homepage
Open menu
Contact Sales
Go one level top
  • Train and Certify
    Free Course Demos

    Free course demos allow you to see course content, watch world-class instructors in action, and evaluate course difficulty.

    Train and Certify
    Immediately apply the skills and techniques learned in SANS courses, ranges, and summits
    Learn More
    • Overview
    • Courses
      • Overview
      • Full Course List
      • By Focus Areas
        • Cloud Security
        • Cyber Defense
        • Cybersecurity and IT Essentials
        • DFIR
        • Industrial Control Systems
        • Offensive Operations
        • Management, Legal, and Audit
      • By Skill Levels
        • New to Cyber
        • Essentials
        • Advanced
        • Expert
      • Training Formats
        • OnDemand
        • In-Person
        • Live Online
      • Free Course Demos
    • Training Roadmaps
      • Skills Roadmap
      • Focus Area Job Roles
        • Cyber Defense Job Roles
        • Offensive Operations Job Roles
        • DFIR Job Roles
        • Cloud Job Roles
        • ICS Job Roles
        • Leadership Job Roles
      • NICE Framework
        • Security Provisionals
        • Operate and Maintain
        • Oversee and Govern
        • Protect and Defend
        • Analyze
        • Collect and Operate
        • Investigate
        • Industrial Control Systems
      • European Skills Framework
    • GIAC Certifications
    • Training Events & Summits
      • Events Overview
      • In-Person Event Locations
        • Asia
        • Australia & New Zealand
        • Latin America
        • Mainland Europe
        • Middle East & Africa
        • Scandinavia
        • United Kingdom & Ireland
        • United States & Canada
      • Live Online Events List
      • Summits
    • OnDemand
    • Get Started in Cyber
      • Overview
      • Degree and Certificate Programs
      • Scholarships
      • Free Training & Resources
    • Cyber Ranges
  • Enterprise Solutions
    New Cyber Trends & Training in 2023

    This eBook offers a glimpse into the key threats that are expected to emerge as forecasted by SANS experts.

    Enterprise Solutions

    Build a world-class cyber team with our workforce development programs.

    Learn More
    • Overview
    • Group Purchasing
    • Build Your Team
      • Assessments
      • Private Training
      • By Industry
        • Health Care
        • Industrial Control Systems Security
        • Military
    • Leadership Training
      • Leadership Courses
      • Executive Cybersecurity Exercises
  • Security Awareness
    2023 Security Awareness Report

    Empowering Security Awareness teams with industry benchmarking, program growth, and career development.

    Security Awareness
    Increase your staff’s cyber awareness, help them change their behaviors, and reduce your organizational risk
    Learn More
    • Overview
    • Products & Services
      • Security Awareness Training
        • EndUser Training
        • Phishing Platform
      • Specialized
        • Developer Training
        • ICS Engineer Training
        • NERC CIP Training
        • IT Administrator
      • Risk Assessments
        • Knowledge Assessment
        • Culture Assessment
        • Behavioral Risk Assessment
    • OUCH! Newsletter
    • Career Development
      • Overview
      • Training & Courses
      • Professional Credential
    • Blog
    • Partners
    • Reports & Case Studies
  • Resources
    Security Policy Templates

    In collaboration with security subject-matter experts, SANS has developed a set of security policy templates for your use.

    Resources
    Enhance your skills with access to thousands of free resources, 150+ instructor-developed tools, and the latest cybersecurity news and analysis
    Browse Here
    • Overview
    • Webcasts
      • Webinars
      • Live Streams
        • Wait Just An Infosec
        • Cybersecurity Leadership
        • SANS Threat Analysis Rundown (STAR)
    • Free Cybersecurity Events
      • Free Events Overview
      • Summits
      • Solutions Forums
      • Community Nights
    • Content
      • Newsletters
        • NewsBites
        • @RISK
        • OUCH! Newsletter
      • Blog
      • Podcasts
        • Blueprint
        • Trust Me, I'm Certified
        • Cloud Ace
        • Wait Just an Infosec
      • Summit Presentations
      • Posters & Cheat Sheets
    • Internet Storm Center
    • Research
      • White Papers
      • Security Policies
    • Tools
    • Focus Areas
      • Cyber Defense
      • Cloud Security
      • Digital Forensics & Incident Response
      • Industrial Control Systems
      • Cyber Security Leadership
      • Offensive Operations
      • Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT)
  • Get Involved
    Join the Community

    Membership of the SANS.org Community grants you access to cutting edge cyber security news, training, and free tools that can't be found elsewhere.

    Get Involved
    Help keep the cyber community one step ahead of threats. Join the SANS community or begin your journey of becoming a SANS Certified Instructor today.
    Learn More
    • Overview
    • Join the Community
    • Work Study
    • Teach for SANS
    • CISO Network
    • Partnerships
    • Sponsorship Opportunities
  • About
    Our Mission

    To empower current and future cybersecurity practitioners around the world with immediately useful knowledge and capabilities, we deliver industry-leading community programs, resources and training.

    About
    Learn more about how SANS empowers and educates current and future cybersecurity practitioners with knowledge and skills
    Learn More
    • SANS
      • Overview
      • Our Founder
      • Awards
    • Instructors
      • Our Instructors
      • Full Instructor List
    • Mission
      • Our Mission
      • Diversity
      • Scholarships
    • Contact
      • Contact Customer Service
      • Contact Sales
      • Press & Media Enquiries
    • Frequent Asked Questions
    • Customer Reviews
    • Press
    • Careers
  • SANS Sites
    • Australia
    • Brazil
    • France
    • India
    • Japan
    • Middle East & Africa
    • Singapore
    • United Kingdom
  • Log In
  • Join
    • Account Dashboard
    • Log Out
  • Contact Sales
  1. Home >
  2. Blog >
  3. Top 25 Series - Rank 9 - OS Command Injection
370x370_Frank-Kim.jpg
Frank Kim

Top 25 Series - Rank 9 - OS Command Injection

February 24, 2010

Entry #9 on the new CWE/SANS Top 25 is about OS Command Injection [1]. It's officially called Improper Sanitization of Special Elements used in an OS Command ('OS Command Injection'), but I prefer to keep the title short when describing it.

In a previous post [2] we had just gained access to the application by using a default user id and password. Turns out we really couldn't do much with the application level account that we had because it didn't give us full access to confidential customer information. So, we continued to look around and saw that the application was deployed on Tomcat. Of course, we were able to log in to the Tomcat Manager application using the same default user id and password that we had used before. Now, the great thing about Tomcat Manager is the ability to upload arbitrary WAR files.

Of course, we quickly uploaded a web app that called netcat via Runtime.getRuntime().exec() to shovel a reverse shell back to our attacking machine so that we could execute arbitrary OS commands on the server itself. Technically, this isn't "Improper Sanitization of Special Elements used in an OS Command" as we just uploaded a whole app instead of bypassing an unsanitized field used to construct on OS command, but the result was the same.

As a side note, it was interesting to see Ryan Barnett's post [3] where people are still trying to brute force Tomcat Manager credentials so that they too can upload malicious web apps. His October 2009 post came about three years after we uploaded our malicious web app and points out that we need to do a better job defending our applications.

In the next post I'll talk about what we did with our command line access.

  1.  http://cwe.mitre.org/top25/#CWE-78
  2.  https://blogs.sans.org/appsecstreetfighter/2010/02/23/top-25-series-rank-19-missing-authentication-for-critical-function/
  3. http://tacticalwebappsec.blogspot.com/2009/10/wasc-honeypots-apache-tomcat-admin.html
Share:
TwitterLinkedInFacebook
Copy url Url was copied to clipboard
Subscribe to SANS Newsletters
Receive curated news, vulnerabilities, & security awareness tips
United States
Canada
United Kingdom
Spain
Belgium
Denmark
Norway
Netherlands
Australia
India
Japan
Singapore
Afghanistan
Aland Islands
Albania
Algeria
American Samoa
Andorra
Angola
Anguilla
Antarctica
Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina
Armenia
Aruba
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahamas
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belize
Benin
Bermuda
Bhutan
Bolivia
Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba
Bosnia And Herzegovina
Botswana
Bouvet Island
Brazil
British Indian Ocean Territory
Brunei Darussalam
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cambodia
Cameroon
Cape Verde
Cayman Islands
Central African Republic
Chad
Chile
China
Christmas Island
Cocos (Keeling) Islands
Colombia
Comoros
Cook Islands
Costa Rica
Croatia (Local Name: Hrvatska)
Curacao
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Djibouti
Dominica
Dominican Republic
East Timor
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Estonia
Ethiopia
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
Faroe Islands
Fiji
Finland
France
French Guiana
French Polynesia
French Southern Territories
Gabon
Gambia
Georgia
Germany
Ghana
Gibraltar
Greece
Greenland
Grenada
Guadeloupe
Guam
Guatemala
Guernsey
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Guyana
Haiti
Heard And McDonald Islands
Honduras
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
Indonesia
Iraq
Ireland
Isle of Man
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Jersey
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kiribati
Korea, Republic Of
Kosovo
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Lao People's Democratic Republic
Latvia
Lebanon
Lesotho
Liberia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macau
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Maldives
Mali
Malta
Marshall Islands
Martinique
Mauritania
Mauritius
Mayotte
Mexico
Micronesia, Federated States Of
Moldova, Republic Of
Monaco
Mongolia
Montenegro
Montserrat
Morocco
Mozambique
Myanmar
Namibia
Nauru
Nepal
Netherlands Antilles
New Caledonia
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
Niue
Norfolk Island
North Macedonia
Northern Mariana Islands
Oman
Pakistan
Palau
Palestine
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Pitcairn
Poland
Portugal
Puerto Rico
Qatar
Reunion
Romania
Russian Federation
Rwanda
Saint Bartholemy
Saint Kitts And Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Martin
Saint Vincent And The Grenadines
Samoa
San Marino
Sao Tome And Principe
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Serbia
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Sint Maarten
Slovakia
Slovenia
Solomon Islands
South Africa
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
South Sudan
Sri Lanka
St. Helena
St. Pierre And Miquelon
Suriname
Svalbard And Jan Mayen Islands
Swaziland
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Thailand
Togo
Tokelau
Tonga
Trinidad And Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Turks And Caicos Islands
Tuvalu
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United States Minor Outlying Islands
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Vatican City
Venezuela
Vietnam
Virgin Islands (British)
Virgin Islands (U.S.)
Wallis And Futuna Islands
Western Sahara
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe

By providing this information, you agree to the processing of your personal data by SANS as described in our Privacy Policy.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Tags:
  • Cloud Security

Related Content

Blog
Coolest Careers Poster
Cloud Security
July 14, 2023
SANSがおすすめするサイバーセキュリティの仕事20選: DevSecOps エンジニア
DevSecOps エンジニアの主な業務や、スキルアップのためのSANSのおすすめのコースを紹介します!
SANS_social_88x82.jpg
SANS Institute
read more
Blog
DevSecOops_Thumbnail_FINAL.png
Cloud Security, DevSecOps
February 10, 2023
What is DevSecOps
Part one of a four-part blog series about what’s needed to shake, shimmy, and shift left
Stacey Dunn
Stacy Dunn
read more
Blog
340x340_Landing_Page_Images.png
Cloud Security
April 1, 2021
What's New in SEC540: Cloud Security and DevSecOps Automation
The Cloud Moves Fast. Automate to Keep Up.
Eric_Johnson_370x370.png
Eric Johnson
read more
  • Register to Learn
  • Courses
  • Certifications
  • Degree Programs
  • Cyber Ranges
  • Job Tools
  • Security Policy Project
  • Posters & Cheat Sheets
  • White Papers
  • Focus Areas
  • Cyber Defense
  • Cloud Security
  • Cybersecurity Leadership
  • Digital Forensics
  • Industrial Control Systems
  • Offensive Operations
Subscribe to SANS Newsletters
Receive curated news, vulnerabilities, & security awareness tips
United States
Canada
United Kingdom
Spain
Belgium
Denmark
Norway
Netherlands
Australia
India
Japan
Singapore
Afghanistan
Aland Islands
Albania
Algeria
American Samoa
Andorra
Angola
Anguilla
Antarctica
Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina
Armenia
Aruba
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahamas
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belize
Benin
Bermuda
Bhutan
Bolivia
Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba
Bosnia And Herzegovina
Botswana
Bouvet Island
Brazil
British Indian Ocean Territory
Brunei Darussalam
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cambodia
Cameroon
Cape Verde
Cayman Islands
Central African Republic
Chad
Chile
China
Christmas Island
Cocos (Keeling) Islands
Colombia
Comoros
Cook Islands
Costa Rica
Croatia (Local Name: Hrvatska)
Curacao
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Democratic Republic of the Congo
Djibouti
Dominica
Dominican Republic
East Timor
Ecuador
Egypt
El Salvador
Equatorial Guinea
Eritrea
Estonia
Ethiopia
Falkland Islands (Malvinas)
Faroe Islands
Fiji
Finland
France
French Guiana
French Polynesia
French Southern Territories
Gabon
Gambia
Georgia
Germany
Ghana
Gibraltar
Greece
Greenland
Grenada
Guadeloupe
Guam
Guatemala
Guernsey
Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Guyana
Haiti
Heard And McDonald Islands
Honduras
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
Indonesia
Iraq
Ireland
Isle of Man
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Jersey
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kiribati
Korea, Republic Of
Kosovo
Kuwait
Kyrgyzstan
Lao People's Democratic Republic
Latvia
Lebanon
Lesotho
Liberia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macau
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia
Maldives
Mali
Malta
Marshall Islands
Martinique
Mauritania
Mauritius
Mayotte
Mexico
Micronesia, Federated States Of
Moldova, Republic Of
Monaco
Mongolia
Montenegro
Montserrat
Morocco
Mozambique
Myanmar
Namibia
Nauru
Nepal
Netherlands Antilles
New Caledonia
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
Niue
Norfolk Island
North Macedonia
Northern Mariana Islands
Oman
Pakistan
Palau
Palestine
Panama
Papua New Guinea
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Pitcairn
Poland
Portugal
Puerto Rico
Qatar
Reunion
Romania
Russian Federation
Rwanda
Saint Bartholemy
Saint Kitts And Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Martin
Saint Vincent And The Grenadines
Samoa
San Marino
Sao Tome And Principe
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Serbia
Seychelles
Sierra Leone
Sint Maarten
Slovakia
Slovenia
Solomon Islands
South Africa
South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands
South Sudan
Sri Lanka
St. Helena
St. Pierre And Miquelon
Suriname
Svalbard And Jan Mayen Islands
Swaziland
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Tajikistan
Tanzania
Thailand
Togo
Tokelau
Tonga
Trinidad And Tobago
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Turks And Caicos Islands
Tuvalu
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United States Minor Outlying Islands
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Vanuatu
Vatican City
Venezuela
Vietnam
Virgin Islands (British)
Virgin Islands (U.S.)
Wallis And Futuna Islands
Western Sahara
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe

By providing this information, you agree to the processing of your personal data by SANS as described in our Privacy Policy.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
  • © 2023 SANS™ Institute
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
  • Contact
  • Careers
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn