Helix HTB Write Up

Welcome to another Hack the Box walkthrough. In this blog post, I have demonstrated how I owned the Helix machine on Hack the Box. Hack The Box is a cybersecurity platform that helps you bridge knowledge gaps and prepares you for cyber security jobs.

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About the Machine

Helix is a medium-rated Linux machine on Hack The Box. This machine involves exploiting Apache NiFi vulnerability and exploring Industrial Control Systems (ICS) and OPC UA protocols. The Helix machine is vulnerable to CVE-2023-34468, a Remote Code Execution via DB Components in Apache NiFi.

The DBCPConnectionPool and HikariCPConnectionPool Controller Services in Apache NiFi 0.0.2 through 1.21.0 allow an authenticated and authorized user to configure a Database URL with the H2 driver that enables custom code execution. By recreating the proof of concept, I obtained a shell as the user ‘nifi’ and recovered the operator’s SSH key from the NiFi support bundle. I then SSH’d in as the user ‘operator.

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