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Bypassuac COMHijack Privilege Escalation Exploit

Recently, readers saw the Windows Fodhelper Privilege escalation exploit. Today we will learn about another Windows privilege escalation exploit that works on machines from Windows 7 to Windows 10. This exploit bypasses the User Account Control of the Windows and gives us system privileges. Its called Windows BypassUAC COMhijack exploit. How does it do this? Let us see.

COM stands for Component Object Model. It acts as a binary interface between various processes of different programming languages. In Windows, is is the basis for several other Microsoft technologies like OLE, OLE Automation, Browser Helper Object, ActiveX, COM+, DCOM, Windows shell, DirectX and Windows Runtime.

This module will bypass Windows UAC by creating COM handler registry entries in the Hive Key Current User hive. These created registry entries are referenced when certain high integrity processes are loaded which eventually results in the process of loading user controlled DLLs (as you already know DLLs are Dynamic Link Libraries).

These DLLs the exploit loads contain the payloads that result in elevated sessions. After the payload is invocated, registry key modifications this module makes are cleaned up. This module invokes the target binary via cmd.exe on the target. Therefore if cmd.exe access is restricted, this module will not run correctly.

Now let us see how this exploit works. As for every privilege escalation exploit, we need to already have a meterpreter session like the one we have here. Background the current meterpreter session and remember the session id. Search for the bypassuac_comhijack module as shown below.

Load the bypassuac_comhijack module as shown below and check its options by using the “show options” command as shown below.

Explanation of how to exploit bypassuac comhijack vulnerability

Set the session id as shown below and execute the exploit using “run” command as shown below. If everything went right, we will have another meterpreter session as shown below.

Check the privileges using the “getuid” command. If you still don’t have system privileges, run command “getsystem” and even if it results in an error, check your privileges once again using command “getuid“. You should definitely have system privileges by now.

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Enumerate Installed Programs on Windows

Hello aspiring hackers. In this howto, we will see how to enumerate installed programs a Windows system after compromise. This is a POST exploit in Metasploit which means this exploit is only available when we get a meterpreter session on the target system. Once a Windows system is hacked, privilege escalation is the next step. One of the ways to escalate privileges in a Windows system would be to find vulnerabilities in the programs installed in our target Windows system. We can do this manually but Metasploit has a post module to do exactly this. Let us see how to use it.

Send the current meterpreter session to background and load the enum_applications module as shown below. Just like any other POST module, it needs only one option, the session id of the meterpreter session we just sent to background.

module to enumerate installed programs on a windows target after gaining access

Set the session Id and execute the module as shown below.

As you can see, the module successfully gave us the programs installed on our victim’s system. Now we can search for any vulnerabilities in those programs which we could be used in privilege escalation. That is how we enumerate Installed programs in Windows.

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Vulnerability Assessment by hackers : Part 2

Vulnerability Assessment is the process of evaluating the weakness of a system or network. It identifies the vulnerabilities in a system or network and helps black hats to devise exploits to get access to a target system or network. We developed this Vulnerability assessment by hackers article to give readers an idea as to how hackers perform vulnerability assessment. For example, imagine I am a black hat who performed a Nmap scan on the target (in this case, Metasploitable). The target has displayed so many banners of the services running.

Continue reading Vulnerability Assessment by hackers : Part 2
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Meterpreter architecture migration exploit

Hello aspiring hackers. You all know about the meterpreter payload. It is an advanced dynamically extensible payload of Metasploit. Meterpreter architecture migration exploit is a “post” exploit used to migrate from one architecture to another architecture. What is architecture? As we all know there are two main system architectures 32bit and 64bit.

Sometimes we happen to run our exploit from a 32bit machine to hack a 64bit machine or run our exploit from a 64bit machine to hack a 32bit machine. The meterpreter payload spawns a process according to the architecture of the attacking system. If the attacking system is 32bit, the meterpreter process is 32bit and if the attacking system is 64bit the meterpreter process is 64bit.

Sometimes there may be compatibility issues if we get a 32bit meterpreter session on a 64bit machine and vice versa. This is the exact reason why this module has been introduced. For example, in one of our previous howto, we hacked a 64bit machine from a 32bit Kali Linux. So we have a 32bit meterpreter session on a 64bit target system. To overcome the problems of incompatibility, we need to start a 64bit meterpreter session.

It is exactly in cases like these, this module comes handy. This module checks if the architecture of meterpreter is as same as the architecture of OS and if it is not, spawns a new process with the correct architecture and migrates into that process. Let’s see how this module works.

To use this module, we need to background the current session using command “background”. Then load the exploit as shown below. Type command “show options” to have a look at the options it requires.

meterpreter architecture migration from 32bit to 64bit and vice versa

We need to only set the session id of the meterpreter session we just sent to background and the exploit is good to go.

If you see in the above image, our exploit failed to run for the first time. This is because in the previous session we had system privileges and if we run this module we may lose the system privileges. But don’t worry we can change the options to overcome this problem.

Set “ignore_system” option to true and you should be fine to go. This time the exploit ran successfully. As you can see in the above image, our target is a 64bit machine and our meterpreter migrated to a 64bit process successfully. Lets check by typing command “session s -l” to see the available sessions. You can see we have a 64bit meterpreter now. Job performed.

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Windows UAC Bypass using Fodhelper

Hello aspiring hackers. Today we will see an exploit which helps us in Windows 10 Privilege escalation. Till now, there was no exploit for privilege escalation in Windows 10. Recently we got one. This module will bypass Windows 10 UAC by hijacking a special key in the Registry under the current user hive and inserting a custom command that will get invoked when the Windows fodhelper.exe application is launched.

Once the UAC flag is turned off, this module will spawn a second shell with system privileges. This module modifies a registry key, but cleans up the key once the payload has been invoked. The module does not require the architecture of the payload to match the OS.

Imagine we have a scenario where we got meterpreter access to a Windows 10 system ( See how to hack Windows 10 with Hercules and see how to hack Windows 10 with hta exploit).

To use the fodhelper module to escalate privileges, we need to background the current session.

Search for fodhelper module using the search command.

Image explaining about Windows privilege escalation with fodhelper module

Load the module and set the session ID as shown below.

Run the module as shown below.

As you can see, we successfully got a meterpreter session. When I check privileges, its still user privileges but when I run “getsystem” command, I get system privileges on Windows 10.

HOW TO STAY SAFE:

Microsoft had already released patches. Just make sure your system is updated.