ZDI-06-042: Verity Ultraseek Request Proxying Vulnerability

[zdi-disclosures@xxxxxxxx]

ZDI-06-042: Verity Ultraseek Request Proxying Vulnerability
http://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-06-042.html
November 15, 2006

-- CVE ID:
CVE-2006-5819

-- Affected Vendor:
Verity

-- Affected Products:
Ultraseek

-- TippingPoint(TM) IPS Customer Protection:
TippingPoint IPS customers have been protected against this
vulnerability since April  3, 2006 by Digital Vaccine protection
filter ID 4287. For further product information on the TippingPoint IPS:

    http://www.tippingpoint.com 

-- Vulnerability Details:
This vulnerability allows remote attackers to proxy web attacks and scan
internal hosts through vulnerable installations of Verity Ultraseek.
Authentication is not required to exploit this vulnerability.

The specific flaw exists within the highlight script used to highlight
search terms on spidered pages. An attacker can directly access the
highlight script at '/highlight/index.html' to pass parameters to and
retrieve content from arbitrary URLs. The same script can also be
abused to enumerate otherwise inaccessible internal addresses and open
ports.

Ultraseek also exposes various information disclosure vulnerabilities
through the following scripts:

    /help/urlstatusgo.html
    /help/header.html
    /help/footer.html
    /spell.html
    /coreforma.html
    /daterange.html
    /hits.html
    /hitsnavbottom.html
    /indexform.html
    /indexforma.html
    /languages.html
    /nohits.html
    /onehit1.html
    /onehit2.html
    /query.html
    /queryform0.html
    /queryform0a.html
    /queryform1.html
    /queryform1a.html
    /queryform2.html
    /queryform2a.html
    /quicklinks.html
    /relatedtopics.html
    /signin.html
    /subtopics.html
    /thesaurus.html
    /topics.html
    /hitspagebar.html
    /highlight/highlight.html
    /highlight/highlight_one.html
    /highlight/topnav.html

Authenticated Ultraseek users can further abuse another vulnerability
to retrieve arbitrary file contents from the underyling server through
the '/admin/logfile.txt' script.

-- Vendor Response:
Verity has issued an update to correct this vulnerability. More details
can be found at:

    http://www.ultraseek.com/support/docs/RELNOTES.txt

-- Disclosure Timeline:
2006.04.03 - Digital Vaccine released to TippingPoint customers
2006.05.09 - Vulnerability reported to vendor
2006.11.15 - Coordinated public release of advisory

-- Credit:
This vulnerability was discovered by sullo / CIRT.net.

-- About the Zero Day Initiative (ZDI):
Established by TippingPoint, a division of 3Com, The Zero Day Initiative
(ZDI) represents a best-of-breed model for rewarding security
researchers for responsibly disclosing discovered vulnerabilities.

Researchers interested in getting paid for their security research
through the ZDI can find more information and sign-up at:

    http://www.zerodayinitiative.com

The ZDI is unique in how the acquired vulnerability information is used.
3Com does not re-sell the vulnerability details or any exploit code.
Instead, upon notifying the affected product vendor, 3Com provides its
customers with zero day protection through its intrusion prevention
technology. Explicit details regarding the specifics of the
vulnerability are not exposed to any parties until an official vendor
patch is publicly available. Furthermore, with the altruistic aim of
helping to secure a broader user base, 3Com provides this vulnerability
information confidentially to security vendors (including competitors)
who have a vulnerability protection or mitigation product.