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113 - Pentesting Ident โ€‹

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Basic Information โ€‹

The Ident Protocol is used over the Internet to associate a TCP connection with a specific user. Originally designed to aid in network management and security, it operates by allowing a server to query a client on port 113 to request information about the user of a particular TCP connection.

However, due to modern privacy concerns and the potential for misuse, its usage has decreased as it can inadvertently reveal user information to unauthorized parties. Enhanced security measures, such as encrypted connections and strict access controls, are recommended to mitigate these risks.

Default port: 113

PORT    STATE SERVICE
113/tcp open  ident

Enumeration โ€‹

Manual - Get user/Identify the service โ€‹

If a machine is running the service ident and samba (445) and you are connected to samba using the port 43218. You can get which user is running the samba service by doing:

If you just press enter when you conenct to the service:

Other errors:

Nmap โ€‹

By default (`-sC``) nmap will identify every user of every running port:

PORT    STATE SERVICE     VERSION
22/tcp  open  ssh         OpenSSH 4.3p2 Debian 9 (protocol 2.0)
|_auth-owners: root
| ssh-hostkey: 
|   1024 88:23:98:0d:9d:8a:20:59:35:b8:14:12:14:d5:d0:44 (DSA)
|_  2048 6b:5d:04:71:76:78:56:96:56:92:a8:02:30:73:ee:fa (RSA)
113/tcp open  ident
|_auth-owners: identd
139/tcp open  netbios-ssn Samba smbd 3.X - 4.X (workgroup: LOCAL)
|_auth-owners: root
445/tcp open  netbios-ssn Samba smbd 3.0.24 (workgroup: LOCAL)
|_auth-owners: root

Ident-user-enum โ€‹

Ident-user-enum is a simple PERL script to query the ident service (113/TCP) in order to determine the owner of the process listening on each TCP port of a target system. The list of usernames gathered can be used for password guessing attacks on other network services. It can be installed with apt install ident-user-enum.

root@kali:/opt/local/recon/192.168.1.100# ident-user-enum 192.168.1.100 22 113 139 445
ident-user-enum v1.0 ( http://pentestmonkey.net/tools/ident-user-enum )

192.168.1.100:22  root
192.168.1.100:113 identd
192.168.1.100:139 root
192.168.1.100:445 root

Shodan โ€‹

  • oident

Files โ€‹

identd.conf

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HackTricks Automatic Commands โ€‹

Protocol_Name: Ident    #Protocol Abbreviation if there is one.
Port_Number:  113     #Comma separated if there is more than one.
Protocol_Description: Identification Protocol         #Protocol Abbreviation Spelled out

Entry_1:
  Name: Notes
  Description: Notes for Ident
  Note: |
    The Ident Protocol is used over the Internet to associate a TCP connection with a specific user. Originally designed to aid in network management and security, it operates by allowing a server to query a client on port 113 to request information about the user of a particular TCP connection.

    https://book.hacktricks.xyz/pentesting/113-pentesting-ident

Entry_2:
  Name: Enum Users
  Description: Enumerate Users
  Note: apt install ident-user-enum    ident-user-enum {IP} 22 23 139 445 (try all open ports)
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