CVE-2002-0548 in Anthill
Summary
by MITRE
Anthill allows remote attackers to bypass authentication and file bug reports by directly accessing the postbug.php program instead of enterbug.php.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/16/2025
The vulnerability described in CVE-2002-0548 represents a critical authentication bypass flaw within the Anthill bug tracking system that was prevalent in the early 2000s. This issue stems from the application's improper handling of user access controls and session management mechanisms, allowing malicious actors to circumvent the intended security boundaries that should have protected the bug reporting functionality. The vulnerability specifically targets the web application's authentication layer by exploiting a direct access pattern that bypasses the normal user interface flow.
The technical flaw manifests through the application's design where two distinct PHP scripts serve different purposes within the bug reporting workflow. The enterbug.php script is intended to handle user authentication and authorization before allowing access to the bug reporting interface, while postbug.php is designed to process the actual bug submission data. However, the vulnerability occurs because the application fails to implement proper access controls on the postbug.php endpoint, allowing attackers to directly invoke this script without first passing through the authentication checkpoint established by enterbug.php. This represents a classic case of insufficient authorization checks and improper input validation that violates fundamental security principles.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability creates a significant risk exposure for organizations using Anthill as their bug tracking solution. Attackers can exploit this flaw to submit malicious bug reports, potentially including malicious code, spam content, or sensitive data disclosures without being authenticated or tracked. The impact extends beyond simple unauthorized access as it allows for potential data corruption, service disruption, and information leakage that could compromise the integrity of the bug tracking system. This vulnerability also enables attackers to bypass audit trails and logging mechanisms that would normally track legitimate user activities, making it difficult for system administrators to detect malicious behavior or maintain accountability within the application.
The security implications of this vulnerability align with CWE-285, which addresses improper authorization issues in software systems, and can be mapped to ATT&CK technique T1078 for valid accounts usage and T1566 for social engineering attacks that leverage authentication bypasses. Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including access control restrictions on the postbug.php endpoint, proper input validation, and authentication enforcement mechanisms. The recommended approach involves ensuring that all endpoints requiring authentication perform proper authorization checks regardless of the access path used, implementing proper session management controls, and conducting thorough security reviews of all application endpoints to identify similar vulnerabilities. Additionally, network-level access controls should be implemented to restrict direct access to administrative scripts and ensure that all user interactions with the bug tracking system occur through the properly authenticated interface.