Official Attended Discussion

gdb comes included with OpenBSD, its pre-installed, but I suggest to just install openbsd locally and try. I think using vanilla gdb will be pretty hard. There is B*F there and you can change the flow, but its a bit hard as this binary is messing with you.

Type your comment> @camk said:

Type your comment> @TazWake said:

@Chobin73 said:

Pretty much in the same boat. I have an idea of what the attack needs to be, I just cant seem to get it to work. I took me days to get control of the registers, let alone turning that into anything useful.

(embarrassingly it took me a few hours realise I was analysing it on the wrong platform at first…)

Same here. User was hard and I learned a lot, but I’m very stuck on the binary. Seems like it is meant to be a B*F attack, but looking at the dump of objects it doesn’t seem to do anything with the arguments it is given apart from counting them. Good point about the platform though, I assume that is why g** is installed on the box.

What really hurts me (and make me feel ashamed), is my pathetic lack of coding skills that puts me definitely in the corner despite being “in sight” of the goal…

Type your comment> @TazWake said:

@Chobin73 said:

Ok, i’ve already spent more than 10 days onto this behemoth…getting user’s flag has been a gigantic learning experience (thanks also to @TazWake) , but i have to admit that root is out of my reach for now.
If anyone wants to give me one or more nudges, it’ll be more than welcome. for now the only thing that i can say is that maybe i have understood what to do, but i am almost completely illiterate onto this branch of exploitation…

Pretty much in the same boat. I have an idea of what the attack needs to be, I just cant seem to get it to work. I took me days to get control of the registers, let alone turning that into anything useful.

(embarrassingly it took me a few hours realise I was analysing it on the wrong platform at first…)

Yeah, LOL.
What if i tell you that I was doing it on the right VM but i discovered after MANY HOURS that the reason why i was getting no responses at all was that i was tunnelling it to the wrong ip?

This box is certainly an education :smile:

It’s a great box for learning; try not to shoot yourself in the foot - I spent a long time figuring out a self-made problem, assumption is a killer!

Finally decided to try this machine. Still stuck in foothold, but I guess I have a pretty good idea on where to go.

Here’s my issue: A service responds to me, but only occasionally. Sometimes it calls back in a few minutes (2-3) sometimes it never does. Is there something I am missing here? Or is this that unstable and requiring restart?

Type your comment> @damnc said:

Here’s my issue: A service responds to me, but only occasionally. Sometimes it calls back in a few minutes (2-3) sometimes it never does. Is there something I am missing here? Or is this that unstable and requiring restart?

Never mind. It was a wrong assumption throwing me completely out of direction. :tired_face:

Now things seem more stable. I can run arbitrary commands using a very primitive shell that works but it takes up to 3 minutes to respond :wink: , but still stuck to get user.

These insane machines can really drive one insane.

UPDATE - Thanks to @TazWake, user is achieved.

This was a very fun box.

Ok this is fun. Coded my own reverse shell for this one to deal with the outbound restrictions. But what now? I have a sense of further steps and possible latteral movement but I seem to be missing something.

Ok figured it out. Anyone working on root? I would be glad to start reverse engineering that a…s binary but the thing that is supposed to use it does not seem to answer me. Not that keen on spending days on this before I know it´s THE path to go…

@f1rstr3am said:

Ok figured it out. Anyone working on root? I would be glad to start reverse engineering that a…s binary but the thing that is supposed to use it does not seem to answer me. Not that keen on spending days on this before I know it´s THE path to go…

I have not rooted this box and had to give up as I ran out of time a few weeks ago.

However, this comment implies it might be the right path: Official Attended Discussion - #24 by gh0stm5n - Machines - Hack The Box :: Forums

Type your comment> @TazWake said:

@f1rstr3am said:

Ok figured it out. Anyone working on root? I would be glad to start reverse engineering that a…s binary but the thing that is supposed to use it does not seem to answer me. Not that keen on spending days on this before I know it´s THE path to go…

I have not rooted this box and had to give up as I ran out of time a few weeks ago.

However, this comment implies it might be the right path: Official Attended Discussion - #24 by gh0stm5n - Machines - Hack The Box :: Forums

Ok it probably is. Going to spend some time researching how it should be possible to trigger a possible vulnerability in the binary before diving into the code, I will need that info in the end anyway. As far as I can see now the lower port is closed where the notes imply there should be action…

@f1rstr3am said:

Ok it probably is. Going to spend some time researching how it should be possible to trigger a possible vulnerability in the binary before diving into the code, I will need that info in the end anyway. As far as I can see now the lower port is closed where the notes imply there should be action…

I think its running on a non-standard port.

I have been staring at instructions for so long my eyes hurts, but useful gadgets are everything but obvious for me here…

This box will have you look into “non obvious” way of rop

Type your comment> @all said:

This box will have you look into “non obvious” way of rop

Yes obviously!! :wink:

Well I have an idea of how to twist it but can’t get that option to work in the tool I am using.

Could we change the name of this thing to “curve ball”? When I think something will work, it does not! Finally had an working exploit for the binary; but when I tried to actually use it, the client refuses it.

When you just climbed what you think is the highest obstacle there’s just another one. Your payload is worth nothing if you are not allowed to deliver it.

Would anyone help me with the “VictIM” message content please

@damnc said:

Could we change the name of this thing to “curve ball”? When I think something will work, it does not! Finally had an working exploit for the binary; but when I tried to actually use it, the client refuses it.

@f1rstr3am said:

When you just climbed what you think is the highest obstacle there’s just another one. Your payload is worth nothing if you are not allowed to deliver it.

Use some “legitimate” way to generate it. This part is something related to crypto.