Mastering thick client application penetration testing

Name: Mastering thick client application penetration testing
Rating: 4.6 (674 reviews)

A practical guide to pentesting thick client applications

Created bySrinivas .

Last updated 7/2021

English

English [Auto],

What you'll learn

Students will learn practical thick client application penetration testing techniques
Students will learn how to reverse engineer .NET binaries
Students will learn how to patch .NET binaries
Students will learn how to identify and exploit common security issues in 2-tier applications
Students will learn multiple ways to intercept TCP traffic coming from thick client apps
Students will get real world thick client application penetration testing experience
Students will learn how to use several thick client application penetration testing tools

Course content

10 sections • 36 lectures • 3h 2m total length

Course Introduction1:37

Introduction to Thick Client Applications4:12
This lecture provides a brief introduction to thick client applications and their architecture.
Lab Setup - Part 12:04
This lecture describes the software needed for the course.
Lab Setup - Part 218:44
This lecture shows the step by step installation instructions to set up the environment for the vulnerable application.
The Pre-Course Challenge2:32
This video presents an additional challenge that we need to crack before proceeding with the rest of the course. Students will have to reverse engineer the application and enable a disabled button in order to to be able to configure the vulnerable application.
Reversing + Configuring the server10:48
This lecture provides the step by step procedure to reverse engineer and patch the target application. After cracking this challenge, students can configure the target application to communicate with the database and FTP server.

Introduction1:52
This lecture provides a brief introduction to information gathering
Installing tools4:11
This lecture provides step by step instructions to install tools required in this module.
Network connections with tcpview2:23
This lecture shows a tool called tcpview to determine network connections of the vulnerable app.
Network connections with Wireshark2:55
This lecture shows an introduction to wireshark
Exploring PE file with CFF Explorer1:04
This lecture shows how CFF explorer can be used to identify the PE file details.
File system monitoring with Procmon9:44
This lecture explains how file system changes can be monitored using a utility called process monitor.

Introduction1:29
This lecture provides a brief introduction to tools needed for traffic analysis of thick client applications.
Installing tools8:21
This lecture provides installation instructions of traffic analysis tools.
Wireshark3:48
Use Wireshark to analyze the ftp traffic generated by the DeVita application, revealing that credentials can be captured in clear text and lead to unauthorized access to the ftp server.
Echo Mirage6:22
Mitm Relay + Burp Suite10:12

Hardcoded strings5:20
Privilege Escalation via insecure data storage5:33
Dumping Connection String from memory8:09
Identify data storage issues in thick client applications, including hard coded credentials and registry entries. Explore memory dumps with Process Hacker to find database connection strings and decrypted passwords.
SQL Injection3:32
Demonstrates SQL injection in thick client applications by exploiting login fields to impersonate users with crafted inputs; highlights pentesting and reporting fixes to developers.
Side Channel Data Leaks4:06
Explore how side channel data leaks arise from excess production logging, revealing sensitive details like database passwords, connection strings, and FTP paths, and learn how to mitigate this risk.
Unreliable logs1:41
Investigate how tampering client-side data, especially timestamps, can yield unreliable logs for forensic investigations, and learn testing techniques to enforce server-side validation and data integrity.
DLL Hijacking11:43

Introduction and tools5:27
Decompiling with DotPeek4:26
Explore decompiling dot net applications with dot peek to view clean c sharp source, locate the decrypt password function, and reverse engineer the database connection string from the DVT.x.config file.
Recreating the decryption logic7:07
Runtime tracing with DnSpy5:15
Master runtime tracing with dnSpy to decrypt a database password by instrumenting a dotnet app, setting breakpoints, and revealing the connection string and credentials through variable inspection.
Setting up ILSpy & Reflexil2:41
Patching with Reflexil6:20
Showcases how to use spy and reflexil to decompile a dot net assembly, patch a login check, and escalate privileges to admin within a thick client application.
Patching with ilasm & ldasm8:02

Requirements

A computer with administrative access, if you want to follow the hands-on exercises.
It is good to have some security background, but not mandatory.

Description

This course introduces students to the penetration testing concepts associated with Thick Client Applications. This is an entry level to intermediate level course and we encourage you to take this course if you are interested to learn Thick Client Application Security. This course uses a modified version of vulnerable Thick Client Application called DVTA to demonstrate how thick client application vulnerabilities can be identified and exploited. This course teaches you a variety of Thick Client Application security concepts such as Information Gathering, Traffic Analysis, Reversing & Patching .NET binaries, Insecure Data Storage, Decrypting encrypted secrets, Privilege Escalation etc. This course acts as a great introduction to spotting and exploiting vulnerabilities in windows executables. Though the course focuses on windows executable files specifically C# .NET binaries, the concepts remain the same for executables of any platform.

Who this course is for:

Bug bounty hunters
Penetration testers
Security Auditors
Red Team Operators
.NET developers
anyone interested in application security.

Mastering thick client application penetration testing

What you'll learn

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Course content

Course Introduction1 lecture • 2min

Introduction and lab setup5 lectures • 38min

Information Gathering6 lectures • 22min

Traffic Analysis for thick client applications5 lectures • 30min

Attacking thick client applications7 lectures • 40min

Reversing and Patching7 lectures • 39min

Common Low Hanging fruits3 lectures • 10min

Let us check your knowledge0

Conclusion1 lecture • 1min

bonus section1 lecture • 1min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: