Day 21: PATH Hijacking & Cron Exploitation — The Automation Trap 🕵️‍♂️

🛠️ The “Invisible” Attack Vectors

1. PATH Hijacking: The Power of Order

Linux finds programs by looking through directories in the $PATH variable. If a root script calls tar instead of /bin/tar, it will execute the first tar it fi…


This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Devon Argent

🛠️ The "Invisible" Attack Vectors

1. PATH Hijacking: The Power of Order

Linux finds programs by looking through directories in the $PATH variable. If a root script calls tar instead of /bin/tar, it will execute the first tar it finds.

  • The Exploit: Place a malicious script named tar in a directory like /tmp, then add /tmp to the start of the PATH: export PATH=/tmp:$PATH.
  • The Result: The root script runs your "fake" tar, giving you a root shell.

2. Cron Job Exploitation

Cron is the Linux scheduler. If a script in /etc/crontab is world-writable (-rwxrwxrwx), you've already won.

  • The Injection: echo "/bin/bash" >> /usr/local/bin/backup.sh
  • The Payload: Wait 1 minute for the cron to run, and your command executes as root.

3. Wildcard Injection in Cron

If a cron job uses a wildcard like tar -czf backup.tar.gz /home/user/*, you can create files that look like command arguments (e.g., --checkpoint=1) to trick the program into executing code.

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This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Devon Argent


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