Cross site scripting and information disclosure in gobi/helma

Wednesday, 5 December 2007

Cross site scripting and information disclosure in gobi/helma

security advisory

References:
 http://gobi.helma.org/
 http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2007-3693

Description:
 Cross site scripting describes attacks that allow to insert malicious
 html or javascript code via get or post forms. This can be used to steal
 session cookies.
 helma is a javascript-based application server, gobi is a cms
 based on helma. It's used on some popular pages, e. g. the ORF.
 The search-function can be used to inject javascript code.
 It will cause an information disclosure about the system path of helma
 if filled with invalid chars.

Workaround/Fix:
 There's no vendor fix. All input strings in web applications should be
 escaped properly and error messages containing paths should be suppressed
 on live installations.
 Vendor has been contacted 2007-04-12 and hasn't answered yet.

Sample injection URLs:
 http://gobi.helma.org/search/?q=<script>alert(1)</script>
 http://dev.helma.org/search/?q=<script>alert(1)</script>
 http://tv.orf.at/search?keyword="><script>alert(1)</script>

Sample information disclosure URLs:
 http://gobi.helma.org/search/?q="
 http://dev.helma.org/search/?q="

CVE Information:
 The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) project has assigned the
 name CVE-2007-3693 to this issue. This is a candidate for inclusion in
 the CVE list (http://cve.mitre.org/), which standardizes names for
 security problems.

Credits and copyright:
 This vulnerability was discovered by Hanno Boeck of schokokeks.org
 webhosting, http://www.schokokeks.org
 It's licensed under the creative commons attribution license:
 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

 Hanno Boeck, 2007-07-12, http://www.hboeck.de