System Information
Since we will be working with many different Linux systems, we need to learn the structure and the information about the system, its processes, network configurations, users, directories, user settings, and the corresponding parameters.
Here is a list of the necessary tools that will help us get the above information. Most of them are installed by default.
Command
Description
whoami
Displays current username.
id
Returns users identity
hostname
Sets or prints the name of current host system.
uname
Prints operating system name.
pwd
Returns working directory name.
ifconfig
The ifconfig utility is used to assign or to view an address to a network interface and/or configure network interface parameters.
ip
Ip is a utility to show or manipulate routing, network devices, interfaces and tunnels.
netstat
Shows network status.
ss
Another utility to investigate sockets.
ps
Shows process status.
who
Displays who is logged in.
env
Prints environment or sets and executes command.
lsblk
Lists block devices.
lsusb
Lists USB devices
lsof
Lists opened files.
lspci
Lists PCI devices.
Let us look at a few examples.
Whoami
anir0y@arishti[/lab]$ whoami
cry0l1t3
Id
anir0y@arishti[/lab]$ id
uid=1000(cry0l1t3) gid=1000(cry0l1t3) groups=1000(cry0l1t3),1337(hackthebox),4(adm),24(cdrom),27(sudo),30(dip),46(plugdev),116(lpadmin),126(sambashare)
Uname
anir0y@arishti[/lab]$ uname -a
Linux box 4.15.0-99-generic #100-Ubuntu SMP Wed Apr 22 20:32:56 UTC 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
It is highly recommended to study the commands and understand what they are for and what information they can provide. This information is not only used for working with Linux. However, it will also be used later to discover vulnerabilities and misconfigurations on the Linux system that may contribute to privilege escalation.
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