What’s different between version 1.1.2 to version 2. Well… keep reading
In version 2 I added more dynamic analysis tools such as MARA, PIDCat, QARK. In the pentesting section, I added Metasploit. I also added MobSF (a one stop shop with dynamic scanning for android applications) in a docker container. In version 1.1.2 I tried to upgrade my python version to 3.7.5 and broke my Linux build (could not update the distro).
After speaking with Anant (owner/creator of @AndroidTamer) we decided to put MobSF into a docker container to keep it contained and not break our build.
I also created the virtual machine from a vagrant machine, as I realized with version 1, I severely underestimated the storage I needed to include all the programs I wanted. I also included insecure android apps to test in the Documents folder.
Interested in learning more – download/use the virtual machine at the following location:
As the title suggests, I am working on the second version of the virtual machine I created in 2019.
I put myself out there and decided to create a training on Mobile Security and Bug Bounties – something I wanted to learn and am still interested in.
I noticed there was a virtual machine titled – Android Tamer, score! Well… not really. At the time, Android Tamer was SUPER out of date. Speaking with the creator, Anant Shrivastava about my dilemma needing a virtual machine for my training. Anant told me that it would be easier to create my own virtual machine as opposed to fixing the current version of Android Tamer.
Creating my own virtual machine? I’ve never done that before. Challenge accepted!
Anant, was SUPER helpful with all of my questions and guided me on creating the virtual machine. In about a month the first version was created. Yay!
After the training, I asked for feedback and decided I needed to revamp the virtual machine to make it more accessible/user friendly.
I added and updated out of date software in the virtual machine.
Then I noticed – I was running out of memory when trying to do my upgrades.
I realized at that moment, I totally underestimated the size of the virtual machine.
So, at this time I am revamping the virtual machine and starting with a barebone version of Ubuntu 18.04 (this is the OS the first version was built on) from Vagrant. Again, Anant gave me this advice when creating the first version. I didn’t go down that path as I never heard of Vagrant.
Speaking of Vagrant – shameless plug – I created a course through Cybrary on Intro to Vagrant. The course can be found here.
I started on the quest to version 2 yesterday (Sunday February 7, 2021), and I must say it was trying, yet fun.
Once I created the vagrantfile and started the vagrant box I realized I was dealing with the command prompt. I knew this wasn’t going to work and I needed to add a user interface. Looking on the internet, I found the lightdm and tried installing it. Once I rebooted my virtual machine, I encountered the error “could not log into session.” The login did not work.
Putting my research hat, I found the following link on how to remediate the no session login. Hmm, the ligthdm is using an older version of the unity framework that needs to be removed.
Rebooting the machine – it was a…
Somewhat success.
I had a user interface, but I didn’t like it. See tweets below
: Here's a screenshot of the VM. I want to have the same look and feel as Ubuntu 18.04. Need to do more research. I'll probably create a blog when I'm done. #MobileSecuritypic.twitter.com/90ihMytwCt
I wanted the user interface to have the same feel as the 18.04 Bionic Beaver operating system.
Doing even more research I found that 18.04 Bionic Beaver is using the MATE desktop.
Back to Google I go. I found a great site on how to install MATE onto a Linux operating system.
Somewhat score? The user interface is getting close, but not there.
: Progress!!! Research showed 18.04 Bionic Beaver was using MATE desktop. So scrapped my original VM, created a new one in #Vagrant and installed MATE desktop. Here's the update… pic.twitter.com/Cnzzl6KoH5
Going back to the site above, I noticed that I installed the wrong version of the MATE desktop. I installed just the MATE desktop without the bells and whistles.
Looking at the bottom for the Ubuntu section it states – “
Alternatively you may choose to install Ubuntu MATE Remix.
Ubuntu MATE is a more comprehensive option that offers a slightly tweaked layout, configuration, and themes to integrate into Ubuntu in a more seamless fashion. This will install the complete MATE Desktop Environment as well as LightDM and numerous other applications to provide a full and well rounded desktop.“
Once I installed the Remixed version – I finally found success!
Now that I have the interface I wanted – it’s time to add the tools and insecure apps.
Yes, that’s what set my virtual machine apart – I have insecure android apps installed in the virtual machine for students to learn mobile and android hacking as well as the common programs needed to perform mobile and android hacking.
Spidering the site we’re still not seeing a lot of information…
Looking at the other pages of the challenge we notice that it is “level<number>” Let’s try to change from the 404.php to levelseven.php, and see what we get.
Changing the site we see a blank page:
Going back to ZAP we see the following:
Looking at the response we notice that the levelseven.php returns a 200 “OK” status. Next to the status we see weird encoding. Looking at the end of the encoding it ends in “==”. Could this be base 64 encoding, let’s try it.
Going to Google, and typing in “base 64 decoder” we get the following link.
Putting in our encoding we get the following:
We found the flag – infosec_flagis_youfoundit!
Lessons learned:
Don’t depend on one solution. You should have multiple tools in your tool belt! We tried the view page source, but that didn’t work. Looking at the network traffic inside the developer tools did not help either. When all else fails, we can use a proxy. After configuring the proxy we still noticed that we didn’t see anything. When we realized that the page did not follow the pattern of the other pages in the ctf challenge we decided to go to the real level seven page. Once we did this (with our intercepting proxy on) we noticed that we received a valid response with special 64 encoding. Decoding this, we were presented with the flag! The developer tried to do security through obscurity by presenting us with a red herring in the 404.php page. Security through obscurity doesn’t work as we found out the pattern of the challenge and was able to solve the challenge.
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