[SNS Advisory No.53] Webmin/Usermin Session ID Spoofing Vulnerability

From: snsadvat_private
Date: Tue May 07 2002 - 22:20:32 PDT

  • Next message: Patrik Karlsson: "cqure.net.20020412.netware_sdmr.a"

    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    SNS Advisory No.53
    Webmin/Usermin Session ID Spoofing Vulnerability
    
    Problem first discovered: Sat, 4 May 2002
    Published: Tue, 7 May 2002
    ----------------------------------------------------------------------
    
    Overview:
    ---------
      A vulnerability lies in the communication between the parent process 
      and the child process of Webmin and Usermin, which could allow an 
      attacker to spoof a session ID as any user already logged in.  This 
      results in the possibility for users who are not logged in, to be able
      to use these software tools.
    
    Description:
    ------------
      Webmin is a web-based system administration tool for Unix.  Usermin 
      is a web interface that allows all users on a Unix system to easily 
      receive mails and to perform SSH and mail forwarding configuration.
      
      Internal communication between the parent process and the child process
      using named pipes occur in these software packages during creation or 
      verification of a session ID, or during the setting process of password
      timeouts.  Because the control characters contained in the data passed 
      as authentication information are not eliminated, it is possible to make 
      Webmin and Usermin to acknowledge the combination of any user and session 
      ID specified by an attacker. If the attacker could log into Webmin by 
      using this problem, there is a possibility that arbitrary commands may be 
      executed with root privileges.
    
      [Preconditions for a successful exploit]
    
      In the case of Webmin :
    
      * Webmin->Configuration->Authentication
        "Enable password timeouts" is enabled
      * if a valid Webmin username is known
        by default, user "admin" exists and this user can use all the 
        functions, including command shell
    
      In the case of Usermin:
    
      * if password timeout is enabled
      * if a valid Usermin username is known
    
    Tested Versions:
    ----------------
      Webmin Version: 0.960
      Usermin Version: 0.90
    
    Solution:
    ---------
      This problem can be eliminated by upgrading to Webmin version 0.970/ 
      Usermin version 0.910, which are available at:
    
      http://www.webmin.com/
    
    Discovered by:
    --------------
      Keigo Yamazaki
    
    Disclaimer:
    -----------
      All information in these advisories are subject to change without any 
      advanced notices neither mutual consensus, and each of them is released 
      as it is. LAC Co.,Ltd. is not responsible for any risks of occurrences 
      caused by applying those information. 
    



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Wed May 08 2002 - 11:41:58 PDT