RedTeam Pentesting GmbH

ActiveWeb Contentserver CMS SQL Injection Management Interface

RedTeam Pentesting discovered an SQL Injection in the picture_real_edit.asp script of the activeWeb contentserver CMS during a penetration test. An editor with the permission to edit pictures can exploit this by injecting arbitrary commands into the “id” variable used to fetch an image from the database.

Details

Product: activeWeb contentserver
Affected Versions: <= 5.6.2929
Fixed Versions: 5.6.2964
Vulnerability Type: SQL-Injection
Security-Risk: high
Vendor-URL: http://www.active-web.de/aw/home/Produkte/~gf/contentserver/
Vendor-Status: informed, fixed version released
Advisory-URL: https://www.redteam-pentesting.de/advisories/rt-sa-2007-004
Advisory-Status: public
CVE: CVE-2007-3013
CVE-URL: https://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2007-3013

Introduction

contentserver is the comprehensive, scalable Content Management System for professional requirements. It combines editorial system, website management and development platform for web applications in one package.

(translation of the description on the vendor’s homepage)

More Details

By accessing the URL

https://www.example.com/admin/picture/picture_real_edit.asp?id=

an editor can edit images. The images are stored in the SQL database and referenced by the variable “id”. This variable is not filtered, which leads to an SQL Injection. The query which is executed is

SELECT Bezeichnung,ImageKommentar,KatalogID FROM RealobjectSmall WHERE ID = '$id'

By injecting commands into the “id” parameter, arbitrary SQL statements can be executed. The structure of the query is shown on an error page if there is an error in it (e.g., by setting id to a single tick '), making it easy for an attacker to check the exact syntax he needs to exploit the vulnerability. The return values of the query will be shown in the form fields of the page.

Proof of Concept

The following request shows the version of the SQL server and the operating system in the “Bezeichnung” form field, using an SQL UNION:

https://www.example.com/admin/picture/picture_real_edit.asp
 ?id='%20union%20select%20@@version%20,@@microsoftversion,@@version--

Workaround

A possible workaround would be to use a filtering application set up in front of the real webserver, mitigating the risk of being exploited.

Fix

The vulnerability is fixed in release 5.6.2964.

Security Risk

The risk of this vulnerability is high. Any editor with the permissions to edit an image can inject SQL Code, completely compromising the database.

History

2007-05-23 Problem found during a penetration test
2007-05-30 Vendor notified by customer
2007-06-01 Vendor called back and confirmed the vulnerability
2007-06-18 CVE number assigned
2007-07-11 Vendor released fixed version
2007-07-13 Advisory released
2009-05-08 Updated Advisory URL

The vendor was very cooperative. There was always a competent contact person available who answered any questions. They did an additional code audit after verifying the vulnerability and fixed similar problems immediately.

RedTeam Pentesting offers individual penetration tests, short pentests, performed by a team of specialised IT-security experts. Hereby, security weaknesses in company networks or products are uncovered and can be fixed immediately.

As there are only few experts in this field, RedTeam Pentesting wants to share its knowledge and enhance the public knowledge with research in security-related areas. The results are made available as public security advisories.

More information about RedTeam Pentesting can be found at https://www.redteam-pentesting.de.