Courses / Remote Code Execution (RCE)

Shellshock (CVE-2014-6271)

Last Edit: 10-05-2024

Pro Chapter

This chapter is exclusive to Pro members

Upgrade to Pro to unlock:
  • Full access to all courses & chapters
  • Advanced learning materials
  • New Courses and Labs every month
  • Exclusive Guided Mode in Labs
  • Official step-by-step solutions
  • All Labs features (extend time, etc)
Upgrade to Pro Now $11.33/mo Yearly Plan $8.50/mo

Shellshock (CVE-2014-6271)

Shellshock is a vulnerability in the GNU Bash shell that was widely used in Unix-based systems. The vulnerability allowed attackers to inject and execute code via environment variables.

Attack Vector

An attacker could trigger the vulnerability by manipulating the HTTP_USER_AGENT variable in HTTP requests to execute arbitrary commands on a web server.

Example Code

Below is an example of an HTTP request exploiting the Shellshock vulnerability:

GET /cgi-bin/any_script.cgi HTTP/1.1 Host: vulnerable.example.com User-Agent: () { :;}; /bin/bash -c 'echo Hello, I am executing code!'

In this example, the User-Agent

header contains a Bash function followed by a command to execute. If the web server is vulnerable, it would execute the echo command.

Pro Content

This chapter contains advanced content available to Pro members only.

Upgrade to Pro