CVE-2002-0267 in SIPS
Summary
by MITRE
preferences.php in Simple Internet Publishing System (SIPS) before 0.3.1 allows remote attackers to gain administrative privileges via a linebreak in the "theme" field followed by the Status::admin command, which causes the Status line to be entered into the password file.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/22/2024
The vulnerability described in CVE-2002-0267 affects the Simple Internet Publishing System (SIPS) version 0.3.1 and earlier, representing a critical security flaw in the application's privilege escalation mechanism. This vulnerability resides within the preferences.php script, which handles user configuration settings for the SIPS platform. The issue stems from inadequate input validation and sanitization of the theme parameter, creating a path for remote attackers to exploit the system's authentication and authorization controls. The vulnerability specifically targets the password file handling mechanism where user credentials are stored and validated.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability involves crafting a malicious input that includes a linebreak character within the theme field parameter. When this malformed input is processed by the preferences.php script, it triggers a specific sequence where the Status::admin command gets inserted into the password file. This occurs due to improper handling of string concatenation and file writing operations that do not adequately sanitize or validate the input before writing it to the system's password database. The linebreak character acts as a delimiter that disrupts the normal parsing flow, allowing unauthorized administrative commands to be injected into the configuration file.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe and far-reaching for any organization using SIPS versions prior to 0.3.1. Remote attackers can gain full administrative privileges without requiring legitimate credentials, effectively compromising the entire system. This privilege escalation allows malicious actors to modify system configurations, access sensitive data, create or modify user accounts, and potentially establish persistent backdoors within the network. The vulnerability essentially provides a backdoor mechanism that bypasses all normal authentication procedures, making it particularly dangerous for web applications that rely on user authentication for security boundaries. The attack can be executed from any location without requiring physical access or prior knowledge of valid user accounts.
This vulnerability aligns with several cybersecurity frameworks and threat models, particularly CWE-20, which addresses "Improper Input Validation" and CWE-79, which covers "Cross-site Scripting" in the context of input handling failures. The attack vector follows the ATT&CK technique T1078 for Valid Accounts and T1548.001 for Abuse of Functionality, where attackers exploit legitimate application functions to gain unauthorized access. The vulnerability also demonstrates characteristics of T1068, which involves exploitation of a remote service, and T1499, representing the compromise of system integrity through configuration manipulation. Organizations should consider implementing network segmentation and access controls to limit exposure, while the most effective mitigation involves upgrading to SIPS version 0.3.1 or later, which includes proper input validation and sanitization mechanisms. Additionally, administrators should conduct thorough security audits of all web applications to identify similar input handling vulnerabilities that could be exploited in similar ways, ensuring that all user-supplied data is properly escaped and validated before being processed or written to system files.