Advanced directory traversal attacks against Linux

What is a directory traversal attack?

Directory traversal is a web vulnerability that allows an attacker to read files on the server that the application is running on.

These examples prove that it’s not only possible to read files but also do a lot more unintended actions. These examples focus on Linux and ASP .net.

Example vulnerable code

This dotnet code reads a (text) file from MyFolder and returns the content. The filename is retrieved from the filename query string parameter.

Advanced directory traversal attacks against Linux