Francisco Burzi PHP-Nuke Administrative Privileges Vulnerability

BID:1592

Info

Francisco Burzi PHP-Nuke Administrative Privileges Vulnerability

Bugtraq ID: 1592
Class: Access Validation Error
CVE:
Remote: Yes
Local: Yes
Published: Aug 21 2000 12:00AM
Updated: Aug 21 2000 12:00AM
Credit: Discovered and posted to Bugtraq on Aug 21, 2000 by [email protected]. More information was provided by Starman_Jones in his post to Bugtraq on August 23, 2000.
Vulnerable: Francisco Burzi PHP-Nuke 2.5
Francisco Burzi PHP-Nuke 1.0
Not Vulnerable: Francisco Burzi PHP-Nuke 3.0
- Linux kernel 2.2

Discussion

Francisco Burzi PHP-Nuke Administrative Privileges Vulnerability

PHP-Nuke is a website creation/maintainence tool written in PHP3. It is possible to elevate priviliges in this system from normal user to administrator due to a flaw in authentication code. The problem occurs here:

$aid = variable holding author name, pwd = author password

$result=mysql_query("select pwd from authors where aid='$aid'");
if(!$result) {
echo "Selection from database failed!";
exit;
} else {
list($pass)=mysql_fetch_row($result);

if($pass == $pwd) {
$admintest = 1;
}
}

First off, the code checks to make sure the query passed to mysql_query is legal. There are no checks to see whether any rows are returned (whether any authors match $aid..). Then, the password given is compared to the result of the above query. If the author doesn't match, mysql_fetch_row returns FALSE. This is where the problem occurs. A NULL string is logically equal to FALSE and thus if an empty string is supplied as password, the condition tested for above (the if($pass == $pwd)) is met and admintest is set to 1 (TRUE). The user is then able to perform all administrative functions.

Exploit / POC

Francisco Burzi PHP-Nuke Administrative Privileges Vulnerability

http://target/admin.php3?admin=any_data

Solution / Fix

Francisco Burzi PHP-Nuke Administrative Privileges Vulnerability

Solution:
Upgrade to PHP-Nuke 3.0:


Francisco Burzi PHP-Nuke 1.0

Francisco Burzi PHP-Nuke 2.5

References

Francisco Burzi PHP-Nuke Administrative Privileges Vulnerability

References:
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