Chef
I initially discovered the presence of Chef through checking the system process, then I was able to confirmed that with PEAS
Interestingly, the james user has Knife configured to execute /usr/bin/knife, which is a symbolic link to the actual binary located at /opt/chef-workstation/bin/knife
chef is a popular configuration management tool used for automating the deployment and management of infrastructure. It allows developers to write code that can be used to automate the configuration and management of servers, applications, and other infrastructure. Other comparable products in this space include Ansible, Puppet, and SaltStack.
the installed instance of chef is chef-workstation at /opt/chef-workstation
Knife
Knife is a command-line tool for managing Chef infrastructure. It is used to interact with the Chef server and manage resources such as cookbooks, roles, and nodes. It provides a convenient interface for developers and system administrators to automate the deployment and configuration of infrastructure. As a tool used for system management and automation, Knife can give an attacker privileged access to multiple systems within the environment, making it a valuable target for attackers. In the current scenario, the attacker can use the compromised low-privileged user’s access to execute Knife as root, gaining full control over the Chef server and all managed systems, including potentially sensitive data such as secrets, configuration files, and application code. The attacker could then use this access to escalate their privileges further or use it as a pivot point to launch additional attacks within the environment.
Vulnerability
according to gtfobins, Knife can be abused for privilege escalation
Moving on to Privilege Escalation phase