Atomic Honeypot: A MySQL Honeypot That Drops Shells

Presented at DEF CON 32 (2024), Aug. 9, 2024, 11:30 a.m. (30 minutes).

Meet an attacking MySQL honepot which can “Attack the attackers”. In 2023 we have found a CVE (CVE-2023-21980) in MySQL that allows a rogue MySQL “server” to attack a client connecting to it; attack meaning RCE on the client side. Since then we were thinking on how to use it for good. One obvious application is to create a honeypot which will attack the attackers. In 2024 we have found another RCE in mysqldump utility (CVE-2024-21096), so we have created a rogue MySQL server and weaponized it with a chain of 3 vulnerabilities: 1/ arbitrary file read 2/ RCE from 2023 (CVE-2023- 21980) 3/ the new RCE (CVE-2024-21096). With this atomic honeypot we were able to discover 2 new attacks against MySQL server. Using arbitrary file read vulnerability in MySQL we were able to download and analyze the attackers' code and then execute an “attack against attackers” using a chain of exploits. CVE-2023-21980 CVE-2024-21096

Presenters:

  • Alexander Rubin - Principal Security Engineer, leading RDS Red Team at Amazon Web Services (AWS)
    Alexander is a Principal Security Engineer at Amazon Web Services (AWS), leading RDS Red Team. Alexander was working as MySQL principal consultant/architect for over 15 years, started with MySQL AB in 2006 (company behind MySQL database), Sun Microsystems, Oracle and then Percona. His security pentest/red teaming interest started with playing CTFs and performing opensource security research. Alexander is managing RDS (relational database as a service) Red Team at Amazon Web Services.
  • Martin Rakhmanov - Senior Security Engineer, RDS Red Team at Amazon Web Services (AWS)
    Martin is a Senior Security Engineer at Amazon Web Services (AWS) RDS Red Team. Prior to that, Martin spent 17 years doing security research of databases and other targets, including servers, desktop applications and hardware. Martin found more than 30 CVEs across various databases and other products.

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