exploiting-template-injection-vulnerabilities

name	exploiting-template-injection-vulnerabilities
description	Detecting and exploiting Server-Side Template Injection (SSTI) vulnerabilities across Jinja2, Twig, Freemarker, and other template engines to achieve remote code execution. Use when working with exploiting template injection vulnerabilities.
domain	cybersecurity
tags	["penetration-testing","ssti","template-injection","rce","web-security","owasp"]
subdomain	web-application-security
version	1.0
author	oyi77
license	Apache-2.0
nist_csf	["PR.PS-01","ID.RA-01","PR.DS-10","DE.CM-01"]

Exploiting Template Injection Vulnerabilities

Overview

Cybersecurity skill for exploiting template injection vulnerabilities. Follows industry best practices and security standards.

When to Use

Trigger phrases:

• "exploiting template injection vulnerabilities"

• "Detecting and exploiting Server-Side Template Injection (SSTI) vulnerabilities a"

• During authorized penetration tests when user input is rendered through a server-side template engine

• When testing error pages, email templates, PDF generators, or report builders that include user-supplied data

• For assessing applications that allow users to customize templates or notification messages

• When identifying potential SSTI in parameters that reflect arithmetic results (e.g., {{7*7}} returns 49)

• During security assessments of CMS platforms, marketing tools, or any application with templating functionality

When NOT to Use

• When you lack proper authorization for testing
• For production systems without change management
• When the task requires legal or compliance expertise beyond technical scope

Prerequisites

• Authorization: Written penetration testing agreement with RCE testing scope
• Burp Suite Professional: For intercepting and modifying template parameters
• tplmap: Automated SSTI exploitation tool (git clone https://github.com/epinna/tplmap.git)
• SSTImap: Modern SSTI scanner (pip install sstimap)
• curl: For manual SSTI payload testing
• Knowledge of template engines: Jinja2, Twig, Freemarker, Velocity, Mako, Pebble, ERB, Smarty

Workflow

# Example: IOC detection
import re

IOC_PATTERNS = {
    "ip": r"\b(?:\d{1,3}\.){3}\d{1,3}\b",
    "domain": r"\b[a-z0-9-]+\.[a-z]{2,}\b",
    "hash_md5": r"\b[a-f0-9]{32}\b",
    "hash_sha256": ,
}

 () -> :
     {k: re.findall(v, text)  k, v  IOC_PATTERNS.items()}