Azure 101⚓︎
Difficulty:
Direct link: https://hhc23-wetty.holidayhackchallenge.com?challenge=azure101
Objective⚓︎
Request
Help Sparkle Redberry with some Azure command line skills. Find the elf and the terminal on Christmas Island.
Sparkle Redberry
Hey, Sparkle Redberry here! So, I've been trying to learn about Azure and the Azure CLI and it's driving me nuts.
Alabaster Snowball decided to use Azure to host some of his fancy new IT stuff on Geese Islands, and now us elves have to learn it too.
Anyway, I know it's important and everyone says it's not as difficult as it seems, but honestly it still feels like quite a challenge for me.
Alabaster sent us this Azure CLI reference as well. It's super handy, he said. Honestly, it just confuses me even more.
If you can spare a moment, would you mind giving me a hand with this terminal? I'd be really grateful! Pretty please, with holly leaves on top!
Hints⚓︎
Azure CLI Reference
From: Sparkle Redberry
The Azure CLI tools come with a builtin help system, but Microsoft also provides this handy cheatsheet.
Solution⚓︎
Like in the Linux101 challenge, we get to run commands in a terminal.
First, try typing: $ az help | less
Our command:
az help | less
Response
Group
az
Subgroups:
account : Manage Azure subscription information.
acr : Manage private registries with Azure Container Registries.
ad : Manage Azure Active Directory Graph entities needed for Role Based
Access Control.
advisor : Manage Azure Advisor.
aks : Manage Azure Kubernetes Services.^
...
[long output suppressed]
Next, you've already been configured with credentials. Use 'az' and your 'account' to 'show' your current details and make sure to pipe to less ( | less )
Our command:
az account show
Response
{
"environmentName": "AzureCloud",
"id": "2b0942f3-9bca-484b-a508-abdae2db5e64",o
"isDefault": true,
"name": "northpole-sub",
"state": "Enabled",
"tenantId": "90a38eda-4006-4dd5-924c-6ca55cacc14d",
"user": {
"name": "northpole@northpole.invalid",
"type": "user"
}
}
Important part from response
Some information from the reponse is worth jotting down:
The subscription id is "2b0942f3-9bca-484b-a508-abdae2db5e64", and the tenant ID id "90a38eda-4006-4dd5-924c-6ca55cacc14d"
Excellent! Now get a list of resource groups in Azure.
For more information: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/group?view=azure-cli-latest
Our command:
az group list
Response
[
{
"id": "/subscriptions/2b0942f3-9bca-484b-a508-abdae2db5e64/resourceGroups/northpole-rg1",
"location": "eastus",
"managedBy": null,
"name": "northpole-rg1",
"properties": {
"provisioningState": "Succeeded"
},
"tags": {}
},
{
"id": "/subscriptions/2b0942f3-9bca-484b-a508-abdae2db5e64/resourceGroups/northpole-rg2",
"location": "westus",
"managedBy": null,
"name": "northpole-rg2",
"properties": {
"provisioningState": "Succeeded"
},
"tags": {}
}
]
Important part from response
Two resource groups: "northpole-rg1" and "northpole-rg2"
Ok, now use one of the resource groups to get a list of function apps.
For more information: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/functionapp?view=azure-cli-latest Note: Some of the information returned from this command relates to other cloud assets used by Santa and his elves.
Our command:
az functionapp list -g northpole-rg1
Response
[
{
"appServicePlanId": "/subscriptions/2b0942f3-9bca-484b-a508-abdae2db5e64/resourceGroups/northpole-rg1/providers/Microsoft.Web/serverfarms/EastUSLinuxDynamicPlan",
"availabilityState": "Normal",
"clientAffinityEnabled": false,
"clientCertEnabled": false,
"clientCertExclusionPaths": null,
"clientCertMode": "Required",
"cloningInfo": null,
"containerSize": 0,
"customDomainVerificationId": "201F74B099FA881DB9368A26C8E8B8BB8B9AF75BF450AF717502AC151F59DBEA",
"dailyMemoryTimeQuota": 0,
"defaultHostName": "northpole-ssh-certs-fa.azurewebsites.net",
"enabled": true,
"enabledHostNames": [
"northpole-ssh-certs-fa.azurewebsites.net"
],
"extendedLocation": null,
"hostNameSslStates": [
{
"certificateResourceId": null,
"hostType": "Standard",
"ipBasedSslResult": null,
"ipBasedSslState": "NotConfigured",
"name": "northpole-ssh-certs-fa.azurewebsites.net",
"sslState": "Disabled",
"thumbprint": null,
"toUpdate": null,
"toUpdateIpBasedSsl": null,
"virtualIPv6": null,
"virtualIp": null
},
{
"certificateResourceId": null,
"hostType": "Repository",
"ipBasedSslResult": null,
"ipBasedSslState": "NotConfigured",
"name": "northpole-ssh-certs-fa.scm.azurewebsites.net",
"sslState": "Disabled",
"thumbprint": null,
"toUpdate": null,
"toUpdateIpBasedSsl": null,
"virtualIPv6": null,
"virtualIp": null
}
],
"hostNames": [
"northpole-ssh-certs-fa.azurewebsites.net"
],
"hostNamesDisabled": false,
"hostingEnvironmentProfile": null,
"httpsOnly": false,
"hyperV": false,
"id": "/subscriptions/2b0942f3-9bca-484b-a508-abdae2db5e64/resourceGroups/northpole-rg1/providers/Microsoft.Web/sites/northpole-ssh-certs-fa",
"identity": {
"principalId": "d3be48a8-0702-407c-89af-0319780a2aea",
"tenantId": "90a38eda-4006-4dd5-924c-6ca55cacc14d",
"httpsOnly": false,
"hyperV": false,
"id": "/subscriptions/2b0942f3-9bca-484b-a508-abdae2db5e64/resourceGroups/northpole-rg1/pro
viders/Microsoft.Web/sites/northpole-ssh-certs-fa",
"identity": {
"principalId": "d3be48a8-0702-407c-89af-0319780a2aea",
"tenantId": "90a38eda-4006-4dd5-924c-6ca55cacc14d",
"type": "SystemAssigned",
"userAssignedIdentities": null
},
"inProgressOperationId": null,
"isDefaultContainer": null,
"isXenon": false,
"keyVaultReferenceIdentity": "SystemAssigned",
"kind": "functionapp,linux",
"lastModifiedTimeUtc": "2023-11-09T14:43:01.183333",
"location": "East US",
"maxNumberOfWorkers": null,
"name": "northpole-ssh-certs-fa",
"outboundIpAddresses": "",
"possibleOutboundIpAddresses": "",
"publicNetworkAccess": null,
"redundancyMode": "None",
"repositorySiteName": "northpole-ssh-certs-fa",
"reserved": true,
"resourceGroup": "northpole-rg1",
"scmSiteAlsoStopped": false,
"siteConfig": {
"acrUseManagedIdentityCreds": false,
"acrUserManagedIdentityId": null,
"alwaysOn": false,
"antivirusScanEnabled": null,
"apiDefinition": null,
"apiManagementConfig": null,
"appCommandLine": null,
"appSettings": null,
"autoHealEnabled": null,
"autoHealRules": null,
"autoSwapSlotName": null,
"azureMonitorLogCategories": null,
"azureStorageAccounts": null,
"connectionStrings": null,
"cors": null,
"customAppPoolIdentityAdminState": null,
"customAppPoolIdentityTenantState": null,
"defaultDocuments": null,
"detailedErrorLoggingEnabled": null,
"documentRoot": null,
"elasticWebAppScaleLimit": null,
"experiments": null,
"fileChangeAuditEnabled": null,
"ftpsState": null,
"functionAppScaleLimit": 200,
"functionsRuntimeScaleMonitoringEnabled": null,
"handlerMappings": null,
"healthCheckPath": null,
"http20Enabled": true,
"http20ProxyFlag": null,
"httpLoggingEnabled": null,
"ipSecurityRestrictions": null,
"ipSecurityRestrictionsDefaultAction": null,
"javaContainer": null,
"javaContainerVersion": null,
"javaVersion": null,
"keyVaultReferenceIdentity": null,
"limits": null,
"linuxFxVersion": "Python|3.11",
"loadBalancing": null,
"localMySqlEnabled": null,
"logsDirectorySizeLimit": null,
"machineKey": null,
"managedPipelineMode": null,
"managedServiceIdentityId": null,
"metadata": null,
"minTlsCipherSuite": null,
"minTlsVersion": null,
"minimumElasticInstanceCount": 0,
"netFrameworkVersion": null,
"nodeVersion": null,
"numberOfWorkers": 1,
"phpVersion": null,
"powerShellVersion": null,
"preWarmedInstanceCount": null,
"publicNetworkAccess": null,
"publishingPassword": null,
"publishingUsername": null,
"push": null,
"pythonVersion": null,
"remoteDebuggingEnabled": null,
"remoteDebuggingVersion": null,
"requestTracingEnabled": null,
"requestTracingExpirationTime": null,
"routingRules": null,
"runtimeADUser": null,
"runtimeADUserPassword": null,
"scmIpSecurityRestrictions": null,
"scmIpSecurityRestrictionsDefaultAction": null,
"scmIpSecurityRestrictionsUseMain": null,
"scmMinTlsVersion": null,
"scmType": null,
"sitePort": null,
"sitePrivateLinkHostEnabled": null,
"storageType": null,
"supportedTlsCipherSuites": null,
"tracingOptions": null,
"use32BitWorkerProcess": null,
"virtualApplications": null,
"vnetName": null,
"vnetPrivatePortsCount": null,
"vnetRouteAllEnabled": null,
"webSocketsEnabled": null,
"websiteTimeZone": null,
"winAuthAdminState": null,
"winAuthTenantState": null,
"windowsConfiguredStacks": null,
"windowsFxVersion": null,
"xManagedServiceIdentityId": null
},
"slotSwapStatus": null,
"state": "Running",
"storageAccountRequired": false,
"suspendedTill": null,
"tags": {
"create-cert-func-url-path": "/api/create-cert?code=candy-cane-twirl",
"project": "northpole-ssh-certs"
},
"targetSwapSlot": null,
"trafficManagerHostNames": null,
"type": "Microsoft.Web/sites",
"usageState": "Normal",
"virtualNetworkSubnetId": null,
"vnetContentShareEnabled": false,
"vnetImagePullEnabled": false,
"vnetRouteAllEnabled": false
}
]
Find a way to list the only VM in one of the resource groups you have access to.
For more information:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/vm?view=azure-cli-latest
Our command:
az vm list -g northpole-rg2
Response
[
{
"id": "/subscriptions/2b0942f3-9bca-484b-a508-abdae2db5e64/resourceGroups/northpole-rg2/providers/Microsoft.Compute/virtualMachines/NP-VM1",
"location": "eastus",
"name": "NP-VM1",
"properties": {
"hardwareProfile": {
"vmSize": "Standard_D2s_v3"
},
"provisioningState": "Succeeded",
"storageProfile": {
"imageReference": {
"offer": "UbuntuServer",
"publisher": "Canonical",
"sku": "16.04-LTS",
"version": "latest"
},
"osDisk": {
"caching": "ReadWrite",
"createOption": "FromImage",
"managedDisk": {
"storageAccountType": "Standard_LRS"
},
"name": "VM1_OsDisk_1"
}
},
"vmId": "e5f16214-18be-4a31-9ebb-2be3a55cfcf7"
},
"resourceGroup": "northpole-rg2",
"tags": {}
}
]
Important part from response
The name of the VM is "NP-VM1"
Find a way to invoke a run-command against the only Virtual Machine (VM) so you can RunShellScript and get a directory listing to reveal a file on the Azure VM.
For more information: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/vm/run-command?view=azure-cli-latest#az-vm-run-command-invoke
Our command:
az vm run-command invoke -g northpole-rg2 -n NP-VM1 --command-id RunShellScript --scripts 'ls'
Response
{
"value": [
{
"code": "ComponentStatus/StdOut/succeeded",
"displayStatus": "Provisioning succeeded",
"level": "Info",
"message": "bin\netc\nhome\njinglebells\nlib\nlib64\nusr\n",
"time": 1702211840
},
{
"code": "ComponentStatus/StdErr/succeeded",
"displayStatus": "Provisioning succeeded",
"level": "Info",
"message": "",
"time": 1702211840
}
]
}
Important part from response
The output from the ls command is in the stdout part of the response value:
message": "bin\netc\nhome\njinglebells\nlib\nlib64\nusr\n",
Interpreting the \n gives
bin netc home jinglebells lib lib64 usr
Great, you did it all!
Answer
After solving the challenge, the fact will be listed as an "Achievements" in the player's badge.
Response⚓︎
Sparkle Redberry
Wow, you did it!
It makes quite a bit more sense to me now. Thank you so much!
That Azure Function App URL you came across in the terminal looked interesting.
It might be part of that new project Alabaster has been working on with the help of ChatNPT.
Let me tell you, since he started using ChatNPT he's been introducing a lot of amazing innovation across the islands.
Knowing Alabaster, he'll be delighted to tell you all about it! I think I last saw him on Pixel island.
By the way, as part of the Azure documentation he sent the elves, Alabaster also noted that if Azure CLI tools aren't available in an Azure VM we should use the Azure REST API instead.
I'm not really sure what that means, but I guess I know what I'll be studying up on next.