CVE-2005-10001 in SiteMinder
Summary
by MITRE • 03/29/2022
A vulnerability was found in Netegrity SiteMinder up to 4.5.1 and classified as critical. Affected by this issue is the file /siteminderagent/pwcgi/smpwservicescgi.exe of the component Login. The manipulation of the argument target leads to an open redirect. The exploit has been disclosed to the public and may be used. NOTE: This vulnerability only affects products that are no longer supported by the maintainer
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/08/2024
This vulnerability exists in Netegrity SiteMinder version 4.5.1 and earlier, representing a critical security flaw that impacts the authentication and authorization mechanisms of the software. The issue specifically affects the smpwservicescgi.exe component within the Login functionality, which serves as a crucial interface for handling user authentication requests. The vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of the target parameter within the web service interface, creating an exploitable condition that allows attackers to manipulate the redirect behavior of the application. This particular flaw falls under the category of open redirect vulnerabilities as defined by CWE-601, where an application redirects users to arbitrary URLs without proper validation of the destination.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability occurs when the application processes the target parameter in the smpwservicescgi.exe executable, failing to validate or sanitize the input before using it in redirect operations. Attackers can exploit this by crafting malicious URLs with crafted target parameters that point to malicious domains or phishing sites. This allows for the creation of deceptive login pages that appear legitimate to users while actually redirecting them to attacker-controlled resources. The vulnerability demonstrates a classic lack of input validation and output encoding practices that are fundamental to preventing redirect-based attacks, aligning with common patterns identified in the ATT&CK framework under the technique of "Web Shell" and "Phishing" through open redirect manipulation.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is significant as it enables attackers to conduct social engineering campaigns by creating convincing fake login pages that can be used for credential theft or malware distribution. The open redirect mechanism can be leveraged to bypass security controls that rely on domain validation, potentially allowing attackers to redirect users to malicious sites without detection. This type of vulnerability is particularly dangerous in enterprise environments where SiteMinder is used for centralized authentication, as successful exploitation could compromise multiple applications that rely on the authentication service. The vulnerability's classification as critical indicates that it could be easily exploited and potentially lead to unauthorized access to sensitive systems and data.
Organizations should consider implementing network-level controls and monitoring to detect suspicious redirect patterns in their traffic logs, though these measures represent only partial mitigations given the nature of the vulnerability. The most effective remediation involves applying the vendor-supplied patches or upgrading to supported versions of the software, though this particular vulnerability affects products that are no longer supported by the maintainer. Security teams should implement additional authentication controls such as multi-factor authentication and regular security audits to reduce the potential impact of such vulnerabilities. The vulnerability also highlights the importance of maintaining current software versions and the risks associated with using unsupported products that no longer receive security updates or patches from vendors.