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TWiki 4.2.3 parseInterval Metacharacter Vulnerability

Notification Type:	IBM Internet Security Systems Protection Advisory
Notification Date:	December 5, 2008
Notification Version:	1.1

Name:	TWiki 4.2.3 parseInterval Metacharacter Vulnerability
Public disclosure/ In the wild date:	December 5, 2008 (vuln disclosure)
CVE:	CVE-2008-5305
Description:	TWiki could allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary commands, caused by insufficient filtering of user-defined input.
Discoverer:	Troy Bollinger, honorary member of the IBM X-Force

ISS Coverage

Product	Content Version
Proventia Network IDS Proventia Network IPS Proventia Network MFS Proventia Server (Linux) RealSecure Network RealSecure Server Sensor	28.050
Proventia Desktop Proventia Server IPS (Windows)	2290

Propagation Techniques	ISS Protection	Available
remote exploit	HTTP_Web_App_Cmd_Exec	Oct 14, 2008

Detailed Description

Business Impact:	Compromise of networks and machines using affected versions of TWiki may lead to exposure of confidential information, loss of productivity, and further network compromise. An attacker does not need to entice any kind of user interaction to trigger this vulnerability.
CVSS:	Base Score:		7.5
		Access Vector:	Network
		Access Complexity:	Low
		Authentication:	None
		Confidentiality Impact:	Partial
		Integrity Impact:	Partial
		Availability Impact:	Partial

	Adjusted Temporal Score:		5.5
		Exploitability:	Unproven
		Remediation Level:	Official-Fix
		Report Confidence:	Confirmed
Affected Products:	TWiki 4.2.3 and older. See references for details.
Technical Description:	In versions of TWiki 4.2.3 and older, a shell metacharacter vulnerability was discovered in the way that the "%SEARCH{}%" TWikiVariable handles the "date" keyword. User input is passed to the perl "eval" command without first being properly sanitized. Arbitrary code execution is tedious due to some input filtering that takes place. However, there are a number of methods that can be used to bypass these character filtering mechanisms.
Remediation:	Patches are available for this issue. See References for details.

References

XFDB:	http://xforce.iss.net/xforce/xfdb/45293
TWiki:	http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Codev/SecurityAlert-CVE-2008-5305/

Revision History

1.0	Initial publication.
1.1	Revised CVSS.

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