Sunday, August 25, 2013

SIMET Box Firmware Analysis: Embedded Device Hacking & Forensics

For my first blog post I decided to have a quick look on the firmware from SIMET Box. SIMET is organized by the Brazilian NIC.br in order to test and monitor the Internet speed across the country. For more info (in portuguese) visit their site here. All the data collected is available to the community on reports and heat maps like this.

The organization is now handing out free Wi-Fi routers to Brazilians in order to measure the Internet quality on different regions. The SIMET Box equipment is a custom TL-WR740N pre-installed with OpenWRT. You can also download and install the standalone firmware on other TPLink's SOHO routers.



The project is quite interesting but in times of PRISM and NSA I don't like the idea of using a "black box" at home, so I decided to check its design.

Firmware

As I don't have the actual box, I'll analyze SIMET Box's firmware image. The firmware can be downloaded from http://simet.nic.br/firmware. For this initial analysis I'll be using simetbox-tl-wr740n-v4.bin (MD5 d08798093e1591bece897671e96b5983).


Let's start by using Craig Heffner's binwalk and firmware-mod-kit to unsquash the filesystem:

binwalk -Me simetbox-tl-wr740n-v4.bin


After extracting the files we can browse through the squashfs-root dir and grep files to identify OpenWrt's version base:


We now know that SIMET Box is based on Attitude Adjustment branch (v12.09) for Atheros AR71xx, downloadable on OpenWRT's official site: openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr740n-v4-squashfs-factory.bin.

After extracting the base firmware (using binwalk) we now have two directory trees to diff. We can use WinMerge or Kdiff3 to compare files.


 

There are some new init.d scripts like atualiza_arqs, autossh, miniupnpd and zabbix_agentd:


Lots of binaries (/bin/busibox for example) are quite similar: they may have a small version difference or were compiled using particular command line arguments:


List of files created by SIMET Box (not present on the OpenWrt's base firmware):
while read -r i ; do file $i ; done < list.txt
/etc/config/autossh: ASCII text
/etc/config/upnpd: ASCII text
/etc/dropbear/authorized_keys: OpenSSH DSA public key
/etc/dropbear/id_rsa: data
/etc/hotplug.d/button/00-button: ASCII text
/etc/hotplug.d/iface/20-autossh: POSIX shell script, ASCII text executable
/etc/hotplug.d/iface/50-miniupnpd: POSIX shell script, ASCII text executable
/etc/init.d/atualiza_arqs_simet: POSIX shell script, ASCII text executable
/etc/init.d/autossh: POSIX shell script, ASCII text executable
/etc/init.d/miniupnpd: POSIX shell script, ASCII text executable
/etc/init.d/zabbix_agentd: POSIX shell script, ASCII text executable
/etc/rc.d/S11sysctl: symbolic link to `../init.d/sysctl'
/etc/rc.d/S19firewall: symbolic link to `../init.d/firewall'
/etc/rc.d/S45atualiza_arqs_simet: symbolic link to `../init.d/atualiza_arqs_simet'
/etc/rc.d/S60zabbix_agentd: symbolic link to `../init.d/zabbix_agentd'
/etc/rc.d/S80autossh: symbolic link to `../init.d/autossh'
/etc/rc.d/S95miniupnpd: symbolic link to `../init.d/miniupnpd'
/etc/uci-defaults/50-reset: POSIX shell script, ASCII text executable
/etc/uci-defaults/50-reset-wps: POSIX shell script, ASCII text executable
/etc/uci-defaults/50-wifi: POSIX shell script, ASCII text executable
/etc/uci-defaults/99-miniupnpd: POSIX shell script, ASCII text executable
/etc/uci-defaults/luci-i18n-portuguese_brazilian: POSIX shell script, UTF-8 Unicode text executable
/etc/uci-defaults/luci-theme-bootstrap: POSIX shell script, ASCII text executable
/etc/uci-defaults/luci-upnp: POSIX shell script, ASCII text executable
/etc/zabbix_agentd.conf: ASCII text
/lib/libpthread-0.9.33.2.so: ELF 32-bit MSB shared object, MIPS, MIPS32 rel2 version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked (uses shared libs), corrupted section header size
/lib/libpthread.so.0: symbolic link to `libpthread-0.9.33.2.so'
/root/.ssh/known_hosts: ASCII text, with very long lines
/sbin/fw3: ELF 32-bit MSB executable, MIPS, MIPS32 rel2 version 1, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), corrupted section header size
/usr/bin/auto_upgrade: symbolic link to `simet_tools'
/usr/bin/checa_udhcpc.sh: POSIX shell script, ASCII text executable
/usr/bin/get_mac_address.sh: POSIX shell script, ASCII text executable
/usr/bin/simet_client: ELF 32-bit MSB executable, MIPS, MIPS32 rel2 version 1, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), corrupted section header size
/usr/bin/simet_dns: symbolic link to `simet_tools'
/usr/bin/simet_porta25: symbolic link to `simet_tools'
/usr/bin/simet_tools: ELF 32-bit MSB executable, MIPS, MIPS32 rel2 version 1, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), corrupted section header size
/usr/bin/sshreversetunnel: POSIX shell script, ASCII text executable
/usr/bin/teste_spoofing.sh: POSIX shell script, ASCII text executable
/usr/bin/wifionoff: POSIX shell script, ASCII text executable
/usr/lib/lua/luci/controller/simet.lua: ASCII text
/usr/lib/lua/luci/controller/upnp.lua: ASCII text
/usr/lib/lua/luci/i18n/base.pt-br.lmo: data
/usr/lib/lua/luci/i18n/upnp.ca.lmo: data
/usr/lib/lua/luci/i18n/upnp.cs.lmo: data
/usr/lib/lua/luci/i18n/upnp.de.lmo: data
/usr/lib/lua/luci/i18n/upnp.es.lmo: data
/usr/lib/lua/luci/i18n/upnp.fr.lmo: data
/usr/lib/lua/luci/i18n/upnp.hu.lmo: data
/usr/lib/lua/luci/i18n/upnp.it.lmo: data
/usr/lib/lua/luci/i18n/upnp.ja.lmo: data
/usr/lib/lua/luci/i18n/upnp.no.lmo: data
/usr/lib/lua/luci/i18n/upnp.pl.lmo: data
/usr/lib/lua/luci/i18n/upnp.pt-br.lmo: data
/usr/lib/lua/luci/i18n/upnp.pt.lmo: data
/usr/lib/lua/luci/i18n/upnp.ro.lmo: data
/usr/lib/lua/luci/i18n/upnp.ru.lmo: data
/usr/lib/lua/luci/i18n/upnp.vi.lmo: data
/usr/lib/lua/luci/i18n/upnp.zh-cn.lmo: data
/usr/lib/lua/luci/model/cbi/upnp/upnp.lua: ASCII text
/usr/lib/lua/luci/sgi/uhttpd.lua: ASCII text
/usr/lib/lua/luci/view/admin_status/index/upnp.htm: ASCII text
/usr/lib/lua/luci/view/simet/simet.htm: HTML document, UTF-8 Unicode text
/usr/lib/lua/luci/view/themes/bootstrap/footer.htm: HTML document, ASCII text
/usr/lib/lua/luci/view/themes/bootstrap/header.htm: HTML document, ASCII text
/usr/lib/lua/luci/view/upnp_status.htm: HTML document, ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/autossh.conffiles: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/autossh.control: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/autossh.list: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/hping3.control: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/hping3.list: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/libip6tc.control: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/libip6tc.list: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/libnfnetlink.control: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/libnfnetlink.list: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/libopenssl.control: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/libopenssl.list: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/libpcap.control: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/libpcap.list: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/libpthread.control: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/libpthread.list: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/luci-app-simet.control: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/luci-app-simet.list: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/luci-app-upnp.control: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/luci-app-upnp.list: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/luci-i18n-portuguese-brazilian.control: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/luci-i18n-portuguese-brazilian.list: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/luci-sgi-uhttpd.control: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/luci-sgi-uhttpd.list: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/luci-theme-bootstrap.control: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/luci-theme-bootstrap.list: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/miniupnpd.conffiles: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/miniupnpd.control: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/miniupnpd.list: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/simet-base-files.control: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/simet-base-files.list: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/simet-client.control: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/simet-client.list: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/simet-tools.control: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/simet-tools.list: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/uhttpd-mod-lua.control: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/uhttpd-mod-lua.list: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/zabbix-agentd.control: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/zabbix-agentd.list: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/zlib.control: ASCII text
/usr/lib/opkg/info/zlib.list: ASCII text
/usr/lib/libcrypto.so.1.0.0: ELF 32-bit MSB shared object, MIPS, MIPS32 rel2 version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, corrupted section header size
/usr/lib/libip6tc.so: symbolic link to `libip6tc.so.0.0.0'
/usr/lib/libip6tc.so.0: symbolic link to `libip6tc.so.0.0.0'
/usr/lib/libip6tc.so.0.0.0: ELF 32-bit MSB shared object, MIPS, MIPS32 rel2 version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, corrupted section header size
/usr/lib/libjson-c.so.2: symbolic link to `libjson-c.so.2.0.1'
/usr/lib/libjson-c.so.2.0.1: ELF 32-bit MSB shared object, MIPS, MIPS32 rel2 version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, corrupted section header size
/usr/lib/libnfnetlink.so.0: symbolic link to `libnfnetlink.so.0.2.0'
/usr/lib/libnfnetlink.so.0.2.0: ELF 32-bit MSB shared object, MIPS, MIPS32 rel2 version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, corrupted section header size
/usr/lib/libpcap.so: symbolic link to `libpcap.so.1.1'
/usr/lib/libpcap.so.1.1: symbolic link to `libpcap.so.1.1.1'
/usr/lib/libpcap.so.1.1.1: ELF 32-bit MSB shared object, MIPS, MIPS32 rel2 version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, corrupted section header size
/usr/lib/libssl.so.1.0.0: ELF 32-bit MSB shared object, MIPS, MIPS32 rel2 version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, corrupted section header size
/usr/lib/libz.so: symbolic link to `libz.so.1.2.7'
/usr/lib/libz.so.1: symbolic link to `libz.so.1.2.7'
/usr/lib/libz.so.1.2.7: ELF 32-bit MSB shared object, MIPS, MIPS32 rel2 version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, corrupted section header size
/usr/lib/uhttpd_lua.so: ELF 32-bit MSB shared object, MIPS, MIPS32 rel2 version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, corrupted section header size
/usr/sbin/autossh: ELF 32-bit MSB executable, MIPS, MIPS32 rel2 version 1, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), corrupted section header size
/usr/sbin/hping3: ELF 32-bit MSB executable, MIPS, MIPS32 rel2 version 1, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), corrupted section header size
/usr/sbin/miniupnpd: ELF 32-bit MSB executable, MIPS, MIPS32 rel2 version 1, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), corrupted section header size
/usr/sbin/zabbix_agentd: ELF 32-bit MSB executable, MIPS, MIPS32 rel2 version 1, dynamically linked (uses shared libs), corrupted section header size
/usr/share/libiwinfo/hardware.txt: ASCII text
/usr/share/miniupnpd/firewall.include: POSIX shell script, ASCII text executable
/www/luci-static/bootstrap/cascade.css: assembler source, ASCII text
/www/luci-static/bootstrap/favicon.ico: MS Windows icon resource - 1 icon
/www/luci-static/bootstrap/html5.js: HTML document, ASCII text, with very long lines
/www/simet/ceptro.png: PNG image data, 78 x 30, 8-bit colormap, non-interlaced
/www/simet/cgi.png: PNG image data, 46 x 30, 8-bit colormap, non-interlaced
/www/simet/nic.png: PNG image data, 47 x 25, 8-bit colormap, non-interlaced
/www/simet/nonet.htm: UTF-8 Unicode text
/www/simet/offline.jpg: JPEG image data, EXIF standard
/www/simet/simetbox_minilogo.png: PNG image data, 111 x 23, 8-bit colormap, non-interlaced
/www/simet/view_tab.css: assembler source, ASCII text
/www/simet/view_tab.js: UTF-8 Unicode text, with very long lines

This simple technique is quite useful for forensic analysis of embedded devices, as you have a white-list of known binaries and config files. It's important to review both created and modified files, but I'll focus on the ones listed above. Each binary and config file can be reviewed separately so we can find interesting entries like:

  • SSH reverse tunnel settings and authorized_keys:
  • Password changing scripts and Iptables rules:

  • The device management starting page has an external iframe and users are identified by their MAC Address via HTTP GET requests:

  • Cronjobs to test external access to port 25 and if the ISP allows IP spoofing:
  • Script using hping3 to test if the user's ISP allows packet spoofing:

  • Zabbix agent settings:

As a quick advice to SIMET engineers, it would be nice to have HTTPS for those external queries, a bit more of transparency on what the equipment does internally, who's able to access it (whose authorized_keys are those?), what external IP addresses it communicates with and what information is being collected. Securing SOHO modems is very important, specially here in Brazil where lots of recent attacks were targeting these devices (Fabio Assolini's talk "The tale of one thousand and one DSL modems" detailed this a year ago).

On the next post I'll detail how to run those MIPS32 binaries on a virtual environment using QEMU and analyze some of the files with IDA Pro.

8 comments:

  1. Amigo instalei esse firmware no meu roteador e não consigo remove-lo você tem alguma dica de como realizar a reversão

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Já vi relatos de pessoas que pediram diretamente para o pessoal do SIMET fazer a reversão. Aparentemente eles fazem isso manualmente, conectando remotamente no seu roteador (ssh) e rodando os scripts na linha de comando.

      Você pode gravar um novo firmware abrindo e fazendo o flash direto na memória (usando JTAG por exemplo).

      Outra alternativa seria conseguir uma shell no sistema e fazer o flash manualmente pela cli. Várias das funcionalidades do LuCI foram desativadas, mas outras continuam ativas, como por exemplo o Filebrowser (http://192.168.1.149/cgi-bin/luci/;stok=7050bdefeee995ef9c9ccefb6eeda1a0/admin/filebrowser/). Dei uma olhada rápida aqui agora e levantei alguns outros caminhos de acesso administrativo (é só colocar no final do path): http://pastebin.com/T5R8dWdC

      Delete
    2. Não encontrei forma de conectar ssh com o meu router. alguma dica de como fazer isso?

      Delete
    3. Buenas Senhores,

      Conecte o seu PC em uma porta lan do tp-link. Coloque um wireshark e escute e escute a porta lan para ver o que acontece. Pressionando o reset, ligue o tp-link e observe uma requisição TFTP em que o 192.168.0.86 (tp-link) busca no .66 o servidor TFTP o arquivo wr740v4_tp_recovery.bin.

      85 26.364440000 192.168.0.86 192.168.0.66 TFTP 84 Read Request, File: wr740v4_tp_recovery.bin, Transfer type: octet, timeout\000=5\000

      A jogada é colocar o ip 192.168.0.66/24 no seu PC e subir um servidor TFTP, colocando o arquivo wr740v4_tp_recovery.bin.
      Note a atualização do firmware via wireshark.

      Ah! o Simet é um Openwrt Luci 12.09 mutado, então é possível jogar a versão sem problemas.
      Gerei o firmware abaixo com ssh/telnet aberto para o tp-link wr740n-v4.
      https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByjeQY6XlNIKTlZ4TXpTWEx2OUk/view?usp=sharing

      Outra forma é soldar uma porta serial no seu tp-link - debricking.

      No meu caso, conectei na COM4 vel 115200 e verifiquei as variaveis de ambiente:

      boot > tpl

      U-Boot 1.1.4 (May 29 2013 - 13:00:27)
      hornet> printenv
      bootargs=console=ttyS0,115200 root=31:02 rootfstype=squashfs init=/sbin/init mtdparts=ar7240-nor0:256k(u-boot),64k(u-boot-env),2752k(rootfs),896k(uImage),64k(NVRAM),64k(ART)
      bootcmd=bootm 0x9f020000
      bootdelay=1
      baudrate=115200
      ethaddr=0xba:0xbe:0xfa:0xce:0x07:0x41
      ipaddr=192.168.1.111
      serverip=192.168.1.100
      stdin=serial
      stdout=serial
      stderr=serial
      ethact=eth0

      Environment size: 362/65532 bytes

      Faça um ping para o serverip=192.168.1.100 e faça o ftp.

      tftpboot 0x81000000 openwrt-ar71xx-generic-tl-wr740n-v4-squashfs-factory.bin
      erase 0x9f020000 +0x3c0000
      cp.b 0x81000000 0x9f020000 0x3c0000
      bootm 9f020000

      Detalhe: Você utilizava o ip 192.168.129.1 para acessar o tp-link e, após a atualização, utilizará 192.168.1.1.

      []s

      Delete
    4. Muito boas dicas. Obrigado.

      Delete

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