This can be easily exploited and leveraged to steal sensitive data from the targeted network. In short, this vulnerability allows an attacker to obtain access to the internal network of a software development company by exploiting a known vulnerability in the .NET framework. The vulnerability was discovered by security researchers from Cisco and was assigned the CVE identifier CVE-2018-8779. It is important to note that .NET is the core framework of several Microsoft products such as Office suite, SharePoint, and Dynamics CRM. This means that .NET framework is installed on most Windows systems and on most networks. End users and network administrators are most likely to be hit by this vulnerability. Therefore, it is critical that developers and administrators work hard to keep up-to-date with the latest security patches for their operating systems and software.

Details of the .NET Framework Remote Code Execution Vulnerability

The vulnerability is located within the .NET framework. This fact makes it easy for attackers to exploit the vulnerability without having to understand how .NET works or what a particular application does.
The vulnerability resides in the System.Xml.XslTransform class and affects versions of this library from 2005-2019. This means that any software that relies on .NET framework will be vulnerable to this attack, even if it was updated after 2018-10-16 (the date on which Microsoft released a patch).
The vulnerability allows an attacker to gain access to internal networks of software development companies and steal data such as usernames, passwords, and other user credentials by exploiting a known vulnerability in the system's XML transformation engine.

How Does the CVE-2022-30184 Vulnerability Work?

An adversary can exploit this vulnerability to get unauthorized access to the internal network of a company. The attacker first locates the targeted company’s systems, and then he/she performs reconnaissance on their internal networks by manipulating the traffic flow. Once inside of the network, the attacker can launch a man-in-the-middle attack to steal sensitive data from target systems.

How to exploit the vulnerability?

If you’re an attacker, you can exploit this vulnerability by creating a malicious .NET assembly that contains an exploit. With the provided malicious .NET assembly, the attacker will be able to gain unrestricted access to the internal network of the targeted company.
If you’re a developer or administrator of a network, you should scan for applications that use .NET and make sure they are fully patched. In order to do so, you should use software like Nessus (www.nessus.org) which is available in a variety of platforms including Windows and Linux; or Metasploit (https://metasploit.com/) which is only available on Windows.

How does the .NET Framework Vulnerability Lead to Remote Access?

The vulnerability allows an attacker to execute code on the internal network of a software development company. The attacker can exploit the vulnerability by sending a crafted email that contains malicious code to an employee or system administrator. Once the malicious code is executed, it will lead to remote access and exfiltration of data from the targeted network.

How to Hack a .NET Framework Instance

This vulnerability can be exploited by an attacker who has access to the network. The attacker can exploit this vulnerability without any special privileges and without the need for authentication. All it takes is a simple web browser attack that strikes at a point where .NET framework is running. This means that any vulnerability in the software could be exploited by an attacker with relative ease.
In order to execute the attack, the attacker must first find a suitable vector of entry and then establish a connection between their computer and vulnerable machine on the targeted network.
To do so, they will have to find and exploit one of many publicly known vulnerabilities such as SQL injection, command injection, cross-site scripting, and others. Once they have penetrated through these issues, they will be able to carry out malicious actions against the vulnerable software instance.

Timeline

Published on: 06/15/2022 22:15:00 UTC
Last modified on: 07/07/2022 04:15:00 UTC

References