Tag Archives: USB

Steps Toward Weaponizing the Android Platform

(4/16/2015) – NOTE: THIS SOLUTION HAS BEEN KIND OF SUPERSEDED BY https://www.kali.org/kali-linux-nethunter/ , if nethunter doesn’t work for you then continue on with this post:

The mobile and tablet market have been flooded by millions upon millions of Android based devices. I wonder if Ken Thompson or Dennis Ritchie would have ever imagined that their invention from nearly 44 years ago would have influenced the likes of the Linux kernel,  Google, Apple, and beyond. We are now in a sea of Unix-like devices that now can easily fit in individuals pockets, which have multiple core processing power and can easily access SCADA systems with a few keystrokes.  It has never been a better time for pocket sized penetration testing devices.

In this article I will be covering ways that one can turn their Android based device into a powerful pocket sized penetration testing tool. If you’re looking to do wireless sniffing or packet injection with your Android based device, this article will be of little help. (If interested please see this, this, this, this, and this.) To do so, one needs a specific Android device that supports OTG, with a custom ROM, and you’ll most likely need an external USB wireless adapter. (Honestly, if you’re looking for a device for cracking WEP keys without any external USB wireless adapters, then I highly still recommend the Nokia N900.)

(NOTE: If you’re strictly looking to do wireless sniffing,  there is AndroidPCAP which I have tested with my Nexus 7 and a RTL8187 based wireless USB adapter.)

Firstly, before progressing on towards the weaponizing of your Android device, please take the time to back up any vital information. Have a look at this.  Reason being, is that you’ll need to root your Android based device. Depending on your device and the method of rooting, rooting your device and unlocking the bootloader can wipe your device.

Setting up Kali Linux ARM Chroot on your rooted Android based device that has about 6GB of free space

1.) Install BusyBox
2.) Install Terminal Emulator
3.) I created a Kali Linux ARM IMG that one can easily mount and it can be downloaded here:
http://goo.gl/qmGle
https://archive.org/details/Kali.nogui.armel.zitstif.chroot.482013

kali.nogui.armel.zitstif.chroot.482013.7z

md5: d60c5a52bcea35834daecb860bd8a5c7
sha1: f62c2633d214de9edad1842c9209f443bcea385d

kali.img

MD5: be61799f8eb2d98ff8874daaf572a1d5
SHA-1: f9c6a820349530350bbb902d17ae6b4a5173937c

NOTE: This image gives you about 2GB of free space in the environment to play with so use with care.

4.) Extract the 7z file and make sure that there’s a folder in this following location: /sdcard/kali
5.) In this folder you should have shell script named ‘kali’ and the ‘kali.img’ image file.
6.) To mount the kali.img file as root do this: sh /sdcard/kali/kali

Optional:
If you want Terminal Emulator to open up and go directly to the chroot environment do as follows:
1.) Open up Terminal Emulator
2.) Go to preferences
3.) Tap on Initial Command
4.) Enter this: su -c “cd /sdcard/kali && sh kali”

Now if you tap on Terminal Emulator, you’ll go directly to your Kali chroot environment. If you want to leave the environment and back to the Android command line, simply type exit.

Optional: If you want to access files from /sdcard/ from your Kali chroot envrionment, one way is to have an Openssh server on your Android device that listens on all interfaces. Then under your chroot envrionment do: mkdir /media/sdcard/ and then connect to your ssh server on your loopback interface to store the ssh key. Then you could use a script like this in your chroot environment (or even edit your .bashrc file to run it automatically):

http://zitstif.no-ip.org/mountsdcard.py #You’ll need to edit the username and password appropriately for your situation.

I should warn you that this Kali image is not setup with the idea of using a window manager or really any GUI tools. In my humble opinion to take advantage of Kali Linux, you don’t need a GUI. Using the terminal to access tools like nmap, netcat, w3af_console, sqlmap, xsser, and metasploit will be sufficient to get one started on their penetration test.

Once you’re in the Kali Linux chroot environment, please do the following:

apt-get update && apt-get upgrade && msfupdate

In addition to setting up the Kali Linux chroot environment, here are a list of other tools and a quick description of each that I recommend you to install:

2X Client – Remote desktop client
AndFTP – ftp/sftp client
androidVNC – vnc viewer client
AndSMB – Android Samba client
AnyTAG NFC Launcher – Automate your phone by scanning NFC tags
APG – OpenGPG for Android
CardTest –  Test your NFC enabled credit cards
Checksum –  basically a GUI tool for md5sum and shasum tools
ConnectBot – powerful ssh client
DNS Lookup – perform DNS and WHOIS lookups
Dolphin Browser – a browser that easily allows you to change your UserAgent
DroidSQLi – automated MySQL injection tool
dSploit – Android Network Penetration Suite
Electronic Pickpocket –  wirelessly read NFC enabled cards
Exif Viewer – shows exif data from photos and can remove this information
Fast notepad – simple but useful notepad application
Find My Router’s Password – title explains it all (mostly for default passwords)
Fing – very similar to Look@LAN tool for Windows
Goomanager –  see link for more information
Hacker’s Keyboard –  Miss the easily accessible CTRL key? This app is for you
HashPass – translate text into hashes
Hex Editor –  a very usable hex editor for Android
inSSIDer – wireless network scanner
intercepter-NG – multi-function network tool, sniffer, cookie intercepter, arp poisoner
IP info Detective – find out all sorts of info on an IP address
IP Webcam – turn your Android device into an IP security camera
Network Signal Info – basically a graphical tool for iwconfig
NFC Reader – used for reading various NFC technologies including some keycards
NFC ReTAG – Re-use/recycle write protected NFC Tags such as hotel key-cards, access badges, etc
NFC TagInfo -another NFC reader
OpenVPN Connect – open vpn client
Orbot – tor on Android
Packet Injection – poorman’s GUI version of scapy
ProxyDroid – use your socks5 proxy with this application
Root Browser – great file manager for Android
Routerpwn – test how secure your router is
SandroProxy – kind of like Webscarab
Secret Letter – a  poorman’s stegonagraphy tool
SSHDroid – openssh server for android
Supersu – manage what programs access root functions
Teamviewer – remotely control Windows, OSX, and Linux based systems
Terminal Emulator – no explanation needed
tPacketCapture – packet sniffer that doesn’t require root
VirusTotal Uploader – test your malicious payloads
Voodoo OTA RootKeeper – maintain root access even after updates
Wifi File Transfer – access files on your phone from a web browser via an http server
WifiFinder – simple wireless scanner
WiGLE Wifi wardriving – wardriving/warwalking application

Of course this is probably not complete, but I believe this is a very good suite of tools to get one started. If you can think of any more tools or if you have any suggestions, please feel free to leave a comment below.

Weaponizing the Nokia N900 – Part 3.5

Due to my love of hand held devices that can be used for penetration testing, I have obtained a Nokia N900 for relatively cheap on eBay. A brand new N900 will burn you a hole about the size of $399 USD in your pocket. However, I obtained mine (a refurbished one) for about $285.

Granted this device is now 2 years old but in my opinion it can be setup as a solid security assessment tool. I thought I would write a de facto continuation of the “Weaponizing the Nokia N900″ series that Infosec island has done. (I hope they don’t mind 🙂 )

With the N900 being an old man, in terms of technology, one can spruce it up a bit via overclocking. I would highly suggest to check out:

http://thehandheldblog.com/2010/07/27/how-to-easily-overclock-your-n900-in-under-two-minutes/

I have mine overclocked to 750MHZ and it seems to be running just fine. Metasploit will load in about a minute or so. Which is not nearly as bad as running Metasploit on the N810 (which I was able to do by just following the same instructions for getting Metasploit to run on the N900). The N810, the last time I checked, took 15 minutes to load Metasploit.

Bear in mind that my tips imply that you have already enabled all the extra repositories as needed, if you haven’t done so check out:

http://www.nokian900applications.com/repositories-extras-extras-devel-and-extras-testing-for-nokia-n900/

As stated and shown before, there have been guides on weaponizing the N900. However some of these guides have failed to explain certain issues that I would like to address:

1.) The ettercap-ng package from the repositories is totally broken. I ended up having to download ettercap from this forum post and follow the instructions on it appropriately:

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=42680

2.) sslstrip will work, and you have to follow the comments addressed on this web page to get it setup along with a few other things:

http://www.knownokia.ca/2010/04/using-n900-for-fun-and-profit.html

a.) You have to install iptables  (apt-get install iptables)

b.) You have to install another python package, (apt-get install python-openssl)

3.) The Metasploit package comes in in a tar.bz2 format. For some odd reason, the version of tar (the busy-box version) cannot do ‘-xjf’. So either you have to install the gnu version of tar or put metasploit on a computer that can extract it and put it into a format that can be decompressed on the n900.

4.) I wasn’t able to find netcat in the repositories. If you’re in the same boat, you’ll have to port it over or get a chroot environment setup. (easydebian)

Lastly, here is my original way of weaponizing the n900 even more so.

You’ll need a MicroSD card that you’re currently not using and you don’t mind wiping it and making it bootable. Also, you’re going to need BackBox iso (yes.. not BackTrack 4, I will explain later) and unetbootin.

Obtain BackBox from:

http://www.backbox.org/content/download

Obtain unetbootin from:

http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net/

1.) Install your Microsd card into the N900, by removing the back plate.

2.) Connect your n900 via the USB cable that came with it to your N900.

3.) When you get a prompt on your n900 from connecting it to your computer, choose the Mass storage device mode.

4.) Now, 2 drives should show up, (depending on if you’re using Windows or if you have automount setup under Linux). The drive that is the size of your MicroSD card, is your MicroSD card. (I know.. DUH)

5.) Fire up unetbootin, select Diskimage option, locate where you downloaded the BackBox iso and select it.

6.) Make sure you have the correct drive selected and finally click ‘OK’.

7.) Once the process is done, reboot your computer.

8.) Hit F2 (or it could be other keys, like F9) for your BIOS or better yet if there is an option for a boot menu, hit that key.

9.) Select to boot off of the N900 (some BIOS will show two and not differentiate the two, while other BIOS will state that there is a removable n900. If you’re not sure, just change your boot order to have both N900’s as the first and second boot devices. If your BIOS shows the removable N900, this is the one you want to boot off of.)

10.) Your computer should now be booting off your MicroSD card which is in your N900.

The real cool thing here, is that you can still use your N900 while the computer has booted off of your N900. So you can still make phone calls or surf the net with it.

Now you may be asking yourself, “Why would I want to do this?”. I ran through a couple scenarios in my head, the first, is if you only have one USB drive that is currently in use running, say L0phtcrack on one workstation, but you want to multitask and still explore the network further. Well you have your handy and now bootable N900. Lastly, it seems as if most computers (from my experience) don’t have a MicroSD card slot but have USB ports.

Finally, I naturally tried BackTrack 4, but it would not boot and it would shove me to a busybox shell. I didn’t feel like dealing with finding a fix at the time, so I thought I would find a different distro.

If I do more interesting and original things with my N900, I will post more.

As usual more to come…

Boot Sequence Attacks

There’s a saying amongst a few fellow computer security enthusiasts that I know of, that goes a little something like this, “If the attacker has physical access to the machine, the game is over.” (Or something to that extent)

This couldn’t be any further from the truth. If I were to do a permitted pentest upon a company which included physical access as part of the scope, then I would definitely test the local workstations and use one of them as a pivot point to gain further access/information.

To mitigate this attack, the administrator should ideally change the boot sequence to have the hard drive as the first device the computer boots from in the BIOS and also set the BIOS password, and have the computer case locked down, so one couldn’t clear the CMOS (it’s usually jumper 1 on the motherboard).

However, in most large facilities, administrators usually don’t take the time to do this and are usually more concerned with other types of attacks, in my opinion.

Now I will give a hypothetical scenario for a pentester that will permit him/her to do a pentest that will include physical access to this factitious facility.

Upon gaining physical access to a workstation, the pentester has a few tools with him/her. In his/her arsenal he/she has as follows:

BackTrack 4 on a USB flash drive
PLoP ( http://www.plop.at/en/bootmanager.html )
Konboot ( http://www.piotrbania.com/all/kon-boot/ )
cmospwd ( http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/CmosPwd )

As the pentester reboots the computer and tries to enter the BIOS, he/she is stopped by a password prompt. In the password prompt, he/she tries a few combinations including backdoor passwords that are sometimes set by manufacturers. ( http://www.uktsupport.co.uk/reference/biosp.htm )

Realizing that none of these worked, the pentester needs to then assess whether or not the administrator has locked down the boot sequence.

Out comes the flash drive and into the USB port it goes! The pentester is aware of how some motherboards will default to the USB drive as the first boot device when plugged in. (I’ve personally experienced this on a motherboard I own). However, still no luck!

With the pentester’s lock picking skills not at their best, he/she is detoured by the workstation’s case lock. It is time to him/her to revert to PLop.

PLop is one beautiful tool. It is a boot manager that you can even use on old motherboards that don’t support booting off of flash drives.

The pentester was in luck! The workstation checked the CD-ROM drive first in its boot sequence! Now the pentester can direct the victim workstation to boot off his USB drive (with Backtrack 4) via PLop.

Upon getting the prompt from Backtrack 4, the pentester is now curious about what the password was set to on the workstation.

To find this info, he/she uses cmospwd. By retrieving this password, the pentester can use this as leverage towards other devices in the network.

I’ve had luck with some motherboards using cmospwd for retrieving the password from the dump it can produce. Consequently, it’s not perfect, but it can get the job done.

I know I mentioned konboot as part of the arsenal but didn’t have the pentester use it, but I thought I’d mention it due to the fact it’s such a wonderful tool to have.

I’ll have more to come as usual and I have two programs in mind that I’m working on..