Hardware Bridge Session Connector - Metasploit


This page contains detailed information about how to use the auxiliary/client/hwbridge/connect metasploit module. For list of all metasploit modules, visit the Metasploit Module Library.

Table Of Contents
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Module Overview

Name: Hardware Bridge Session Connector
Module: auxiliary/client/hwbridge/connect
Source code: modules/auxiliary/client/hwbridge/connect.rb
Disclosure date: -
Last modification time: 2021-01-05 14:59:46 +0000
Supported architecture(s): -
Supported platform(s): -
Target service / protocol: http, https
Target network port(s): 80, 443, 3000, 8000, 8008, 8080, 8443, 8880, 8888
List of CVEs: -

The Hardware Bridge (HWBridge) is a standardized method for Metasploit to interact with Hardware Devices. This extends the normal exploit capabilities to the non-ethernet realm and enables direct hardware and alternative bus manipulations. You must have compatible bridging hardware attached to this machine or reachable on your network to use any HWBridge exploits. Use this exploit module to connect the physical HWBridge which will start an interactive hwbridge session. You can launch a hwbridge server locally by using compliant hardware and executing the local_hwbridge module. After that module has started, pass the HWBRIDGE_BASE_URL options to this connector module.

Module Ranking and Traits

Module Ranking:

  • normal: The exploit is otherwise reliable, but depends on a specific version and can't (or doesn't) reliably autodetect. More information about ranking can be found here.

Basic Usage

msf > use auxiliary/client/hwbridge/connect
msf auxiliary(connect) > show targets
    ... a list of targets ...
msf auxiliary(connect) > set TARGET target-id
msf auxiliary(connect) > show options
    ... show and set options ...
msf auxiliary(connect) > exploit

Knowledge Base

Overview

This module connects to any Hardware device that supports the HWBridge API. For details on the HWBridge API see API Reference. On successful connection to a HWBridge a HWBridge session will be established.

Devices

When run on linux you can use the auxiliary/server/local_hwbridge to talk to any device supported by SocketCAN. It will work with natively supported devices (can), serial devices (slcan) and even virtual devices (vcan). For a list of supported SocketCAN hardware see the eLinux website.

Any ELM327 or STN1100 interface will work with the HWBridge. If you pick up any device that uses either of these chipsets can can connect via serial (USB or Bluetooth) it will work. These are popular and inexpensive devices. They are not as fast as some of the native CAN devices but they are plentiful and cheap.

This module was also tested with the Particle Photon board. To utilize a Particle.io Photon board you will want to add the spark-msf-relay library to your project. See the library examples for details on how to extend your project to integrate it with Metasploit. If you are building an automotive project and you are using the Carloop then the spark-msf-relay library also includes an example app for carloop that you can simply flash to the device for full support.

  1. Generic ELM327: ebay

Bluetooth Adapter Connection

Bluetooth HWBridge adapters, depending on the Operating System, may take several additional steps to establish a connection and communications bus. The following steps were recorded during the testing of this module on setting up the BAFX 34t5 with Kali Linux 2016.2 (rolling).

  1. Most Bluetooth HWBridge adapters, speak serial. So you will need to get the ruby gem "serialport": gem install serialport
  2. Ensure no locks on the Bluetooth device via: rfkill list (and subsequent unblock commands)
  3. Make sure Bluetooth service is started: /etc/init.d/bluetooth start, or bluetoothd
  4. Start bluetoothctl: bluetoothctl
  5. Turn on scanning: scan on
  6. Turn on agent: agent on
  7. Make sure we can see OBDII: devices
  8. Attempt to pair: [bluetooth]# pair 00:0D:18:AA:AA:AA
  Attempting to pair with 00:0D:18:AA:AA:AA
  [CHG] Device 00:0D:18:AA:AA:AA Connected: yes
  1. If prompted for pin: 1234
  2. Trust the device in order to not put in the pin again: trust 00:0D:18:AA:AA:AA
  3. Use rfcomm to make the connection and serial interface in a different window (not bluetoothctl): rfcomm connect /dev/rfcomm1 "00:0D:18:AA:AA:AA"

Options

TARGETURI

Specifies the base target URI to communicate to the HWBridge API. By default this is '/' but it could be things such as '/api' or the randomly generated URI from the local_hwbridge module

DEBUGJSON

Prints out all the JSON packets that come from the HWBridge API. Useful for troubleshooting a device.

This module also supports all the other HTTP Client options typical to Metaplsoit.

Sample Connection

For an example, lets say we connect to a HW Bridge that is designed for automotive use and has support for multiple CAN buses. The remote device in our example is called 'carhax'

msf > use auxiliary/client/hwbridge/connect 
msf auxiliary(connect) > set rhost carhax
rhost => carhax
msf auxiliary(connect) > run

[*] Attempting to connect to carhax...
[*] Hardware bridge interface session 1 opened (127.0.0.1 -> 127.0.0.1) at 2016-12-29 13:49:55 -0800
[+] HWBridge session established
[*] HW Specialty: {"automotive"=>true}  Capabilities: {"can"=>true, "custom_methods"=>true}
[!] NOTICE:  You are about to leave the matrix.  All actions performed on this hardware bridge
[!]          could have real world consequences.  Use this module in a controlled testing
[!]          environment and with equipment you are authorized to perform testing on.
[*] Auxiliary module execution completed

On successful connection to a Hardware device you will be prompted with a special notice to remind you that any action you take on the HWBridge could have physical affects and consequences. Our lawyers asked us to put that there. You can verify the session was created by type 'sessions'

msf auxiliary(connect) > sessions

Active sessions
===============

  Id  Type                   Information  Connection
  --  ----                   -----------  ----------
  1   hwbridge cmd/hardware  automotive   127.0.0.1 -> 127.0.0.1 (10.1.10.21)

Automotive Extension

If a device specifies a hw_specialty then it can load custom extensions. For instance, if a defice defines its specialty is automotive then Metasploit will load a custom automotive extension that gives you a few generic commands you can use on autotive systems such as the ability to send arbitrary CAN packets down the bus. It also allows you to run any post/hardware/automotive modules.

For instance you can run post/hardware/automtive/getvinfo to retrieve vehicle information via UDS Mode $9 commands.

hwbridge > run post/hardware/automotive/getvinfo CANBUS=can2

[*] Supported PIDS: [2, 4, 6, 8]
[*] VIN: 1G1ZT53826F109149
[*] Calibration ID: x
[*] PID 6 Response: ["00", "00", "C4", "E9", "00", "00", "17", "33", "00", "00", "00", "00"]
[*] PID 8 Response: ["00", "00", "00", "00", "00", "00", "00", "00", "00", "00", "00", "00", "00", "00", "00", "00", "00"]

run 'supported_buses' for a list of available buses provided by your hardware. And as always you can type 'help' for a list of available commands and each command should support '-h' to additional argument help.

Custom Method Extension

It is possible for the hardware device to report functionality that Metasploit has no knowledge of. For instance, perhaps the device has a unique capability that isn't standard or can be done 100% in hardware. In order to utilize that functionality the HW device can report that it has custom_methods as a capability. At which point Metasploit will then query the custom methods and their argument syntax. These methods will become available as command line options within the hardware bridge.

For a simple example of a custom method see auxiliary/server/local_hwbridge for a more complete list on how to define custom methods see the API Reference.

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Msfconsole Usage

Here is how the client/hwbridge/connect auxiliary module looks in the msfconsole:

msf6 > use auxiliary/client/hwbridge/connect

msf6 auxiliary(client/hwbridge/connect) > show info

       Name: Hardware Bridge Session Connector
     Module: auxiliary/client/hwbridge/connect
    License: Metasploit Framework License (BSD)
       Rank: Normal

Provided by:
  Craig Smith

Check supported:
  No

Basic options:
  Name       Current Setting  Required  Description
  ----       ---------------  --------  -----------
  DEBUGJSON  false            no        Additional debugging out for JSON requests to HW Bridge
  Proxies                     no        A proxy chain of format type:host:port[,type:host:port][...]
  RHOSTS     127.0.0.1        yes       The target host(s), range CIDR identifier, or hosts file with syntax 'file:<path>'
  RPORT      8080             yes       The target port (TCP)
  SSL        false            no        Negotiate SSL/TLS for outgoing connections
  TARGETURI  /                yes       The path to the hwbridge API
  VHOST                       no        HTTP server virtual host

Description:
  The Hardware Bridge (HWBridge) is a standardized method for 
  Metasploit to interact with Hardware Devices. This extends the 
  normal exploit capabilities to the non-ethernet realm and enables 
  direct hardware and alternative bus manipulations. You must have 
  compatible bridging hardware attached to this machine or reachable 
  on your network to use any HWBridge exploits. Use this exploit 
  module to connect the physical HWBridge which will start an 
  interactive hwbridge session. You can launch a hwbridge server 
  locally by using compliant hardware and executing the local_hwbridge 
  module. After that module has started, pass the HWBRIDGE_BASE_URL 
  options to this connector module.

References:
  http://opengarages.org/hwbridge

Module Options

This is a complete list of options available in the client/hwbridge/connect auxiliary module:

msf6 auxiliary(client/hwbridge/connect) > show options

Module options (auxiliary/client/hwbridge/connect):

   Name       Current Setting  Required  Description
   ----       ---------------  --------  -----------
   DEBUGJSON  false            no        Additional debugging out for JSON requests to HW Bridge
   Proxies                     no        A proxy chain of format type:host:port[,type:host:port][...]
   RHOSTS     127.0.0.1        yes       The target host(s), range CIDR identifier, or hosts file with syntax 'file:<path>'
   RPORT      8080             yes       The target port (TCP)
   SSL        false            no        Negotiate SSL/TLS for outgoing connections
   TARGETURI  /                yes       The path to the hwbridge API
   VHOST                       no        HTTP server virtual host

Advanced Options

Here is a complete list of advanced options supported by the client/hwbridge/connect auxiliary module:

msf6 auxiliary(client/hwbridge/connect) > show advanced

Module advanced options (auxiliary/client/hwbridge/connect):

   Name                  Current Setting                                     Required  Description
   ----                  ---------------                                     --------  -----------
   DOMAIN                WORKSTATION                                         yes       The domain to use for Windows authentication
   DigestAuthIIS         true                                                no        Conform to IIS, should work for most servers. Only set to false for non-IIS servers
   FingerprintCheck      true                                                no        Conduct a pre-exploit fingerprint verification
   HttpClientTimeout                                                         no        HTTP connection and receive timeout
   HttpPassword                                                              no        The HTTP password to specify for authentication
   HttpRawHeaders                                                            no        Path to ERB-templatized raw headers to append to existing headers
   HttpTrace             false                                               no        Show the raw HTTP requests and responses
   HttpTraceColors       red/blu                                             no        HTTP request and response colors for HttpTrace (unset to disable)
   HttpTraceHeadersOnly  false                                               no        Show HTTP headers only in HttpTrace
   HttpUsername                                                              no        The HTTP username to specify for authentication
   SSLVersion            Auto                                                yes       Specify the version of SSL/TLS to be used (Auto, TLS and SSL23 are auto-negotiate) (Accepted: Auto, TLS, SSL23, SSL3, TLS1, TLS1.1, TLS1.2)
   UserAgent             Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1)  no        The User-Agent header to use for all requests
   VERBOSE               false                                               no        Enable detailed status messages
   WORKSPACE                                                                 no        Specify the workspace for this module

Auxiliary Actions

This is a list of all auxiliary actions that the client/hwbridge/connect module can do:

msf6 auxiliary(client/hwbridge/connect) > show actions

Auxiliary actions:

   Name  Description
   ----  -----------

Evasion Options

Here is the full list of possible evasion options supported by the client/hwbridge/connect auxiliary module in order to evade defenses (e.g. Antivirus, EDR, Firewall, NIDS etc.):

msf6 auxiliary(client/hwbridge/connect) > show evasion

Module evasion options:

   Name                          Current Setting  Required  Description
   ----                          ---------------  --------  -----------
   HTTP::header_folding          false            no        Enable folding of HTTP headers
   HTTP::method_random_case      false            no        Use random casing for the HTTP method
   HTTP::method_random_invalid   false            no        Use a random invalid, HTTP method for request
   HTTP::method_random_valid     false            no        Use a random, but valid, HTTP method for request
   HTTP::pad_fake_headers        false            no        Insert random, fake headers into the HTTP request
   HTTP::pad_fake_headers_count  0                no        How many fake headers to insert into the HTTP request
   HTTP::pad_get_params          false            no        Insert random, fake query string variables into the request
   HTTP::pad_get_params_count    16               no        How many fake query string variables to insert into the request
   HTTP::pad_method_uri_count    1                no        How many whitespace characters to use between the method and uri
   HTTP::pad_method_uri_type     space            no        What type of whitespace to use between the method and uri (Accepted: space, tab, apache)
   HTTP::pad_post_params         false            no        Insert random, fake post variables into the request
   HTTP::pad_post_params_count   16               no        How many fake post variables to insert into the request
   HTTP::pad_uri_version_count   1                no        How many whitespace characters to use between the uri and version
   HTTP::pad_uri_version_type    space            no        What type of whitespace to use between the uri and version (Accepted: space, tab, apache)
   HTTP::uri_dir_fake_relative   false            no        Insert fake relative directories into the uri
   HTTP::uri_dir_self_reference  false            no        Insert self-referential directories into the uri
   HTTP::uri_encode_mode         hex-normal       no        Enable URI encoding (Accepted: none, hex-normal, hex-noslashes, hex-random, hex-all, u-normal, u-all, u-random)
   HTTP::uri_fake_end            false            no        Add a fake end of URI (eg: /%20HTTP/1.0/../../)
   HTTP::uri_fake_params_start   false            no        Add a fake start of params to the URI (eg: /%3fa=b/../)
   HTTP::uri_full_url            false            no        Use the full URL for all HTTP requests
   HTTP::uri_use_backslashes     false            no        Use back slashes instead of forward slashes in the uri
   HTTP::version_random_invalid  false            no        Use a random invalid, HTTP version for request
   HTTP::version_random_valid    false            no        Use a random, but valid, HTTP version for request

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Error Messages

This module may fail with the following error messages:

Error Messages

Check for the possible causes from the code snippets below found in the module source code. This can often times help in identifying the root cause of the problem.

Access Denied: <RES.BODY>

Here is a relevant code snippet related to the "Access Denied: <RES.BODY>" error message:

63:	    return nil if !res || !res.body || !res.code
64:	    if res.code == 200
65:	      print_status res.body if datastore['DEBUGJSON'] == true
66:	      return JSON.parse(res.body)
67:	    elsif res.code == 401
68:	      print_error "Access Denied: #{res.body}"
69:	    end
70:	    return nil
71:	
72:	    rescue OpenSSL::SSL::SSLError
73:	      vprint_error("SSL error")

SSL error

Here is a relevant code snippet related to the "SSL error" error message:

68:	      print_error "Access Denied: #{res.body}"
69:	    end
70:	    return nil
71:	
72:	    rescue OpenSSL::SSL::SSLError
73:	      vprint_error("SSL error")
74:	      return nil
75:	    rescue Errno::ENOPROTOOPT, Errno::ECONNRESET, ::Rex::ConnectionRefused, ::Rex::HostUnreachable, ::Rex::ConnectionTimeout, ::ArgumentError
76:	      vprint_error("Unable to Connect")
77:	      return nil
78:	    rescue ::Timeout::Error, ::Errno::EPIPE

Unable to Connect

Here is a relevant code snippet related to the "Unable to Connect" error message:

71:	
72:	    rescue OpenSSL::SSL::SSLError
73:	      vprint_error("SSL error")
74:	      return nil
75:	    rescue Errno::ENOPROTOOPT, Errno::ECONNRESET, ::Rex::ConnectionRefused, ::Rex::HostUnreachable, ::Rex::ConnectionTimeout, ::ArgumentError
76:	      vprint_error("Unable to Connect")
77:	      return nil
78:	    rescue ::Timeout::Error, ::Errno::EPIPE
79:	      vprint_error("Timeout error")
80:	      return nil
81:

Timeout error

Here is a relevant code snippet related to the "Timeout error" error message:

74:	      return nil
75:	    rescue Errno::ENOPROTOOPT, Errno::ECONNRESET, ::Rex::ConnectionRefused, ::Rex::HostUnreachable, ::Rex::ConnectionTimeout, ::ArgumentError
76:	      vprint_error("Unable to Connect")
77:	      return nil
78:	    rescue ::Timeout::Error, ::Errno::EPIPE
79:	      vprint_error("Timeout error")
80:	      return nil
81:	
82:	  end
83:	
84:	  #

NOTICE: You are about to leave the matrix. All actions performed on this hardware bridge

Here is a relevant code snippet related to the "NOTICE: You are about to leave the matrix. All actions performed on this hardware bridge" error message:

83:	
84:	  #
85:	  # Disclaimer for legal and those without common sense...
86:	  #
87:	  def print_disclaimer
88:	    print_warning("NOTICE:  You are about to leave the matrix.  All actions performed on this hardware bridge")
89:	    print_warning("         could have real world consequences.  Use this module in a controlled testing")
90:	    print_warning("         environment and with equipment you are authorized to perform testing on.")
91:	  end
92:	
93:	  #

could have real world consequences. Use this module in a controlled testing

Here is a relevant code snippet related to the "could have real world consequences. Use this module in a controlled testing" error message:

84:	  #
85:	  # Disclaimer for legal and those without common sense...
86:	  #
87:	  def print_disclaimer
88:	    print_warning("NOTICE:  You are about to leave the matrix.  All actions performed on this hardware bridge")
89:	    print_warning("         could have real world consequences.  Use this module in a controlled testing")
90:	    print_warning("         environment and with equipment you are authorized to perform testing on.")
91:	  end
92:	
93:	  #
94:	  # Uses status information to automatically load proper extensions

environment and with equipment you are authorized to perform testing on.

Here is a relevant code snippet related to the "environment and with equipment you are authorized to perform testing on." error message:

85:	  # Disclaimer for legal and those without common sense...
86:	  #
87:	  def print_disclaimer
88:	    print_warning("NOTICE:  You are about to leave the matrix.  All actions performed on this hardware bridge")
89:	    print_warning("         could have real world consequences.  Use this module in a controlled testing")
90:	    print_warning("         environment and with equipment you are authorized to perform testing on.")
91:	  end
92:	
93:	  #
94:	  # Uses status information to automatically load proper extensions
95:	  #

Could not connect to API

Here is a relevant code snippet related to the "Could not connect to API" error message:

160:	      autoload_extensions(sess)
161:	      load_custom_methods(sess)
162:	      print_status "HW Specialty: #{self.hw_specialty}  Capabilities: #{self.hw_capabilities}"
163:	      print_disclaimer
164:	    else
165:	      print_error "Could not connect to API"
166:	    end
167:	  end
168:	
169:	  attr_reader :hw_specialty
170:	  attr_reader :hw_capabilities

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References

See Also

Check also the following modules related to this module:

Authors

  • Craig Smith

Version

This page has been produced using Metasploit Framework version 6.1.27-dev. For more modules, visit the Metasploit Module Library.

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