CVE-2005-2546 in Arab Portal
Summary
by MITRE
Arab Portal 2.0 allows remote attackers to obtain sensitive information via a long (1) username or (2) password, which reveals the path in an error message when the undefined "errmsg" function is called.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/27/2017
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2005-2546 affects Arab Portal 2.0, a web-based content management system that suffered from improper error handling mechanisms. This flaw represents a classic information disclosure vulnerability where the application fails to sanitize user input properly during authentication processes, leading to the exposure of sensitive system information. The vulnerability specifically manifests when the application encounters malformed input during username or password validation, triggering an error condition that inadvertently reveals filesystem paths and internal application structure information.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from the application's lack of proper input validation and error handling procedures. When an attacker submits excessively long username or password values, the system attempts to process these inputs through an undefined "errmsg" function that does not properly handle the overflow conditions. This results in the application throwing an error message that contains detailed path information, including the absolute file paths where the application resides on the server filesystem. Such error messages typically contain stack traces, file locations, and directory structures that provide attackers with critical information about the underlying system architecture.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents significant security implications for organizations using Arab Portal 2.0. The exposure of filesystem paths enables attackers to gain insights into the server's directory structure, which can be leveraged for further exploitation attempts including directory traversal attacks, path traversal vulnerabilities, and potentially more sophisticated attacks targeting specific file locations. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-209, which specifically addresses improper error handling that reveals sensitive information, and represents a clear violation of secure coding practices that mandate proper input sanitization and error message generation.
The attack vector for this vulnerability is straightforward and requires minimal technical expertise to exploit. Attackers can simply submit carefully crafted long strings as username or password values to trigger the undefined function error, making this vulnerability particularly dangerous as it can be discovered and exploited by automated scanning tools. This characteristic places the vulnerability in the ATT&CK framework under the T1068 technique for 'Exploitation for Privilege Escalation' and T1083 for 'File and Directory Discovery', as the information disclosure enables further reconnaissance activities.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including input length validation, proper error handling mechanisms, and the implementation of generic error messages that do not reveal system-specific information. The solution requires modifying the application code to handle all input values through proper validation routines before processing, ensuring that error conditions are caught and handled gracefully without exposing internal system details. Additionally, regular security assessments and code reviews should be conducted to identify similar error handling patterns that may expose sensitive information, with specific attention to CWE-209 compliance requirements and adherence to secure coding standards that prevent information leakage through error messages.