WhiteWinterWolf Practical IT security, *nix systems & networking

Latest articles in ‘Lab’

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   • lab
   • offsec
   • vulnerability
   • networking
   • cisco

   DHCP exploitation guide

   DHCP allows devices to automatically get their network configuration when bringing up a network interface (typically when booting).

   This configuration usually includes, among other thing, the IP address attributed to the device, the DNS domain name and the IP address of the default router, of the DNS server and of the NetBIOS name server.

   This configuration, is allocated to the device only for a given time: the lease time. Lease time may vary largely depending on the environment requirements. It is typical to find values ranging from a few dozen of minutes to a few weeks. When half of the lease time expired, the device starts to try get in touch with the DHCP server to renew the lease.

   Clients initially asking for the attribution of an IP address start by broadcasting a DHCP DISCOVER message.

   A typical DHCP exchange is as follow:

   

   1. DISCOVER: The client without IP address configured …

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    • lab
    • offsec
    • vulnerability
    • networking
    • cisco
    • macof.py

    MAC address table overflow

    The main practical difference between a legacy hub and a switch is that the switch will do its best to forward ethernet frames only on the port allowing to reach the recipient, it won’t blindly forward everything everywhere as as a dumb hub would do.

    To achieve this, upon reception of a frame the switch stores the senders MAC address associated to its input port in an internal memory, usually implemented as a CAM table. Thanks to this information, would a packet have the same address as recipient, the switch will now forward this packet only to this port and not the other ones.

    I already wrote a more focused article on MAC table overflow within the context of GNS3 simulated environments, which resulted in patch being submitted upstream and initiated the development of the macof.py tool. The original article is available here.

    In this article I detailed …

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    • lab
    • offsec
    • vulnerability
    • networking
    • cisco

    Spanning Tree Protocol exploitation

    As we saw in the previous post, Wireshark revealed us the presence of STP messages.

    The Spanning Tree Protocol is used to detect topology loops and build the most efficient forwarding path between interconnected switches. Topology loops are not a mistake but a way to add redundancy to a topology. Would a link break, the STP protocol detects it and recalculate a new most efficient tree.

    In sane networks, access ports should not deliver STP messages to end-devices, but this is not the default and, as Wireshark told us, not the case in our lab. This lets the attacker the possibility to simulate a topology change by sending maliciously crafted STP messages.

    For this lab we will need at least the User_1 and Server_1 devices to be available:

    

    Warning

    The support of STP in the IOU images I tested was very buggy, STP port state was ignored and frames systematically …

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    • lab
    • offsec
    • vulnerability
    • networking
    • cisco

    Practical network layer 2 exploitation: passive reconnaissance

    This post is part of a series about practical network layer 2 exploitation.

    Now is the time to change your network administrator hat for the attacker one. Your own, known network now becomes an unfamiliar target.

    Before rushing and banging against the nearest devices, it may wiser to just stand back and listen.

    On switched networks, users are somewhat isolated from each other thanks to the separation of collision domains. All that remain is some kind white noise… but this white noise in itself can bring invaluable information to an attacker!

    In particular we will see how, simply by passively listening to this white noise, an attacker will be able to detect several weaknesses affecting the network and plan his next steps.

    In this lab no interaction will occur with either the Admins or the Servers VLANs, the User_1 workstation will be required only for the DHCP Discover messages part …

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    • lab
    • offsec
    • vulnerability
    • networking
    • cisco

    Practical network layer 2 exploitation: introduction

    This post initiates a series demonstrating network layer 2 exploitation and protection techniques from practical point-of-view.

    This series will rely on the following topology (click to enlarge):

    

    This topology is composed of three VLANs:

    • Users (VLAN 1) and Admins (VLAN 2) both contain end-user workstations, they are isolated from each other.
    • Both can access machines located in Servers (VLAN 3).

    The attacker is connected to the Users VLAN.

    In this series we will see how the attacker can leverage various layer 2 configuration weaknesses to disrupt the network, hop from one VLAN to another, and intercept users communication, independently of their location in the topology.

    We will limit ourselves to basic techniques as an attempt to demonstrate that pwning a insufficiently secured network doesn’t involve any high technology or knowledge. When appropriate we will also see how the attacks can be generalized to other real-life scenarios.

    Creating the topology …

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    • windows
    • microsoft
    • cisco
    • lab

    How to configure Windows as a NTP server & enable IOS NTP client

    NTP allows to synchronize the clock of various devices to a common reference.

    In this how-to, we will configure a Windows Server as a NTP server and a Cisco IOS-based router to act as a NTP client. We will also see how to configure the router so it can itself serve as server to other devices, thus acting as an NTP relay.

    

    Windows (NTP server)

    Windows does not ship with any NTP server by default. In fact, Windows’ W32Time service implements SNTP instead, which is not compatible with NTP clients (see here).

    Meinberg NTP is a commonly used alternative to get a proper NTP server on Windows, and is the one we will use in this how-to.

    Before installing it, check that the following settings are correct:

    • The IP configuration (192.168.0.100 in my case)
    • Check the current time (08h15 in my case, but who cares?)

    Once …

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    • windows
    • microsoft
    • cisco
    • lab

    How to configure Windows as a SCEP server & Cisco ASA enrollment

    SCEP is a protocol supported by several manufacturers, including Microsoft and Cisco, and designed to make certificate issuance easier in particular in large-scale environments.

    It proceeds in a few steps:

    1. The SCEP server issues a one-time password (the “challenge password”), transmitted out-of-band to the client.
    2. The client generates a key pair, and sends the certificate signing request to the SCEP server along with the one-time password.
    3. The SCEP server validates the client certificate data (in this how-to the validation will be manual), signs it and makes the signed certificate available to the client.
    4. The client regularly pull the SCEP server until its signed certificate becomes available. The client can then fetch the signed certificate and install it.

    Here we will setup a Windows Server as SCEP server, and use a Cisco ASA as SCEP client.

    

    The topology above mentions Windows 2016, but any other Windows server will do. This how-to …

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    • virtualization
    • lab
    • vmtools

    Common issues when using virtual machines

    Qemu issues

    Send the Ctrl-Alt-Del key sequence to the guest

    The Ctrl-Alt-Del is a special key sequence intercepted by he operating system. Windows use it as a security¹ measure to unlock its screen, but in the case of virtualized system an alternative is necessary as the key sequence would be intercepted by the host instead of being sent to the guest.

    • If you are using VNC display, press F8, you should get a menu proposing to send the Ctrl-Alt-Del sequence to the guest.

    • If accessibility tools are available, enable the on-screen keyboard, press Ctrl-Alt on your physical keyboard and click Del on the on-screen keyboard.

    • If accessibility tools are not available, on Windows systems press the Shift key at least five times in a row, you should get a pop-up allowing to enable sticky keys. Now successively press the Ctrl, the Alt …

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    • windows
    • microsoft
    • lab

    How to create an Active Directory domain

    Setting-up a basic Windows Active Directory Domains allowing to centrally manage users account can be done painlessly. This guide is mainly based on Peter Kim’s guide written for his book The Hacker Playbook

    In this guide I use a minimal topology, with on one side a Windows server acting as the domain controller and on the other Windows client systems. This guide should work the same no matter the exact versions of the Windows server and clients you are using or if you are using a more complex and realistic topology.

    

    Note

    The Domain Controller must be a Windows Server edition, and for the clients to be able to join the domain they must be at least Windows Professional editions.

    See how to choose a Windows edition.

    Configure the network

    Set IP addresses

    First you need to set static IP addresses to each host.

    The quickest way to access …

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    • windows
    • microsoft
    • lab

    Which Windows edition should I choose?

    Windows editions follow a naming convention which may not be the clearest and, to make things worse, change with Windows versions and cover both technical and non-technical differences (meaning that two different editions may actually be the same with just a different EULA).

    Here is a short post on main Windows editions with a focus on the version you may prefer for your lab.

    Windows client editions

    • Windows Home or Core edition is the low-budget, consumer grade version of Windows. It is enough for home uses, but is missing features necessary for corporate environments such as the ability to join an Active Directory domain.

    • Windows Professional or Business edition adds more functionalities, such as the ability to join an Active Directory domain and disk encryption (limited to the Enterprise edition and above until Windows 7 included).

    • Windows Enterprise, Education and Ultimate editions are the most complete editions. There is little …

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