Wordpress
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Uploaded files go to: http://10.10.10.10/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/a.txt
Themes files can be found in /wp-content/themes/, so if you change some php of the theme to get RCE you probably will use that path. For example: Using theme twentytwelve you can access the 404.php file in: /wp-content/themes/twentytwelve/404.php
Another useful url could be: /wp-content/themes/default/404.php
In wp-config.php you can find the root password of the database.
Default login paths to check: /wp-login.php, /wp-login/, /wp-admin/, /wp-admin.php, /login/
index.php
license.txt contains useful information such as the version WordPress installed.
wp-activate.php is used for the email activation process when setting up a new WordPress site.
Login folders (may be renamed to hide it):
/wp-admin/login.php
/wp-admin/wp-login.php
/login.php
/wp-login.php
xmlrpc.php is a file that represents a feature of WordPress that enables data to be transmitted with HTTP acting as the transport mechanism and XML as the encoding mechanism. This type of communication has been replaced by the WordPress REST API.
The wp-content folder is the main directory where plugins and themes are stored.
wp-content/uploads/ Is the directory where any files uploaded to the platform are stored.
wp-includes/ This is the directory where core files are stored, such as certificates, fonts, JavaScript files, and widgets.
wp-sitemap.xml In Wordpress versions 5.5 and greater, Worpress generates a sitemap XML file with all public posts and publicly queryable post types and taxonomies.
Post exploitation
The wp-config.php file contains information required by WordPress to connect to the database such as the database name, database host, username and password, authentication keys and salts, and the database table prefix. This configuration file can also be used to activate DEBUG mode, which can useful in troubleshooting.
Administrator
Editor: Publish and manages his and others posts
Author: Publish and manage his own posts
Contributor: Write and manage his posts but cannot publish them
Subscriber: Browser posts and edit their profile
Check if you can find the files /license.txt or /readme.html
Inside the source code of the page (example from https://wordpress.org/support/article/pages/):
grep
meta name
CSS link files
JavaScript files
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You probably won't be able to find all the Plugins and Themes passible. In order to discover all of them, you will need to actively Brute Force a list of Plugins and Themes (hopefully for us there are automated tools that contains this lists).
ID Brute: You get valid users from a WordPress site by Brute Forcing users IDs:
If the responses are 200 or 30X, that means that the id is valid. If the the response is 400, then the id is invalid.
wp-json: You can also try to get information about the users by querying:
Another /wp-json/ endpoint that can reveal some information about users is:
Note that this endpoint only exposes users that have made a post. Only information about the users that has this feature enable will be provided.
Also note that /wp-json/wp/v2/pages could leak IP addresses.
Login username enumeration: When login in /wp-login.php the message is different is the indicated username exists or not.
If xml-rpc.php is active you can perform a credentials brute-force or use it to launch DoS attacks to other resources. (You can automate this process using this for example).
To see if it is active try to access to /xmlrpc.php and send this request:
Check
Credentials Bruteforce
wp.getUserBlogs, wp.getCategories or metaWeblog.getUsersBlogs are some of the methods that can be used to brute-force credentials. If you can find any of them you can send something like:
The message "Incorrect username or password" inside a 200 code response should appear if the credentials aren't valid.
Using the correct credentials you can upload a file. In the response the path will appears (https://gist.github.com/georgestephanis/5681982)
Also there is a faster way to brute-force credentials using system.multicall as you can try several credentials on the same request:
Bypass 2FA
This method is meant for programs and not for humans, and old, therefore it doesn't support 2FA. So, if you have valid creds but the main entrance is protected by 2FA, you might be able to abuse xmlrpc.php to login with those creds bypassing 2FA. Note that you won't be able to perform all the actions you can do through the console, but you might still be able to get to RCE as Ippsec explains it in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8mIdm93mfw&t=1130s
DDoS or port scanning
If you can find the method pingback.ping inside the list you can make the Wordpress send an arbitrary request to any host/port. This can be used to ask thousands of Wordpress sites to access one location (so a DDoS is caused in that location) or you can use it to make Wordpress lo scan some internal network (you can indicate any port).
If you get faultCode with a value greater then 0 (17), it means the port is open.
Take a look to the use of system.multicall in the previous section to learn how to abuse this method to cause DDoS.
DDoS
This file usually exists under the root of the Wordpress site: /wp-cron.php
When this file is accessed a "heavy" MySQL query is performed, so I could be used by attackers to cause a DoS.
Also, by default, the wp-cron.php is called on every page load (anytime a client requests any Wordpress page), which on high-traffic sites can cause problems (DoS).
It is recommended to disable Wp-Cron and create a real cronjob inside the host that perform the needed actions in a regular interval (without causing issues).
Try to access https://worpress-site.com/wp-json/oembed/1.0/proxy?url=ybdk28vjsa9yirr7og2lukt10s6ju8.burpcollaborator.net and the Worpress site may make a request to you.
This is the response when it doesn't work:
This tool checks if the methodName: pingback.ping and for the path /wp-json/oembed/1.0/proxy and if exists, it tries to exploit them.
More than a real attack this is a curiosity. IN the CTF https://github.com/orangetw/My-CTF-Web-Challenges#one-bit-man you could flip 1 bit from any wordpress file. So you could flip the position 5389 of the file /var/www/html/wp-includes/user.php to NOP the NOT (!) operation.
Modifying a php from the theme used (admin credentials needed)
Appearance → Theme Editor → 404 Template (at the right)
Change the content for a php shell:
Search in internet how can you access that updated page. In this case you have to access here: http://10.11.1.234/wp-content/themes/twentytwelve/404.php
You can use:
to get a session.
It may be possible to upload .php files as a plugin. Create your php backdoor using for example:
Then add a new plugin:
Upload plugin and press Install Now:
Click on Procced:
Probably this won't do anything apparently, but if you go to Media, you will see your shell uploaded:
Access it and you will see the URL to execute the reverse shell:
This method involves the installation of a malicious plugin known to be vulnerable and can be exploited to obtain a web shell. This process is carried out through the WordPress dashboard as follows:
Plugin Acquisition: The plugin is obtained from a source like Exploit DB like here.
Plugin Installation:
Navigate to the WordPress dashboard, then go to Dashboard > Plugins > Upload Plugin.
Upload the zip file of the downloaded plugin.
Plugin Activation: Once the plugin is successfully installed, it must be activated through the dashboard.
Exploitation:
With the plugin "reflex-gallery" installed and activated, it can be exploited as it is known to be vulnerable.
The Metasploit framework provides an exploit for this vulnerability. By loading the appropriate module and executing specific commands, a meterpreter session can be established, granting unauthorized access to the site.
It's noted that this is just one of the many methods to exploit a WordPress site.
The content includes visual aids depicting the steps in the WordPress dashboard for installing and activating the plugin. However, it's important to note that exploiting vulnerabilities in this manner is illegal and unethical without proper authorization. This information should be used responsibly and only in a legal context, such as penetration testing with explicit permission.
For more detailed steps check: https://www.hackingarticles.in/wordpress-reverse-shell/
WPXStrike: WPXStrike is a script designed to escalate a Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability to Remote Code Execution (RCE) or other's criticals vulnerabilities in WordPress. For more info check this post. It provides support for Wordpress Versions 6.X.X, 5.X.X and 4.X.X. and allows to:
Privilege Escalation: Creates an user in WordPress.
(RCE) Custom Plugin (backdoor) Upload: Upload your custom plugin (backdoor) to WordPress.
(RCE) Built-In Plugin Edit: Edit a Built-In Plugins in WordPress.
(RCE) Built-In Theme Edit: Edit a Built-In Themes in WordPress.
(Custom) Custom Exploits: Custom Exploits for Third-Party WordPress Plugins/Themes.
Extract usernames and passwords:
Change admin password:
Knowing how a Wordpress plugin can expose functionality is key in order to find vulnerabilities on its functionality. You can find how a plugin might expose functionality in the following bullet points and some example of vulnerable plugins in this blog post.
wp_ajax
One of the ways a plugin can expose functions to uses if via AJAX handlers. These ones could contain logic, authorization, or authentication bugs. Moreover, it's kind of frquelty that these functions are going to base both the authentication and authorization in the existence of a wordpress nonce which any user authenticated in the Wordpress instance might have (independently of its role).
These are the functions that can be used to expose a function in a plugin:
The use of nopriv makes the endpoint accessible by any users (even unathenticated ones).
Moreover, if the function is just checking the authorization of the user with the function wp_verify_nonce, this function is just checking the user is loggedin, it isn't usually checking the role of the user. So low privileged users might have access to high privileged actions.
REST API
It's also possible to expose functions from wordpress registering a rest AP using the register_rest_route function:
The permission_callback is a callback to function that checks if a given user is authorized to call the API method.
If the built-in __return_true function is used, it'll simply skip user permissions check.
Direct access to the php file
Of course, Wordpress uses PHP and files inside plugins are directly accessible from the web. So, in case a plugin is exposing any vulnerable functionality that is triggered just accessing the file, it's going to be exploitable by any user.
Make sure WordPress, plugins, and themes are up to date. Also confirm that automated updating is enabled in wp-config.php:
Also, only install trustable WordPress plugins and themes.
Remove default admin user
Use strong passwords and 2FA
Periodically review users permissions
Limit login attempts to prevent Brute Force attacks
Rename wp-admin.php file and only allow access internally or from certain IP addresses.
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Learn & practice AWS Hacking:HackTricks Training AWS Red Team Expert (ARTE) Learn & practice GCP Hacking: HackTricks Training GCP Red Team Expert (GRTE)
