Hey Folks, in this tutorial we will discuss the working methods through which we can bypass (UAC) user account control enforcement facility of the window machine and get administrative level privileges. We will discuss about UAC before jumping straight to the methods of exploitation.
UAC ( User Account Control )
User Account Control is a mandatory access control enforcement facility of the window machine that helps to prevent malware from damaging a PC. They are typically marked by a security shield icon with the 4 colors of the Windows logo. Let’s talk about the tasks that we can do after get administrator privileges.
- Running an Application as an Administrator
- Changes to system-wide settings
- Installing and uninstalling applications
- Installing device drivers
- Changing settings for Windows Firewall
- Adding or removing user accounts
- Changing a user’s account name or type
- Change Registry Values
- More …
As you can see above how many unwanted actions we can take after getting administrator privileges, hence in this tutorial we will tell you about all the possible ways through which we can easily bypass UAC (User Account Control) and get administrator privileges.
Lets take a look 😛 !!
Compromised
As you can see that we have already compromised to the victim machine ( window 10 ). If you want to know about the complete process of taking a meterpreter session of the victim machine then you can click here.
Privileges
You can see in the image below that we have a meterpreter session but without much privilege. Let’s try to get admin access along with metasploit modules.
1 2 | getprivs getuid |
Bypass Window 10 UAC via Fodhelper
This module will bypass Windows 10 UAC by hijacking a special key in the Registry under the current user hive, and inserting a custom command that will get invoked when the Windows fodhelper.exe application is launched. All you have to do is change the session ID and execute all the commands. After doing this the meterpreter session will come as you can in the image below. Let’s see whether the meterpreter has comes with admin privileges or not.
Great 😛 !! After executing the command “getprivs” we noticed that our privileges have increased compared to the initiative which means it’s work for window (10) machine.
Bypass Window 10 UAC via Silentcleanup
Basically there’s a task in the Windows Task Scheduler called “SilentCleanup” which, while it’s executed as Users, automatically runs with elevated privileges. When it runs, it executes the file %windir%\system32\cleanmgr.exe. Since it runs as Users, and we can control user’s environment variables, %windir% (normally pointing to C:\Windows) can be changed to point to whatever we want, and it’ll run as admin. To run this module just you need to execute the following command but make sure change the session id.
1 2 3 | use exploit/windows/local/bypassuac_silentcleanup set session < id > run |
Check Privileges
Done 😛 !! After executing the above the module, we get an meterpreter session along with admin rights which you can check through “getprivs” command.
Bypass Window 10 UAC via RunAs
This module will attempt to elevate execution level using the ShellExecute undocumented RunAs flag to bypass low UAC settings.
After receiving the victim machine’s meterpreter session then all you need to do is execute the given command on multi handler of metasploit but make sure change the session ID that you got.
1 2 3 | use exploit/windows/local/ask set session < id > run |
Wait 🙂 !! After executing the above module, a (UAC) security prompt will pop up on the target machine asking for yes or no and if the victim allows us by clicking yes then we get all the admin rights otherwise the module will give an error or fail message but after that we have to continuously execute the above module so that the victim can click on the Yes option.
Good 😛 !! But after the victim clicks on the Yes option, we get another meterpreter session of the victim machine. Let’s see if it works or nor ?
Nice 😛 !! The results comes very impressive as you can see in below image that we have got all the admin rights or privileges.
A keen learner and passionate IT student. He has done Web designing, CCNA, RedHat, Ethical hacking, Network & web penetration testing. Currently, he is completing his graduation and learning about Red teaming, CTF challenges & Blue teaming.
