Windows-privesc-check is standalone executable that runs on Windows systems. It tries to find misconfigurations that could allow local unprivileged users to escalate privileges to other users or to access local apps (e.g. databases).
It is written in python and converted to an executable using pyinstaller so it can be easily uploaded and run (as opposed to unzipping python + other dependencies). It can run either as a normal user or as Administrator (obviously it does a better job when running as Administrator because it can read more files).
The latest version of the code is in the master branch.
Below is a high level description of common use cases. See also the Quick Start & Usage page.
When run with admin rights, windows-privesc-check has full read access to all secureable objects. This allows it to perform audits for escalation vectors such as:
- Reconfiguring Windows Services
- Replacing Service executables if they have weak file permissions
- Replacing poorly protected .exe or .dll files in %ProgramFiles%
- Tojaning the %PATH%
- Maliciously modifying the registry (e.g. RunOnce)
- Modifying programs on FAT file systems
- Tampering with running processes
A great many of the privielges escalation vectors checked are simply checks for weak security descriptors on Windows securable objects.
A report is generated in HTML, TXT and XML format.
An important design goal is that windows-privesc-check can perform as many checks as possible (above) without admin rights. This will make the tool useful to pentesters as well as auditors.
Clearly, low-privileged users are unable to see certain parts of the registry and file system. The tool is therefore inherently less able to identify security weaknesses when run as a low-privileged user.
As above, a report is generated in HTML, TXT and XML format.
Windows-privesc-check can simply dump raw data that it would normally use to identify security weaknesses. This data can then analysed some other way - or simply stored as a snapshot of system security at the time of the audit.
Both human-readable (text) and machine readable (tab delimited) formats are supported.
Examples of data users are able to dump:
- Detailed Share Information about local or remote systems. Includes DACL (Share permissions).
- Information about users, groups, memeberships and the Windows Privileges (e.g. SeBackupPrivilege). See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb530716%28v=VS.85%29.aspx.
Given low-privileged credentials (or perhaps using anonymous access), windows-privesc-check should provide basic information which might help the user compromise the remote system. This might include:
- Details of poorly configure shares
- A list of admin-equivalent users
- Information about its domain membership and the trusts configured for that domain
Run this tool against your own systems at your own risk.
Run this tool against someone else's system only with their informed consent and with the appropriate legal permissions.
This tool has been known to cause high CPU load and high disk I/O.
This tool is intended to be run by security auditors and penetration testers against systems they have been engaged to assess, and also by system administrators who want to check for "obvious" misconfigurations. It can even be run as a Scheduled Task so you can check regularly for misconfigurations that might be introduced.
Ensure that you have the appropriate legal permission before running it someone else's system.
This tool may be used for legal purposes only. Users take full responsibility for any actions performed using this tool. The author accepts no liability for damage caused by this tool. If you do not accept these condition then you are prohibited from using this tool.
In all other respects the GPL version 2 applies:
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 as published by the Free Software Foundation.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.