Information Gathering

The phase of collecting information is an important part in our process. We are especially looking for information concerning the configuration of the system, so we can take advantage of potential shortcomings. For example, a cronjob may have been created in a Linux system where root executes script X every hour. If, however, all system users are allowed to write to this script, we can easily gain root privileges. A simple way would be to include our current user in the sudoers group.

The misconfiguration in the above scenario - and thus our prized conquest - could only be identified by us by gathering information about users (root), files (script X) and services (cronjob). Therefore, as soon as we gain access to a system, we should at least look for the information listed below. We should also mention here that the basic purpose of the following Linux commands can be transferred to other operating systems.

Information about users

• id
• sudo -l
• cat /etc/passwd
• cat /etc/shadow
• cat /etc/group
• cat /etc/sudoers

Information about files and services

• cat /etc/crontab
• cat /etc/cron/
• find / -uid 0 -perm -u=s -type f 2>/dev/null
• grep -ir pass /*
• ls -ahlR /root/
• ls -ahlR /home/
• ps aux

Information about the network

• ip addr show
• hostname
• ss -antp
• iptables -L
• cat /etc/resolv.conf

Information about the kernel

• lsb_release -a
• uname -a