1 1 00:00:00,360 --> 00:00:02,010 Pivoting. 2 2 00:00:02,010 --> 00:00:03,570 Now, as I mentioned previously, 3 3 00:00:03,570 --> 00:00:06,660 there is a difference between pivoting and lateral movement. 4 4 00:00:06,660 --> 00:00:07,680 And so in this lesson, 5 5 00:00:07,680 --> 00:00:10,230 we are going to focus on exactly what pivoting is 6 6 00:00:10,230 --> 00:00:13,200 and how it distinctly is different from lateral movement. 7 7 00:00:13,200 --> 00:00:14,700 Now, when we talk about pivoting, 8 8 00:00:14,700 --> 00:00:18,090 this is when an attacker uses a compromised host, the pivot, 9 9 00:00:18,090 --> 00:00:20,100 as a platform from which to spread an attack 10 10 00:00:20,100 --> 00:00:22,020 to other points in the network. 11 11 00:00:22,020 --> 00:00:23,850 When I talk more about lateral movement, 12 12 00:00:23,850 --> 00:00:25,560 this is more focused on when an attacker 13 13 00:00:25,560 --> 00:00:27,120 hops from one host to another 14 14 00:00:27,120 --> 00:00:29,580 in search of vulnerabilities for them to exploit. 15 15 00:00:29,580 --> 00:00:32,580 But once they start running those attacks from one point, 16 16 00:00:32,580 --> 00:00:34,530 that is the pivot point. 17 17 00:00:34,530 --> 00:00:37,200 Now again, let me give you a quick word of warning here. 18 18 00:00:37,200 --> 00:00:38,820 Lateral movement and pivoting, 19 19 00:00:38,820 --> 00:00:39,810 while they are different 20 20 00:00:39,810 --> 00:00:42,810 and we talk about them as separate concepts in this lesson, 21 21 00:00:42,810 --> 00:00:44,310 they are used interchangeably 22 22 00:00:44,310 --> 00:00:46,710 by a lot of cybersecurity professionals. 23 23 00:00:46,710 --> 00:00:48,660 So when you're talking about this in the field, 24 24 00:00:48,660 --> 00:00:50,940 people will say lateral movement or pivoting 25 25 00:00:50,940 --> 00:00:52,890 to mean the same thing oftentimes, 26 26 00:00:52,890 --> 00:00:55,020 but for the exam, there is a difference. 27 27 00:00:55,020 --> 00:00:56,250 And so you need to remember, 28 28 00:00:56,250 --> 00:00:57,810 the difference really comes down to, 29 29 00:00:57,810 --> 00:01:00,090 if you have an attack point established 30 30 00:01:00,090 --> 00:01:01,440 and then you're conducting your attacks 31 31 00:01:01,440 --> 00:01:05,010 from that point in the network, that is your pivot point, 32 32 00:01:05,010 --> 00:01:07,770 and I'll go into that a little bit more in this lesson. 33 33 00:01:07,770 --> 00:01:09,180 Now, when we do pivoting, 34 34 00:01:09,180 --> 00:01:10,800 one of the main things we have to do 35 35 00:01:10,800 --> 00:01:12,690 is we use port forwarding. 36 36 00:01:12,690 --> 00:01:13,620 With port forwarding, 37 37 00:01:13,620 --> 00:01:16,530 this allows the attacker to use a host as a pivot 38 38 00:01:16,530 --> 00:01:17,850 and then we'll be able to access 39 39 00:01:17,850 --> 00:01:21,990 one of its open TCP ports to send traffic from this port 40 40 00:01:21,990 --> 00:01:25,050 to the port of another host on a different subnet. 41 41 00:01:25,050 --> 00:01:26,910 Now, I know that sounds a little complicated, 42 42 00:01:26,910 --> 00:01:29,160 so I'm going to go ahead and show you graphically 43 43 00:01:29,160 --> 00:01:30,423 what this means. 44 44 00:01:31,260 --> 00:01:33,090 First, we have a host. 45 45 00:01:33,090 --> 00:01:35,730 This is host A inside the victim network. 46 46 00:01:35,730 --> 00:01:39,330 As an attacker, I'm going to find some way to exploit host A 47 47 00:01:39,330 --> 00:01:40,500 through some kind of exploit. 48 48 00:01:40,500 --> 00:01:42,360 Maybe I used a phishing campaign, 49 49 00:01:42,360 --> 00:01:44,880 or maybe I found a vulnerability that I was able to exploit 50 50 00:01:44,880 --> 00:01:47,580 with some kind of zero-day code or something like that. 51 51 00:01:47,580 --> 00:01:50,520 However, I got in, let's just say host A 52 52 00:01:50,520 --> 00:01:54,630 has been had by an attacker and is now victimized. 53 53 00:01:54,630 --> 00:01:56,100 Then we have host B. 54 54 00:01:56,100 --> 00:01:57,960 The attacker might be conducting reconnaissance 55 55 00:01:57,960 --> 00:01:59,580 and identifying another target. 56 56 00:01:59,580 --> 00:02:02,130 So as I got into host A, I now start looking around 57 57 00:02:02,130 --> 00:02:04,500 and identified there's this other host, B. 58 58 00:02:04,500 --> 00:02:07,500 This is my looking out as a way of looking forward 59 59 00:02:07,500 --> 00:02:09,930 as the lateral movement that I may want to achieve later. 60 60 00:02:09,930 --> 00:02:10,950 And then I keep searching 61 61 00:02:10,950 --> 00:02:12,870 and I find that there's also this host C 62 62 00:02:12,870 --> 00:02:14,490 depicted here as a server, 63 63 00:02:14,490 --> 00:02:16,890 and so I have access to host A 64 64 00:02:16,890 --> 00:02:18,300 because I have control over it 65 65 00:02:18,300 --> 00:02:20,280 due to my initial exploitation. 66 66 00:02:20,280 --> 00:02:22,260 Then as part of my reconnaissance, 67 67 00:02:22,260 --> 00:02:24,450 I might find that I can reach host B, 68 68 00:02:24,450 --> 00:02:27,360 but I can't reach host C because it's on a different subnet. 69 69 00:02:27,360 --> 00:02:31,410 If this is the case, I may decide to exploit host B instead. 70 70 00:02:31,410 --> 00:02:34,590 By doing this, I now can have some kind of an exploit shell 71 71 00:02:34,590 --> 00:02:36,210 between host A and B. 72 72 00:02:36,210 --> 00:02:38,220 For instance, I may have gotten into host B 73 73 00:02:38,220 --> 00:02:39,510 and set up a listener on it 74 74 00:02:39,510 --> 00:02:42,720 and then had a Netcat connection between host A and B. 75 75 00:02:42,720 --> 00:02:44,550 Now that doesn't give me access to C yet, 76 76 00:02:44,550 --> 00:02:46,860 but I might be able to find that host B 77 77 00:02:46,860 --> 00:02:49,020 is on the same subnet as host C 78 78 00:02:49,020 --> 00:02:50,400 and has the ability to reach it 79 79 00:02:50,400 --> 00:02:52,290 because of its network configuration. 80 80 00:02:52,290 --> 00:02:54,840 For example, the firewall might trust host B, 81 81 00:02:54,840 --> 00:02:56,220 but doesn't trust host A, 82 82 00:02:56,220 --> 00:02:58,500 so host B can get into that subnet. 83 83 00:02:58,500 --> 00:03:02,040 Now, as the attacker, I want to be able to get into host C. 84 84 00:03:02,040 --> 00:03:03,390 So how can I do that? 85 85 00:03:03,390 --> 00:03:06,810 Well, maybe I'm going to set up a port forwarder on host B. 86 86 00:03:06,810 --> 00:03:08,820 For example, if I wanted to use RDP, 87 87 00:03:08,820 --> 00:03:10,530 the remote desktop protocol, 88 88 00:03:10,530 --> 00:03:14,550 I would set up a port forwarder of 3389 on host B. 89 89 00:03:14,550 --> 00:03:19,320 That will forward the port 3389 from B over to C. 90 90 00:03:19,320 --> 00:03:21,690 Now, I would have the ability from B 91 91 00:03:21,690 --> 00:03:23,130 to establish a connection, 92 92 00:03:23,130 --> 00:03:25,590 but that still won't get it all the way back to host A, 93 93 00:03:25,590 --> 00:03:27,900 which is where I actually have my footprint. 94 94 00:03:27,900 --> 00:03:31,080 So I would want to set up a listener on host A 95 95 00:03:31,080 --> 00:03:34,380 for port 3389, which again is RDP. 96 96 00:03:34,380 --> 00:03:38,250 This way, anything received on host B for port 3389 97 97 00:03:38,250 --> 00:03:40,860 will get forwarded from B over to C, 98 98 00:03:40,860 --> 00:03:41,693 and we're going to use it 99 99 00:03:41,693 --> 00:03:44,430 as a pass-through point or a pivot point. 100 100 00:03:44,430 --> 00:03:47,400 So now as an attacker, I can initiate an RDP session 101 101 00:03:47,400 --> 00:03:51,450 with host C from host A by going through host B 102 102 00:03:51,450 --> 00:03:53,130 and, essentially, I'm playing a telephone game. 103 103 00:03:53,130 --> 00:03:56,190 Anything I send to B is going to get redirected to C. 104 104 00:03:56,190 --> 00:03:59,280 Anything that goes from C to B gets redirected back to A, 105 105 00:03:59,280 --> 00:04:02,310 and so we're just passing through B on our way to C. 106 106 00:04:02,310 --> 00:04:04,740 This allows the attacker to successfully pivot 107 107 00:04:04,740 --> 00:04:08,250 from host A through host B into host C, 108 108 00:04:08,250 --> 00:04:11,370 and that way we have a full RDP connection ongoing. 109 109 00:04:11,370 --> 00:04:12,540 Now, that's the way it looks 110 110 00:04:12,540 --> 00:04:15,690 when you're doing this inside of a network graphically, 111 111 00:04:15,690 --> 00:04:18,120 and again, this is a very simplified diagram, 112 112 00:04:18,120 --> 00:04:19,200 but it gives you the idea 113 113 00:04:19,200 --> 00:04:21,540 of going through one host to another, 114 114 00:04:21,540 --> 00:04:23,250 and we're pivoting through that host 115 115 00:04:23,250 --> 00:04:25,050 by doing that port forwarding. 116 116 00:04:25,050 --> 00:04:25,883 In addition to that, 117 117 00:04:25,883 --> 00:04:29,040 we can do this instead of using RDP, we could use SSH. 118 118 00:04:29,040 --> 00:04:32,070 With SSH, it's actually really easy to use it for pivoting 119 119 00:04:32,070 --> 00:04:34,110 because you can use the -D flag, 120 120 00:04:34,110 --> 00:04:37,140 which sets up a local proxy and port forwarding 121 121 00:04:37,140 --> 00:04:38,340 on a given target. 122 122 00:04:38,340 --> 00:04:41,640 And so this is something that is used a lot by attackers. 123 123 00:04:41,640 --> 00:04:44,580 For instance, you might have, again, host A, 124 124 00:04:44,580 --> 00:04:46,320 host B and host C. 125 125 00:04:46,320 --> 00:04:47,880 Now, host A can't get to host C 126 126 00:04:47,880 --> 00:04:49,620 because it's being blocked by the firewall, 127 127 00:04:49,620 --> 00:04:51,570 but host B can get to host C. 128 128 00:04:51,570 --> 00:04:53,040 So what will we do? 129 129 00:04:53,040 --> 00:04:56,520 Well, we'll create an SSH channel between A to B, 130 130 00:04:56,520 --> 00:04:58,980 and then we'll pivot from B through the firewall 131 131 00:04:58,980 --> 00:05:00,150 over to host C, 132 132 00:05:00,150 --> 00:05:01,170 creating that connection 133 133 00:05:01,170 --> 00:05:04,860 and allowing host A to connect to host C through host B. 134 134 00:05:04,860 --> 00:05:06,480 Now, in both of my examples, 135 135 00:05:06,480 --> 00:05:08,910 I showed you where we used a single pivot point, 136 136 00:05:08,910 --> 00:05:10,830 but attackers can actually chain 137 137 00:05:10,830 --> 00:05:12,300 their proxy servers together 138 138 00:05:12,300 --> 00:05:14,610 in order to continue pivoting from host to host 139 139 00:05:14,610 --> 00:05:17,520 until they reach a mission critical host or server. 140 140 00:05:17,520 --> 00:05:19,920 For example, in one network I worked in, 141 141 00:05:19,920 --> 00:05:22,290 we had a very complex network setup 142 142 00:05:22,290 --> 00:05:23,760 with multiple different subnets 143 143 00:05:23,760 --> 00:05:25,950 where only certain ones could trust each other, 144 144 00:05:25,950 --> 00:05:26,850 and we had an attacker 145 145 00:05:26,850 --> 00:05:28,350 that actually found their way through 146 146 00:05:28,350 --> 00:05:30,390 three or four different subnetworks 147 147 00:05:30,390 --> 00:05:32,250 pivoting through until they got to the thing 148 148 00:05:32,250 --> 00:05:33,420 they were looking for. 149 149 00:05:33,420 --> 00:05:35,850 For example, some networks may be built 150 150 00:05:35,850 --> 00:05:37,470 in a very complex manner, 151 151 00:05:37,470 --> 00:05:38,880 and you may have certain areas 152 152 00:05:38,880 --> 00:05:40,290 that are dedicated on certain subnets, 153 153 00:05:40,290 --> 00:05:41,820 like the accounting subnet, 154 154 00:05:41,820 --> 00:05:43,410 your credit card databases, 155 155 00:05:43,410 --> 00:05:45,180 maybe you have some ICS or SCADA 156 156 00:05:45,180 --> 00:05:46,650 that's going to be on another network 157 157 00:05:46,650 --> 00:05:48,000 and an attacker can actually pivot 158 158 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:49,680 through multiple pivot points 159 159 00:05:49,680 --> 00:05:52,290 until they get into the particular networks they need to 160 160 00:05:52,290 --> 00:05:53,940 for the attack they're trying to run. 161 161 00:05:53,940 --> 00:05:55,440 And so this is important to consider 162 162 00:05:55,440 --> 00:05:57,900 as people start chaining these proxy servers together 163 163 00:05:57,900 --> 00:06:00,350 to reach their end goal and into their end state.