Exploiting XXE to perform SSRF attacks

Description

This lab has a “Check stock” feature that parses XML input and returns any unexpected values in the response.

The lab server is running a (simulated) EC2 metadata endpoint at the default URL, which is http://169.254.169.254/. This endpoint can be used to retrieve data about the instance, some of which might be sensitive.

Reproduction and proof of concept

  1. Visit a product page, click “Check stock”, and intercept the resulting POST request in Burp Suite.

  2. Insert the following external entity definition in between the XML declaration and the stockCheck element:

<!DOCTYPE test [ <!ENTITY xxe SYSTEM "http://169.254.169.254/"> ]>

  1. Replace the productId number with a reference to the external entity: &xxe;. The response should contain “Invalid product ID:” followed by the response from the metadata endpoint, which will initially be a folder name.

XXE

  1. Iteratively update the URL in the DTD to explore the API until you reach /latest/meta-data/iam/security-credentials/admin. This should return JSON containing the SecretAccessKey.

XXE

…

XXE

Exploitability

An attacker needs to exploit the XXE vulnerability to perform an SSRF attack that obtains the server’s IAM secret access key from the EC2 metadata endpoint.