CVE-2005-2381 in PHP Surveyor
Summary
by MITRE
PHP Surveyor 0.98 allows remote attackers to obtain sensitive information via a direct request to (1) question.php, (2) survey.php, or (3) group.php in the root directory, a direct request to (4) database.php, (5) sessioncontrol.php, (6) html.php, (7) sessioncontrol.php, an invalid (8) qid parameter to dumpquestion.php, or an invalid lid parameter to (9) labels.php or (10) dumplabel.php, which reveal the path in an error message.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/08/2019
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2005-2381 affects PHP Surveyor version 0.98, a web-based survey application that suffers from improper error handling and information disclosure flaws. This vulnerability resides in the application's failure to properly validate user inputs and manage error responses, creating opportunities for attackers to extract sensitive system information through carefully crafted requests. The flaw manifests across multiple script files including core application components such as question.php, survey.php, group.php, database.php, sessioncontrol.php, html.php, dumpquestion.php, labels.php, and dumplabel.php, indicating a systemic issue in the application's input validation and error management mechanisms.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs through direct HTTP requests to specific application endpoints combined with malformed parameters that trigger error conditions within the PHP application. When attackers submit requests containing invalid qid parameters to dumpquestion.php or invalid lid parameters to labels.php and dumplabel.php, the application fails to properly sanitize these inputs and instead returns detailed error messages containing the absolute file system paths. This information disclosure vulnerability directly reveals the server's file system structure, including the full paths where the application files are stored, which can provide attackers with crucial reconnaissance information for further exploitation attempts.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple information disclosure, as the leaked path information can significantly aid attackers in planning more sophisticated attacks against the target system. The disclosed paths may reveal the underlying operating system structure, application deployment locations, and potentially expose sensitive directory hierarchies that could be leveraged in subsequent exploitation phases. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-200, which specifically addresses improper error handling leading to information disclosure, and represents a classic example of how inadequate input validation can result in unintended information exposure. The vulnerability also maps to ATT&CK technique T1212, which involves exploitation of software vulnerabilities to gain information about the target system.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require implementing proper input validation and error handling practices throughout the application codebase. The primary remediation involves sanitizing all user inputs before processing them within the application, ensuring that error messages do not contain system path information or other sensitive details. Application developers should implement comprehensive error handling that catches invalid parameters and returns generic error responses instead of detailed system information. Additionally, the application should be configured to disable detailed error reporting in production environments and implement proper access controls to prevent unauthorized access to sensitive application files. Regular security code reviews and input validation testing should be conducted to prevent similar vulnerabilities from being introduced in future versions of the application.