After gaining access to a Linux system with a non-privileged account, a penetration tester identifies the following file: Which of the following actions should the tester perform FIRST?

The correct answer is B. Use privilege escalation. The file .scripts/daily_log_backup.sh has permissions set to 777, meaning that anyone can read, write, or execute the file. Since it's owned by the root user and the penetration tester has access to the system with a non-privileged account, this could be a potential avenue for…

Post-exploitation and lateral movement

Question

After gaining access to a Linux system with a non-privileged account, a penetration tester identifies the following file:

Which of the following actions should the tester perform FIRST?

Options

AChange the file permissions.
BUse privilege escalation.
CCover tracks.
DStart a reverse shell.

How the community answered

(16 responses)

A
6% (1)
B
75% (12)
C
13% (2)
D
6% (1)

Explanation

The file .scripts/daily_log_backup.sh has permissions set to 777, meaning that anyone can read, write, or execute the file. Since it's owned by the root user and the penetration tester has access to the system with a non-privileged account, this could be a potential avenue for privilege escalation. In a penetration test, after finding such a file, the tester would likely want to explore it and see if it can be leveraged to gain higher privileges. This is often done by inserting malicious code or commands into the script if it's being executed with higher privileges, such as root in this

Topics

#Privilege escalation#Post-exploitation#Linux security#Penetration testing methodology

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