netVigilance Security Advisory #53

SAXON version 5.4 Multiple Path Disclosure Vulnerabilities
Description:
SAXON is a simple accessible online news publishing system for personal and small corporate site owners. Publish news, using configurable templates, on any .php page on your site. Publish news on a 'per author' basis. Edit and/or delete existing news items. Create multiple RSS news feeds automatically (RSS 0.9, RSS 2.0 and Atom). Post date news items for later public release. Multiple authors allowed. Ability to configure users as Standard or Administrators. Ability to add/delete users (Administrators only). Option to change any user password (Administrators only). Template creation/deletion/amendment interface. Online setup and configuration.

External References:
Mitre CVE: CVE-2007-4861
NVD NIST: CVE-2007-4861
OSVDB: Unassigned

Summary:
SAXON is a simple accessible online news publishing system for personal and small corporate site owners.
Security problems in the product allow attackers to gather the true path of the server-side script.

Advisory URL:
http://www.netvigilance.com/advisory0053

Release Date:
10/29/2007

CVSS Version 2 Metrics:

Base Metrics:


Exploitability Metrics:



Access Vector:
Network


Access Complexity:
Low


Authentication:
None

Impact Metrics:



Confidentiality Impact:
Partial


Integrity Impact:
None


Availability Impact:
None
Temporal Metrics:


Exploitability:
Functional

Remediation Level:
Official Fix

Report Confidence:
Confirmed

CVSS Version 2 Vectors:

Base Vector:
"AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N"
Temporal Vector:
"E:F/RL:OF/RC:C"


CVSS Version 2 Scores:

Base Score:
5

Impact Subscore:
2.9

Exploitability Subscore:
10
Temporal Score:
4.1
SecureScout Testcase ID:
TC 17990

Vulnerable Systems:
SAXON version 5.4

Vulnerability Type:
Program flaws - The product scripts have flaws which lead to Warnings or even Fatal Errors.
Vendor:
Quirm

Vendor Status:
The Vendor has confirmed the problem and has release new version 5.41 that addresses the problem. New version of product was tested and we can confirm that all vulnerabilities were solved.  For more information see vendor announcement. To download the latest version go to vendors product download area.
Workaround:
>From netVigilance:
Disable warning messages: modify in the php.ini file following line: display_errors = Off.

>From vendor:
Modify .htaccess file to include 'php_flag register_globals off' (this will work only for the Apache servers). Amend admin/config.php to include 'error_reporting(0);'
Update critical files in the /admin, /rss and root directory of the installation (all MySQL error reporting removed)
Example:

Path Disclosure Vulnerability 1:
REQUEST:
http://[TARGET]/[PRODUCT DIRECTORY]/news.php
REPLY:
Fatal error:  Call to undefined function:  quotesmart() in [DISCLOSED PATH][PRODUCT DIRECTORY]\news.php on line 15

Path Disclosure Vulnerability 2:
REQUEST:
http://[TARGET]/[SAXON-DIRECTORY]/admin/edit-item.php?newsid[]=1
REPLY:
Warning:  mysql_real_escape_string() expects parameter 1 to be string, array given in [DISCLOSED PATH][PRODUCT DIRECTORY]\admin\functions.php on line 48

Credits:
Jesper Jurcenoks
Co-founder netVigilance, Inc
www.netvigilance.com
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