Vulnerability Assessment
Vulnerability Assessment
Conducted by:
Micah Geertson
University of San Diego
San Diego CA
Conducted for:
COL500 – Foundations of Cyber Security
Date Conducted:
06/01/2018
The focus of this assessment was from a purely network vulnerability perspective in regards to
functioning services on open ports of the Metasploitable VM Host Server. This assessment was
conducted as a White Box assessment with full access to credentials. No methods other than
Nessus Vulnerability Scanner will be used during this initial assessment nor will any
recommendations be made on anything other than the Top 10 Critical Vulnerabilities.
None
Table of Contents
Network Profile…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..17
Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….21
References………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….22
Executive Summary
On June 1, 2018, ASCME INC’s internal security team lead by Micah Geertson provided an
expedited vulnerability assessment of the ASCME INC Metasploitable VM Host Server. Over the
span of several days, the team carefully examined the results of the assessment and created a
list comprised of several vulnerabilities found with remediation suggestions as outlined by
MITRE’s Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) list.
Positive findings
Unfortunately, other than having a functional operating system on reliable hardware, there
were relatively few positive findings found during the assessment. In an attempt to shed some
positive light on the assessment, ASCME INC’s Metasploitable VM Host Server possessed the
following beneficial attributes:
The host had access control measures in place by requiring a username and password to
be entered in able to access the system.
The host required that an IP address be assigned to the system prior to allowing any
form of network access.
The Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) who created the system were very helpful in
diagnosing and resolving known issues prior to conducting the vulnerability assessment
via well written documentation.
Deficiencies Noted
Overall Summary
The assessment uncovered results which were of little surprise. A total of 423 vulnerabilities
were found utilizing Nessus with 27 critical, 92 high, 135 medium, and 18 (+151 information)
low vulnerabilities requiring immediate attention. While the assessment proved to be a great
success, the tough road to recovery for ASCME INC. will require a remediation effort above and
beyond that of the internal security team. If a numerical score for resiliency to attack were to
be assigned to the Metasploit VM Host Server, it would be assigned a 0 out of a possible score
of 10 with 10 being absolutely impenetrable.
Findings and Recommendations
The following finding and recommendations were dictated via the Nessus Vulnerability
Scanning Tool. These are purely recommendations made via the tool and no explicit promises
have been made to remediate the vulnerabilities found during this assessment.
Risk Information:
Description: The remote host is running a version of Bash that is vulnerable to command
injection via environment variable manipulation. Depending on the configuration of the system,
an attacker can remotely execute arbitrary code.
Solution:
Apply the appropriate update.
See Also:
http://www.nessus.org/u?dacf7829
Notes:
VULNERABILITY: Bash Remote Code Execution (Shellshock)
Legend:
A – Availability Impact ND – Not Defined
AC – Access Complexity OF – Official Fix
Au – Authentication POC – Proof of Concept
AV – Access Vector RC – Report Confidence
C – Confidentiality Impact RL – Remediation Level
CVSS – Common Vulnerability Scoring System TF – Temporary Fix
F – Functional U - Unavailable
H – High W - Workaround
I – Integrity Impact
Risk Information:
Description: The remote host is running a version of Bash that is vulnerable to command
injection via environment variable manipulation. Depending on the configuration of the system,
an attacker could remotely execute arbitrary code.
Solution:
Update Bash.
See Also:
http://seclists.org/oss-sec/2014/q3/650
http://www.nessus.org/u?dacf7829
https://www.invisiblethreat.ca/post/shellshock/
Notes:
VULNERABILITY: Bind Shell Backdoor Detection
Legend:
A – Availability Impact ND – Not Defined
AC – Access Complexity OF – Official Fix
Au – Authentication POC – Proof of Concept
AV – Access Vector RC – Report Confidence
C – Confidentiality Impact RL – Remediation Level
CVSS – Common Vulnerability Scoring System TF – Temporary Fix
F – Functional U - Unavailable
H – High W - Workaround
I – Integrity Impact
Risk Information:
Description: A shell is listening on the remote port without any authentication being required.
An attacker may use it by connecting to the remote port and sending commands directly.
Solution:
Verify if the remote host has been compromised and reinstall the system if necessary.
See Also:
https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/51988
Notes:
VULNERABILITY: Debian OpenSSH/OpenSSL Package Random Number
Generator Weakness
Legend:
A – Availability Impact ND – Not Defined
AC – Access Complexity OF – Official Fix
Au – Authentication POC – Proof of Concept
AV – Access Vector RC – Report Confidence
C – Confidentiality Impact RL – Remediation Level
CVSS – Common Vulnerability Scoring System TF – Temporary Fix
F – Functional U - Unavailable
H – High W - Workaround
I – Integrity Impact
Risk Information:
Description: The remote SSH host key has been generated on a Debian or Ubuntu system which
contains a bug in the random number generator of its OpenSSL library. The problem is due to a
Debian packager removing nearly all sources of entropy in the remote version of OpenSSL. An
attacker can easily obtain the private part of the remote key and use this to set up decipher the
remote session or set up a man in the middle attack.
Solution:
Consider all cryptographic material generated on the remote host to be guessable. In particular,
all SSH, SSL and OpenVPN key material should be re-generated.
See Also:
http://www.nessus.org/u?5d01bdab
http://www.nessus.org/u?f14f4224
Notes:
VULNERABILITY: Debian OpenSSH/OpenSSL Package Random Number
Generator Weakness (SSL check)
Legend:
A – Availability Impact ND – Not Defined
AC – Access Complexity OF – Official Fix
Au – Authentication POC – Proof of Concept
AV – Access Vector RC – Report Confidence
C – Confidentiality Impact RL – Remediation Level
CVSS – Common Vulnerability Scoring System TF – Temporary Fix
F – Functional U - Unavailable
H – High W - Workaround
I – Integrity Impact
Risk Information:
Description: The remote x509 certificate on the remote SSL server has been generated on a
Debian or Ubuntu system which contains a bug in the random number generator of its OpenSSL
library. The problem is due to a Debian packager removing nearly all sources of entropy in the
remote version of OpenSSL. An attacker can easily obtain the private part of the remote key
and use this to decipher the remote session or set up a man in the middle attack.
Solution:
Consider all cryptographic material generated on the remote host to be guessable. In particular,
all SSH, SSL and OpenVPN key material should be re-generated.
See Also:
http://www.nessus.org/u?5d01bdab
http://www.nessus.org/u?f14f4224
Notes:
VULNERABILITY: NFS Exported Share Information Disclosure
Legend:
A – Availability Impact ND – Not Defined
AC – Access Complexity OF – Official Fix
Au – Authentication POC – Proof of Concept
AV – Access Vector RC – Report Confidence
C – Confidentiality Impact RL – Remediation Level
CVSS – Common Vulnerability Scoring System TF – Temporary Fix
F – Functional U - Unavailable
H – High W - Workaround
I – Integrity Impact
Risk Information:
Description: At least one of the NFS shares exported by the remote server could be mounted by
the scanning host. An attacker may be able to leverage this to read (and possibly write) files on
remote host.
Solution:
Configure NFS on the remote host so that only authorized hosts can mount its remote shares.
See Also:
https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/11356
Notes:
VULNERABILITY: rexecd Service Detection
Legend:
A – Availability Impact ND – Not Defined
AC – Access Complexity OF – Official Fix
Au – Authentication POC – Proof of Concept
AV – Access Vector RC – Report Confidence
C – Confidentiality Impact RL – Remediation Level
CVSS – Common Vulnerability Scoring System TF – Temporary Fix
F – Functional U - Unavailable
H – High W - Workaround
I – Integrity Impact
Risk Information:
Description: The rexecd service is running on the remote host. This service is design to allow
users of a network to execute commands remotely. However, rexecd does not provide any
good means of authentication, so it may be abused by an attacker to scan a third-party host.
Solution:
Comment out the 'exec' line in /etc/inetd.conf and restart the inetd process.
See Also:
https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/10203
Notes:
VULNERABILITY: Ubuntu 6.06 LTS / 7.04 / 7.10 / 8.04 LTS : gnutls12,
gnutls13 vulnerabilities (USN-613-1)
Legend:
A – Availability Impact ND – Not Defined
AC – Access Complexity OF – Official Fix
Au – Authentication POC – Proof of Concept
AV – Access Vector RC – Report Confidence
C – Confidentiality Impact RL – Remediation Level
CVSS – Common Vulnerability Scoring System TF – Temporary Fix
F – Functional U - Unavailable
H – High W - Workaround
I – Integrity Impact
Risk Information:
Description: Multiple flaws were discovered in the connection handling of GnuTLS. A remote
attacker could exploit this to crash applications linked against GnuTLS, or possibly execute
arbitrary code with permissions of the application's user. Note that Tenable Network Security
has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory.
Tenable has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible without
introducing additional issues.
Solution:
Update the affected packages.
See Also:
https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/32432
Notes:
VULNERABILITY: Ubuntu 6.06 LTS / 7.04 / 7.10 / 8.04 LTS : libxml2
vulnerabilities (USN-644-1)
Legend:
A – Availability Impact ND – Not Defined
AC – Access Complexity OF – Official Fix
Au – Authentication POC – Proof of Concept
AV – Access Vector RC – Report Confidence
C – Confidentiality Impact RL – Remediation Level
CVSS – Common Vulnerability Scoring System TF – Temporary Fix
F – Functional U - Unavailable
H – High W - Workaround
I – Integrity Impact
Risk Information:
Description: It was discovered that libxml2 did not correctly handle long entity names. If a user
were tricked into processing a specially crafted XML document, a remote attacker could
execute arbitrary code with user privileges or cause the application linked against libxml2 to
crash, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2008-3529).
Solution:
Update the affected packages.
See Also:
https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/37936
Notes:
VULNERABILITY: Ubuntu 6.06 LTS / 7.04 / 7.10 / 8.04 LTS : linux, linux-
source-2.6.15/20/22 vulnerabilities (USN-625-1)
Legend:
A – Availability Impact ND – Not Defined
AC – Access Complexity OF – Official Fix
Au – Authentication POC – Proof of Concept
AV – Access Vector RC – Report Confidence
C – Confidentiality Impact RL – Remediation Level
CVSS – Common Vulnerability Scoring System TF – Temporary Fix
F – Functional U - Unavailable
H – High W - Workaround
I – Integrity Impact
Risk Information:
Description: A race condition was discovered between ptrace and utrace in the kernel. A local
attacker could exploit this to crash the system, leading to a denial of service. (CVE-2008-2365)
The copy_to_user routine in the kernel did not correctly clear memory destination addresses
when running on 64bit kernels. A local attacker could exploit this to gain access to sensitive
kernel memory, leading to a loss of privacy. (CVE-2008-2729)
The PPP over L2TP routines in the kernel did not correctly handle certain messages. A remote
attacker could send a specially crafted packet that could crash the system or execute arbitrary
code.
(CVE-2008-2750)
Solution:
Update the affected packages.
See Also:
https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/33531
Notes:
Network Profile
Source Addresses:
10.0.0.2 Windows 10 Host Operating System
10.0.0.18 VMWare Workstation, VM Kali Linux
Destination Address:
10.0.013 Metasploitable Metasploitable VM Host Server
Domain information:
N/A
Fingerprinting
This test is to determine the success of various packet response fingerprinting methods through
the firewall.
Method Result
Stealth
This test determines the viability of SYN stealth scanning through the firewall for enumeration.
Results
ICMP Responses
This test is to measure the firewall’s responses to various types of ICMP packets.
Protocol
This test is to discover the firewalls to screen packets of various protocols.
Protocol Result
Google Trolling
Protected File
File name
File type
Crack time
User name
Password
It is the recommendation of the ASCME INC’s internal security team that METASPLOITABLE VM
HOST SERVER (IP: 10.0.0.13) be gracefully terminated IMMEDIATELY. ASCME INC’s internal
security team is unable to provide assistance in replacement of this system and steps should be
taken with the appropriate team to replace the machine.
ASCME INC’s internal security team officially concluded the vulnerability analysis #00001A on
03 JUNE 2018. The Vulnerability Assessment for ASCME INC. shall officially conclude upon
signed receipt of this document. ASCME INC. will have the opportunity to discuss the
aforementioned findings and remediation suggestions with ASCME INC’s internal security team
prior to this assessment’s conclusion.
References
Mell, P., Scarfone, K., & Romanosky, S. (n.d.). CVSS v2 Complete Documentation. Retrieved June 01, 2018,
from https://www.first.org/cvss/v2/guide#1-Introduction
Proffitt, Tim (n.d.) Creating a Comprehensive Vulnerability Assessment Program for a Large Company Using
QualysGuard. Retrieved June 01, 2018 from http://www.sans.org/reading-
room/whitepapers/auditing/creating-comprehensive-vulnerability-assessment-program-large-company-
qualysguard-2139
Vulnerability References
Bash Incomplete Fix Remote Code Execution Vulnerability (Shellshock), Retrieved June 01, 2018, from
https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/78385
Bash Remote Code Execution (Shellshock), Retrieved June 01, 2018, from
https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/77823
Debian OpenSSH/OpenSSL Package Random Number Generator Weakness, Retrieved June 01, 2018, from
https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/32314
Debian OpenSSH/OpenSSL Package Random Number Generator Weakness (SSL check), Retrieved June 01,
2018, from https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/32321
NFS Exported Share Information Disclosure, Retrieved June 01, 2018, from
https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/11356
Ubuntu 6.06 LTS / 7.04 / 7.10 / 8.04 LTS : gnutls12, gnutls13 vulnerabilities (USN-613-1), Retrieved June 01,
2018, from https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/32432
Ubuntu 6.06 LTS / 7.04 / 7.10 / 8.04 LTS : libxml2 vulnerabilities (USN-644-1), Retrieved June 01, 2018, from
https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/37936
Ubuntu 6.06 LTS / 7.04 / 7.10 / 8.04 LTS : linux, linux-source-2.6.15/20/22 vulnerabilities (USN-625-1),
Retrieved June 01, 2018, from https://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/33531