MQTT Authentication Scanner - Metasploit
This page contains detailed information about how to use the auxiliary/scanner/mqtt/connect metasploit module. For list of all metasploit modules, visit the Metasploit Module Library.
Module Overview
Name: MQTT Authentication Scanner
Module: auxiliary/scanner/mqtt/connect
Source code: modules/auxiliary/scanner/mqtt/connect.rb
Disclosure date: -
Last modification time: 2021-08-31 17:10:07 +0000
Supported architecture(s): -
Supported platform(s): -
Target service / protocol: -
Target network port(s): 1883, 8883
List of CVEs: -
This module attempts to authenticate to MQTT.
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
This module is a scanner module, and is capable of testing against multiple hosts.
msf > use auxiliary/scanner/mqtt/connect
msf auxiliary(connect) > show options
... show and set options ...
msf auxiliary(connect) > set RHOSTS ip-range
msf auxiliary(connect) > exploit
Other examples of setting the RHOSTS option:
Example 1:
msf auxiliary(connect) > set RHOSTS 192.168.1.3-192.168.1.200
Example 2:
msf auxiliary(connect) > set RHOSTS 192.168.1.1/24
Example 3:
msf auxiliary(connect) > set RHOSTS file:/tmp/ip_list.txt
Required Options
- RHOSTS: The target host(s), range CIDR identifier, or hosts file with syntax 'file:<path>'
Knowledge Base
Vulnerable Application
Most any MQTT instance will work. Instructions for testing against a Dockerized endpoint are provided below.
Docker Install
A dockerized version of mosquitto is available here. There are two basic scenarios worth discussing -- mosquitto with anonymous authentication allowed and disallowed. The method for running both is similar.
Docker MQTT Server With Anonymous Authentication
By default, mosquitto does not require credentials and allows anonymous authentication. To run in this way:
$ docker run -i -p 1883:1883 toke/mosquitto
1513822879: mosquitto version 1.4.14 (build date Mon, 10 Jul 2017 23:48:43 +0100) starting
1513822879: Config loaded from /mqtt/config/mosquitto.conf.
1513822879: Opening websockets listen socket on port 9001.
1513822879: Opening ipv4 listen socket on port 1883.
1513822879: Opening ipv6 listen socket on port 1883.
Docker MQTT Server Without Anonymous Authenticaiton
Msquitto can be configured to require credentials. To run in this way:
- Create a simple configuration file:
$ mkdir -p config && cat > config/mosquitto.conf
password_file /mqtt/config/passwd
allow_anonymous false
- Create a password file for mosquitto (this example creates a user admin wtth password admin)
$ touch config/passwd && mosquitto_passwd -b config/passwd admin admin
- Now run the dockerized mosquitto instance, mounting the configuration files from above for use at runtime:
$ docker run -ti -p 1883:1883 -v `pwd`/config/:/mqtt/config:ro toke/mosquitto
1513823564: mosquitto version 1.4.14 (build date Mon, 10 Jul 2017 23:48:43 +0100) starting
1513823564: Config loaded from /mqtt/config/mosquitto.conf.
1513823564: Opening ipv4 listen socket on port 1883.
1513823564: Opening ipv6 listen socket on port 1883.
Verification Steps
- Install the application without credentials
- Start msfconsole
- Do:
use auxiliary/scanner/mqtt/connect - Do:
set rhosts [IPs] - Do:
run - Confirm that the default or non-default credentials are discovered as configured
Options
CLIENT_ID
When specified, this will set the ID of the client when connecting to the MQTT endpoint. While not all MQTT implementation support this, some, like mosquitto, support filtering by client ID and this option can be used in those scenarios. By default, a random ID is selected.
READ_TIMEOUT
The amount of time, in seconds, to wait for responses from the MQTT endpoint.
Scenarios
Docker MQTT Server With Anonymous Authentication
Configure MQTT in a Docker container without credentials as described above.
> use auxiliary/scanner/mqtt/connect
> set VERBOSE false
VERBOSE => false
> set RHOSTS localhost
RHOSTS => localhost
> run
[+] 127.0.0.1:1883 - Does not require authentication
[*] Scanned 1 of 1 hosts (100% complete)
Docker MQTT Server Without Anonymous Authentication
Configure MQTT in a Docker container with credentials as described above.
> use auxiliary/scanner/mqtt/connect
> set VERBOSE false
FALSE => false
resource (mqtt.rc)> set RHOSTS localhost
RHOSTS => localhost
resource (mqtt.rc)> run
...
[+] 127.0.0.1:1883 - MQTT Login Successful: admin/admin
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Msfconsole Usage
Here is how the scanner/mqtt/connect auxiliary module looks in the msfconsole:
msf6 > use auxiliary/scanner/mqtt/connect
msf6 auxiliary(scanner/mqtt/connect) > show info
Name: MQTT Authentication Scanner
Module: auxiliary/scanner/mqtt/connect
License: Metasploit Framework License (BSD)
Rank: Normal
Provided by:
Jon Hart <[email protected]>
Check supported:
No
Basic options:
Name Current Setting Required Description
---- --------------- -------- -----------
BLANK_PASSWORDS false no Try blank passwords for all users
BRUTEFORCE_SPEED 5 yes How fast to bruteforce, from 0 to 5
DB_ALL_CREDS false no Try each user/password couple stored in the current database
DB_ALL_PASS false no Add all passwords in the current database to the list
DB_ALL_USERS false no Add all users in the current database to the list
PASSWORD no A specific password to authenticate with
PASS_FILE data/wordlists/unix_passwords.txt no File containing passwords, one per line
RHOSTS yes The target host(s), range CIDR identifier, or hosts file with syntax 'file:<path>'
RPORT 1883 yes The target port (TCP)
STOP_ON_SUCCESS false yes Stop guessing when a credential works for a host
THREADS 1 yes The number of concurrent threads (max one per host)
USERNAME no A specific username to authenticate as
USERPASS_FILE no File containing users and passwords separated by space, one pair per line
USER_AS_PASS true no Try the username as the password for all users
USER_FILE data/wordlists/unix_users.txt no File containing usernames, one per line
VERBOSE true yes Whether to print output for all attempts
Description:
This module attempts to authenticate to MQTT.
References:
http://docs.oasis-open.org/mqtt/mqtt/v3.1.1/os/mqtt-v3.1.1-os.html#_Table_3.1_-
Module Options
This is a complete list of options available in the scanner/mqtt/connect auxiliary module:
msf6 auxiliary(scanner/mqtt/connect) > show options
Module options (auxiliary/scanner/mqtt/connect):
Name Current Setting Required Description
---- --------------- -------- -----------
BLANK_PASSWORDS false no Try blank passwords for all users
BRUTEFORCE_SPEED 5 yes How fast to bruteforce, from 0 to 5
DB_ALL_CREDS false no Try each user/password couple stored in the current database
DB_ALL_PASS false no Add all passwords in the current database to the list
DB_ALL_USERS false no Add all users in the current database to the list
PASSWORD no A specific password to authenticate with
PASS_FILE data/wordlists/unix_passwords.txt no File containing passwords, one per line
RHOSTS yes The target host(s), range CIDR identifier, or hosts file with syntax 'file:<path>'
RPORT 1883 yes The target port (TCP)
STOP_ON_SUCCESS false yes Stop guessing when a credential works for a host
THREADS 1 yes The number of concurrent threads (max one per host)
USERNAME no A specific username to authenticate as
USERPASS_FILE no File containing users and passwords separated by space, one pair per line
USER_AS_PASS true no Try the username as the password for all users
USER_FILE data/wordlists/unix_users.txt no File containing usernames, one per line
VERBOSE true yes Whether to print output for all attempts
Advanced Options
Here is a complete list of advanced options supported by the scanner/mqtt/connect auxiliary module:
msf6 auxiliary(scanner/mqtt/connect) > show advanced
Module advanced options (auxiliary/scanner/mqtt/connect):
Name Current Setting Required Description
---- --------------- -------- -----------
CHOST no The local client address
CLIENT_ID no The client ID to send if necessary for bypassing clientid_prefixes
CPORT no The local client port
ConnectTimeout 10 yes Maximum number of seconds to establish a TCP connection
MaxGuessesPerService 0 no Maximum number of credentials to try per service instance. If set to zero or a non-number, this option will not be used.
MaxGuessesPerUser 0 no Maximum guesses for a particular username for the service instance. Note that users are considered unique among different services, so a user at 10.1.1.1:22 is different from one at 10.2.2.2:
22, and both will be tried up to the MaxGuessesPerUser limit. If set to zero or a non-number, this option will not be used.
MaxMinutesPerService 0 no Maximum time in minutes to bruteforce the service instance. If set to zero or a non-number, this option will not be used.
Proxies no A proxy chain of format type:host:port[,type:host:port][...]
READ_TIMEOUT 5 yes Seconds to wait while reading MQTT responses
REMOVE_PASS_FILE false yes Automatically delete the PASS_FILE on module completion
REMOVE_USERPASS_FILE false yes Automatically delete the USERPASS_FILE on module completion
REMOVE_USER_FILE false yes Automatically delete the USER_FILE on module completion
SSL false no Negotiate SSL/TLS for outgoing connections
SSLCipher no String for SSL cipher - "DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA" or "ADH"
SSLVerifyMode PEER no SSL verification method (Accepted: CLIENT_ONCE, FAIL_IF_NO_PEER_CERT, NONE, PEER)
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)
ShowProgress true yes Display progress messages during a scan
ShowProgressPercent 10 yes The interval in percent that progress should be shown
TRANSITION_DELAY 0 no Amount of time (in minutes) to delay before transitioning to the next user in the array (or password when PASSWORD_SPRAY=true)
WORKSPACE no Specify the workspace for this module
Auxiliary Actions
This is a list of all auxiliary actions that the scanner/mqtt/connect module can do:
msf6 auxiliary(scanner/mqtt/connect) > show actions
Auxiliary actions:
Name Description
---- -----------
Evasion Options
Here is the full list of possible evasion options supported by the scanner/mqtt/connect auxiliary module in order to evade defenses (e.g. Antivirus, EDR, Firewall, NIDS etc.):
msf6 auxiliary(scanner/mqtt/connect) > show evasion
Module evasion options:
Name Current Setting Required Description
---- --------------- -------- -----------
TCP::max_send_size 0 no Maxiumum tcp segment size. (0 = disable)
TCP::send_delay 0 no Delays inserted before every send. (0 = disable)
Go back to menu.
Error Messages
This module may fail with the following 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.
MQTT LOGIN FAILED: <USERNAME>/<PASSWORD> (<RESULT.PROOF>)
Here is a relevant code snippet related to the "MQTT LOGIN FAILED: <USERNAME>/<PASSWORD> (<RESULT.PROOF>)" error message:
109: credential_core = create_credential(credential_data)
110: credential_data[:core] = credential_core
111: create_credential_login(credential_data)
112: print_good("MQTT Login Successful: #{username}/#{password}")
113: else
114: invalidate_login(credential_data)
115: vprint_error("MQTT LOGIN FAILED: #{username}/#{password} (#{result.proof})")
116: end
117: end
118: end
119: end
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Related Pull Requests
- #12022 Merged Pull Request: Deregister PASSWORD_SPRAY option for LoginScanner modules
- #9330 Merged Pull Request: Add module for bruteforcing authentication on MQTT endpoints
References
See Also
Check also the following modules related to this module:
- auxiliary/client/hwbridge/connect
- auxiliary/fuzzers/smb/smb_tree_connect
- auxiliary/fuzzers/smb/smb_tree_connect_corrupt
- exploit/linux/misc/ib_inet_connect
- exploit/multi/browser/adobe_flash_net_connection_confusion
- exploit/multi/browser/java_rmi_connection_impl
- exploit/multi/http/confluence_widget_connector
- exploit/unix/webapp/elfinder_php_connector_exiftran_cmd_injection
- exploit/unix/webapp/openview_connectednodes_exec
- exploit/unix/webapp/spip_connect_exec
- exploit/windows/browser/orbit_connecting
- exploit/windows/browser/synactis_connecttosynactis_bof
- exploit/windows/http/manageengine_connectionid_write
- exploit/windows/http/sws_connection_bof
- exploit/windows/mmsp/ms10_025_wmss_connect_funnel
- post/linux/busybox/enum_connections
- post/windows/wlan/wlan_current_connection
- exploit/windows/browser/cisco_anyconnect_exec
- exploit/windows/local/anyconnect_lpe
- post/windows/wlan/wlan_disconnect
Authors
- Jon Hart <jon_hart[at]rapid7.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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