Hacking Gmail account using GX cookie

Discussion in 'Ethical hacking Tips' started by pop3_zxcv, Dec 12, 2008.

  1. pop3_zxcv

    pop3_zxcv New Member

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    Disclaimer: This post is only for education purpose.

    Introduction



    Hacking web application was always curious for the script kiddies. And hacking free web email account is every geek first attempt. The method which I will describe in this post is not new; the same method can be applied to yahoo and other free web email services too.

    The method we will be using is cookie stealing and replaying the same back to the Gmail server. There are many ways you can steal cookie, one of them is XSS (Cross site scripting) discussed by other is earlier post. But we won’t be using any XSS here, in our part of attack we will use some local tool to steal cookie and use that cookie to get an access to Gmail account.

    Assumption:

    • You are in Local Area Network (LAN) in a switched / wireless environment : example : office , cyber café, Mall etc.
    • You know basic networking.

    Tool used for this attack:

    • Cain & Abel
    • Network Miner
    • Firefox web browser with Cookie Editor add-ons

    Attack in detail:

    We assume you are connected to LAN/Wireless network. Our main goal is to capture Gmail GX cookie from the network. We can only capture cookie when someone is actually using his gmail. I’ve noticed normally in lunch time in office, or during shift start people normally check their emails. If you are in cyber café or in Mall then there are more chances of catching people using Gmail.

    We will go step by step,
    If you are using Wireless network then you can skip this Step A.

    A] Using Cain to do ARP poisoning and routing:



    Switch allows unicast traffic mainly to pass through its ports. When X and Y are communicating eachother in switch network then Z will not come to know what X & Y are communicating, so inorder to sniff that communication you would have to poison ARP table of switch for X & Y. In Wireless you don’t have to do poisoning because Wireless Access points act like HUB which forwards any communication to all its ports (recipients).

    • Start Cain from Start > Program > Cain > Cain
    • Click on Start/Stop Snigger tool icon from the tool bar, we will first scan the network to see what all IPs are used in the network and this list will also help us to launch an attack on the victim.
    • Then click on Sniffer Tab then Host Tab below. Right click within that spreadsheet and click on Scan Mac Addresses, from the Target section select
    All hosts in my subnet and then press Ok. This will list all host connected in your network. You will notice you won’t see your Physical IP of your machine in that list.
    How to check your physical IP ?
    > Click on start > Run type cmd and press enter, in the command prompt type
    Ipconfig and enter. This should show your IP address assign to your PC.
    It will have following outputs:


    Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

    Connection-specific DNS Suffix . : xyz.com
    IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.2
    Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
    Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.1.1
    Main thing to know here is your IP address and your Default Gateway.

    Make a note of your IP Address & default gateway. From Cain you will see list of IP addresses, here you have to choose any free IP address which is not used anywhere. We assume IP 192.168.1.10 is not used anywhere in the network.


    • Click on Configure > APR > Use Spoof ed IP and MAC Address > IP
    Type in 192.168.1.10 and from the poisoning section click on “Use ARP request Packets” and click on OK.


    • Within the Sniffer Tab , below click on APR Tab, from the left hand side click on APR and now click on the right hand top spreadsheet then click on plus sign tool from top. The moment you click that it will show you list of IP address on left hand side. Here we will target the victim IP address and the default gateway.

    The purpose is to do ARP poisoning between victim and the default gateway and route the victim traffic via your machine. From the left side click on Victim IP address, we assume victim is using 192.168.1.15. The moment you click on victim IP you will see remaining list on the right hand side here you have to select default gateway IP address i.e. 192.168.1.1 then click on OK.

    • Finally, Click on Start/Stop Sniffer tool menu once again and next click on Start/Stop APR. This will start poisoning victim and default gateway.

    B] Using Network Miner to capture cookie in plain text



    We are using Network miner to capture cookie, but Network miner can be used for manythings from capturing text , image, HTTP parameters, files. Network Miner is normally used in Passive reconnaissance to collect IP, domain and OS finger print of the connected device to your machine. If you don’t have Network miner you can use any other sniffer available like Wireshark, Iris network scanner, NetWitness etc.

    We are using This tool because of its ease to use.


    • Open Network Miner by clicking its exe (pls note it requires .Net framework to work).
    • From the “---Select network adaptor in the list---“ click on down arrow and select your adaptor If you are using Ethernet wired network then your adaptor would have Ethernet name and IP address of your machine and if you are using wireless then adaptor name would contain wireless and your IP address. Select the one which you are using and click on start.
    Important thing before you start this make sure you are not browsing any websites, or using any Instant Mesaging and you have cleared all cookies from firefox.

    • Click on Credential Tab above. This tab will capture all HTTP cookies , pay a close look on “Host” column you should see somewhere mail.google.com. If you could locate mail.google.com entry then in the same entry right click at Username column and click on “copy username” then open notepad and paste the copied content there.
    • Remove word wrap from notepad and search for GX in the line. Cookie which you have captured will contain many cookies from gmail each would be separated by semicolon (;) GX cookie will start with GX= and will end with semicolon you would have to copy everything between = and semicolon
    Example : GX= axcvb1mzdwkfefv ; ßcopy only axcvb1mzdwkfefv

    Now we have captured GX cookie its time now to use this cookie and replay the attack and log in to victim email id, for this we will use firefox and cookie editor add-ons.

    C] Using Firefox & cookie Editor to replay attack.




    • Open Firefox and log in your gmail email account.
    • from firefox click on Tools > cookie Editor.
    • In the filter box type .google.com and Press Filter and from below list search for cookiename GX. If you locate GX then double click on that GX cookie and then from content box delete everything and paste your captured GX cookie from stepB.4 and click on save and then close.
    • From the Address bar of Firefox type mail.google.com and press enter, this should replay victim GX cookie to Gmail server and you would get logged in to victim Gmail email account.
    • Sorry! You can’t change password with cookie attack.

    How to be saved from this kind of attack?
    Google has provided a way out for this attack where you can use secure cookie instead of unsecure cookie. You can enable secure cookie option to always use https from Gmail settings.
    Settings > Browser connection > Always use https


    ------

    pop3.
     
  2. NDL

    NDL New Member

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    looks good
     
  3. Bhullarz

    Bhullarz New Member

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    What are the chances that you will be caught by Google People while implementing this technique ?
     
  4. Alex1239

    Alex1239 New Member

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    nice indepth tute.....well done.
     
  5. shabbir

    shabbir Administrator Staff Member

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  6. Sorgun

    Sorgun New Member

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    Hello. First, thanks for posting these instructions, as they're clear, direct and simple to follow. I'm curious as to why, however, I am unable to get it to work. I even did a test run using the GX cookie from a separate gmail account that I captured from a different email address, saved onto notepad, and then following the steps of C, directly copied it into the GX content section, however it still won't load that account. Thoughts?
     
  7. pop3_zxcv

    pop3_zxcv New Member

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    Sorgun:

    If you have captured successfully GX cookie then it should work no matter you are using same PC or different PC in same or different network.

    Idea behind this is as long as you have unsecure GX cookie you would be able to replay this attack.

    Assume you have captured unsecure GX cookie and you are loged in to your Gmail account. Be at the page of your Gmail account open Cookie Editor and replace GX cookie and being there on that page in Address bar you would have to type mail.google.com and press enter.

    This method will not work if victim has also enabled "Always use https" option from Gmail mail account settings.

    I've checked this methods works fine till now....

    As per my findings for yahoo you have to replace cookie B , Y and T and type mail.yahoo.com on the same address bar.
     
  8. shabbir

    shabbir Administrator Staff Member

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  9. sachin_idt

    sachin_idt New Member

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    Its very good...
     
  10. ram123

    ram123 New Member

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    Really Good.
     
  11. sachin_idt

    sachin_idt New Member

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    It works with yahoo as well...
     
  12. immortal

    immortal New Member

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    Very good very good but in a simple way as well u can just also use a ARP attack with FULL ARP GOING


    not half but FULL

    and it will then send pass then u should know what to do after that although this method hardly does work its just another one to think about

    good job on the post
     
  13. TriG0rZ

    TriG0rZ New Member

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    awesome thanks
     
  14. yasirhs

    yasirhs New Member

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  15. Xintruder

    Xintruder New Member

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    Hello, thank you for your effort.
    I liked the way you presented the material. I might try applying it at some time, it seems fun.

    I have a question though:
    Can this type of hacking ever be ethical?
     
  16. pop3_zxcv

    pop3_zxcv New Member

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    Xintruder:

    Nop. This is not ethical., but it will help you to know the concept and how to protect it. Sniffing in IDS/IPS will invoke Traps..so don't even try this in your office..

    pop3.
     
  17. rajdaan

    rajdaan New Member

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    good work..................
     
  18. nordic

    nordic New Member

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    Really well done - thanks!

    I have WiFi and can get the GX cookies on the laptop that runs NetworkMiner; and then get connected to gmail.

    And I can see my other laptop, but am unable to get the cookies. Any advice?
     
  19. reagan

    reagan New Member

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    i also have a wireless internet connection.please can any one tell me how to hack other wireless networks so that i can use their internet for free
     
  20. seangtz

    seangtz New Member

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    Good information...Is there anyway to come to know that our gmail account has been hacked?
     

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