Error-Based SSTI ("Successful Errors")

Detect and exploit server-side template injection (and code injection) in blind / output-blocked environments by deliberately forcing runtime errors that reflect the result of evaluated code in the exception message. When even error text is suppressed, use a boolean error-based oracle (evaluate-then-conditionally-throw, e.g. division-by-zero on a true bit) to exfiltrate bit-by-bit via HTTP 500-vs-200 status differentials — zero dependency on rendered output.

Source: corpus A §I.1 — Korchagin, "Successful Errors" (PortSwigger Top 10 Web Hacking Techniques of 2025, #1). Impact class: RCE / private-data exposure (intrinsic). Governing method: Phase-3a hypothesis lane of systematic-attacking; leads only into the verification spine. Only fired against operator-authorized in-scope targets, honoring rate limits.

Method

1. Identify template/expression sinks (user input flowing into Jinja2/Mako, Twig/Smarty, Spring EL, Handlebars, etc.) via source-map recovery + semgrep taint rules; note which reflect output vs. are blind.
2. For blind sinks, send error-forcing payloads per engine: Python AttributeError/mro probes (().__class__.__mro__[1].__subclasses__()), Twig include(...)/not-found errors, Spring EL type-conversion faults — and read the reflected exception, not the page body.
3. For error-suppressed sinks, build a boolean oracle: an expression that evaluates a target bit and conditionally triggers a fault (e.g. 1/0 on true), then read the HTTP status. Iterate to exfiltrate a secret / prove code execution one bit at a time.
4. Escalate carefully to a contained impact proof (read a scoped file, echo a unique token via an interactsh-client OOB callback) sufficient to demonstrate RCE — never destructive, never out-of-scope. Encode the winning payloads as custom nuclei templates for regression.
5. Negative control: a benign input over the same path produces the baseline status/response, proving the differential is attacker-caused.

Acceptance

• Blind vs. reflected template sinks are enumerated; the exploited sink names its engine.
• Code execution or data exfiltration is proven via the error/boolean oracle with an OOB or scoped-read impact proof and a benign negative control.
• Payloads are captured as reusable nuclei templates; finding deduped against known SSTI CVEs for the stack before submission.