8th Apr 2003 [SBWID-6120]
COMMAND
Vignette Story Server sensitive informations leakage
SYSTEMS AFFECTED
Vignette Story Server v4.1, 6 Windows / Unix
PROBLEM
In @stake, Inc. Security Advisory a040703-1 [ http://www.atstake.com ],
Ollie Whitehouse found, with contributions of Florian Walther and Simon
Kilvington :
Vignette's Story Server is a web interface to Vignette's content
management suite of applications that operates on a variety of
platforms and web server technologies.
Vignette Story Server allows the publication of both static and dynamic
content. The dynamic pages are created using a TCL[1] Interpreter.
There exists vulnerability within the TCL interpreter used that allows
'dumping' of the stack of the current running TCL process when
generating dynamic pages.
This vulnerability results in an attacker being able to extract
information about other users sessions, server side code and other
sensitive information.
This vulnerability has been verified on Vignette Story Server v4.1 and
v6.0.
Description
===========
Vignette supports a vast range of dynamic content via it's content
management system. It allows the use of TCL code to interact with
databases, generate cookies, and wide range of other functions.
When a request is made to a dynamic page which accepts user input there
exists an issue when a large number of " and > characters are input to
the TCL interpreter. The effect is that the TCL interpreter will crash
returning to the user the data that was on the stack at the current
time.
@stake's testing observed that the most likely way to generate the
crash is a with a combination of around 214 " and > characters.
Contained below is an example URL that if populated would return a
large amount of data.
https://www.example.co.uk/securelogin/1,2345,A,00.html?Errmessage="x214>x214
If above URL is submitted when there is a large number of users
performing dynamic functions within the site (i.e. logging in or
performing a search) then a large amount of sensitive TCL code will be
available upon the stack and send to the attacker.
It should be noted that this vulnerability can be exploited
continuously without any effect on the availability of the site in
question, thus allowing an attacker to effectively wait until they have
enough data to achieve their end goal.
SOLUTION
The problem is fixed and a patch is available. Any Vignette customer
who has a security concern with their Vignette deployment should
contact Vignette Technical Support through normal channels. Those
channels include
[email protected],
contacting Technical Support in the Americas at 1 888 846 6907,
Europe, Middle East and Africa 44(0)1628772299
and Asia Pacific Australia 1 800 110 118
Asia Pacific New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan & China: +800 110 11811
Asia Pacific All Others 61.2.9455.5099.
Additionally, customers have the following resources available at
http://support.vignette.com/VOLSS/KB/View/1,,5360,00.html
@stake Recommendations
=======================
If you are you have a dynamic application that receives user input you
should install the patch.
Alternatively, employ string length checks upon user submitted data.
@stake has discovered requests under about 100 bytes rarely yield any
sensitive information.