HacktheBox "machine" Fawn

Description

The File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is widely used for transferring files between clients and servers, but it can pose significant security risks if not properly configured. Misconfigured FTP services may allow employees to bypass security controls, leading to unauthorized data transfers. Unsecured FTP servers can expose sensitive log files containing network information, such as usernames and active services, which attackers can exploit for further attacks. To mitigate these risks, organizations should secure FTP configurations, enforce strong authentication, consider using secure alternatives like SFTP or FTPS, and regularly audit and monitor FTP activities to protect sensitive data and maintain network integrity.

Enumeration

Enumeration is the process of extracting detailed information about a system, service, or network to identify vulnerabilities or gather intelligence for further exploitation. It typically follows initial scanning and involves actively probing the target to gather specific data.

Ananlysis

Step:-1 This nmap command is to run a scan on the 10.129.54.34 IP address and includes the following options:

-sV: Do service version scanning, which will reveal which services and their versions are running on which ports.

-sC and -sV switches will be employed in order toforce default script usage (albeit intrusive) and advanced version detection for services identified on any of the open ports

sudo nmap -sV 10.129.54.34

Step:-2

The command sudo apt install ftp -y is used in Debian-based Linux distributions (like Ubuntu) to install the FTP client package.

• sudo: This command allows a permitted user to execute a command as the superuser or another user, as specified by the security policy. It's often required for administrative tasks like installing software.
• apt: This stands for Advanced Package Tool, which is a package management system used to handle the installation, upgrading, and removal of software packages on Debian-based systems.
• install: This option tells apt that you want to install a package.
• ftp: This is the name of the package you want to install. In this case, it's the FTP client, which allows you to connect to FTP servers to upload and download files.
• -y: This option automatically answers "yes" to any prompts during the installation process, allowing the installation to proceed without requiring further user input.

Step:-3 The command ftp 10.129.72.101 is used to initiate an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) session with the server at the IP address 10.129.72.101

The get command in FTP is used to download a file from the remote FTP server to your local machine.

Step:-4 The ls command in FTP is used to list the files and directories in the current working directory on the remote FTP server.

The cat command in Linux/Unix is used to display the contents of a file

Finally, the flags have been identified

Task 1

What does the 3-letter acronym FTP stand for?

file transfer protocol

Task 2

Which port does the FTP service listen on usually?

21

Task 3

FTP sends data in the clear, without any encryption. What acronym is used for a later protocol designed to provide similar functionality to FTP but securely, as an extension of the SSH protocol?

sftp

Task 4

What is the command we can use to send an ICMP echo request to test our connection to the target?

ping

Task 5

From your scans, what version is FTP running on the target?

vsftpd 3.0.3

Task 6

From your scans, what OS type is running on the target?

unix

Task 7

What is the command we need to run in order to display the 'ftp' client help menu?

ftp -h

Task 8

What is username that is used over FTP when you want to log in without having an account?

Anonymous

Task 9

What is the response code we get for the FTP message 'Login successful'?

230

Task 10

There are a couple of commands we can use to list the files and directories available on the FTP server. One is dir. What is the other that is a common way to list files on a Linux system.

ls

Task 11

What is the command used to download the file we found on the FTP server?

get

Submit Flag

Submit root flag

035db21c881520061c53e0536e44f815

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