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

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.

Release Date:
October 29 2007

Severity:

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
Exploitability Subscore: 10
Impact Subscore: 2.9
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:
<b>Fatal error</b>: Call to undefined function: quotesmart() in <b>[DISCLOSED PATH][PRODUCT DIRECTORY] ews.php</b> on line <b>15</b><br />

Path Disclosure Vulnerability 2:

REQUEST:
http://[TARGET]/[SAXON-DIRECTORY]/admin/edit-item.php?newsid[]=1

REPLY:
<b>Warning</b>: mysql_real_escape_string() expects parameter 1 to be string, array given in <b>[DISCLOSED PATH][PRODUCT DIRECTORY]dminunctions.php</b> on line <b>48</b><br />

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