privilege escalations are vulnerabilities that
allow a non-privileged user to become root.
 Use user level access to determine system
information, version, packages, etc.
 Head to exploit-db.com (or elsewhere)
Root. It does a body good.
Nothing quite like the feel of a freshly popped box
LFI Protections
 Activate magic quotes
 Configure open_basedir to only read into the web folder and /tmp
 Sanitize User input by parsing out ‘/’, ‘.’, and ‘%00’ for starters
 Remove apache read permissions on access.log
 Monitor /tmp for file additions (/tmp is read/write to everyone)
 Use static includes instead of dynamic ones if possible
 If ($_GET[‘file’] == ‘mypage’){include(‘mypage.php’);};
Questions?
 Q&A Time
Join us in #exploit206 on freenode
Capture the flag, polish your skills, stay up all night!
#exploit206 internot CTF writeup
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18949146/Exploit206_HaxMe05_WriteUp_2.pdf
Thanks!
 Thanks for listening 
 Get Involved with CTF Challenges #exploit206 on
freenode
 Resources:
 http://ddxhunter.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/lfis-exploitation-techniques/
 Glibc LPE http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1810291
 http://zentrixplus.net/blog/lfi-tutorial-phpinput/
 www.sh3ll.org for php shells

PHP Lfi

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

PHP Lfi

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

PHP Lfi

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

LOCAL FILE

Evaluates means executes the file as PHP code.

 Using the $_GET or $_POST arrays will only be filled if the

Choose carefully based on the purpose of the app

You might also like