SecurityvulnsSECURITYVULNS:DOC:29339SEC Consult 20130417-0 :: Multiple vulnerabilities in Sosci Survey
SEC Consult Vulnerability Lab Security Advisory < 20130417-0 >
title: Multiple vulnerabilities in Sosci Survey
product: Sosci Survey
vulnerable version: <2.3.04a
fixed version: 2.3.04a
impact: Critical
homepage: https://www.soscisurvey.de
found: 2012-06-18
by: T. Lazauninkas, V. Paulikas
SEC Consult Vulnerability Lab
https://www.sec-consult.com
Vendor description:
SoSci Survey provides a non-comercial survey service, letting anyone to create and
share surveys for collecting data in a purpose of scientific research. It is a
flexible and efficient tool as it lets you to create a very customizable survey,
including active content (javascript) and PHP code.
Vulnerability overview/description:
1) Authorization Issues
The web application fails to validate authorization for
certain requests. This allows unauthorized users to access private messages
that belong to other users.
2) Cross-Site Scripting
The web application is prone to persistent and reflected Cross-Site Scripting
attacks. The vulnerability can be used to include HTML or JavaScript
code to the affected web page. The code is executed in the browser of
users if they visit the manipulated site. The vulnerability can be used
to change the contents of the displayed site, redirect to other sites
or steal user credentials. Additionally, Portal users are potential
victims of browser exploits and JavaScript Trojans.
3) Remote command execution
Due to insufficient input validation, the web application fails to properly
filter dangerous PHP code passed from the user side. This leads to OS command
execution with the privileges of the web server. By exploiting this
vulnerability, an attacker can read/write files, open connections, etc. posing
a critical security risk.
Proof of concept:
1) In the user profile, users are able to send and receive private messages to
each other. This also includes the administrative users. By modifying one of the
vulnerable script's parameters an attacker can read the messages of other users.
A proof of concept is provided below:
https://www.example.com/admin/index.php?o=account&a=message.reply&id=[msg_id]
By iterating between the integer parameter's id value, an attacker is able to exploit
this vulnerability.
2) If an invalid id value is passed to the receiver.edit module, which is handled by
the index.php script, its contents is reflected to the user without proper filtering.
This leads to javascript execution in the web browser. This issue can be easily exploited
by navigating to the folowing URL:
An alert with the user's session cookie will be shown.
Persistent Cross-Site scripting was identified in the private messaging module. It was
discovered, that [subject, title, firstName, surname, content] parameters are
vulnerable to persistent Cross-Site scripting as they are saved and later shown
without proper filtering. A sample request is provided below:
POST /admin/index.php HTTP/1.1
Host: www.example.com
[...]
rec-name=some_name&subject=%3Cscript%3Ealert%28document.cookie%29%3C%2Fscript%3E
&message=asd%3Cscript%3Ealert%28document.cookie%29%3C%2Fscript%3E&o=account
&a=message.send&reference=
Many parameters are vulnerable to reflected Cross-Site Scripting vulnerabilities:
URL:
https://www.example.com/admin/index.php
Parameters:
replace[0-24]
search[0-24]
id
O
Referer (header)
URL:
https://www.example.com/admin/ajax.feedback.php
Parameters:
dat_type
3) When creating a new survey it is possible to include PHP code. Despite that the web
application is filtering most of the dangerous PHP functions, that would allow to execute OS
commands, it is still possible to execute arbitrary commands by using the provided code below:
print `id`;
The above code, when executed, prints out the system id of the current user. This could be further
exploited by an attacker for accessing the local file system, creating malicious files, opening
remote conections, etc.
Vulnerable / tested versions:
Pre-installed version of SoSci Survey, hosted on www.soscisurvey.de domain, was
tested. It was not possible to determine an exact version of the installed software.
Vendor contact timeline:
2013-01-29: Contacted vendor through [email protected]
2013-01-29: Initial vendor response - issues will be verified
2013-03-29: Status request sent
2013-03-29: Vendor response: Security update 2.3.04a is available
2013-04-17: SEC Consult releases coordinated security advisory
Solution:
Update to version 2.3.04a.
Workaround:
Advisory URL:
https://www.sec-consult.com/en/Vulnerability-Lab/Advisories.htm
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Mail: research at sec-consult dot com
https://www.sec-consult.com
EOF T. Lazauninkas, V. Paulikas / @2013