Multiple Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerabilities in Acunetix Web Vulnerability Scanner 11

Metadata
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Release Date: 28-May-2017
Author: Florian Bogner @ https://bogner.sh
Affected product: Acunetix Web Vulnerability Scanner 11 (https://www.acunetix.com/)
Issue verified on: Windows 7
Vulnerability Status: Fixed
Fixed Version: Acunetix WVS 11.0.170941159 released on 04-April-2017
CVE: Not requested
Full Details: https://bogner.sh/2017/05/another-local-privilege-escalation-in-acunetix-11/ and https://bogner.sh/2017/05/local-privilege-escalation-in-acunetix-11/

Product Description
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"Acunetix is the leading web vulnerability scanner used by serious fortune 500 companies and widely acclaimed to include the most advanced SQL injection and XSS black box scanning technology. It automatically crawls your websites and performs black box AND grey box hacking techniques which finds dangerous vulnerabilities that can compromise your website and data.

Acunetix tests for SQL Injection, XSS, XXE, SSRF, Host Header Injection and over 3000 other web vulnerabilities. It has the most advanced scanning techniques generating the least false positives possible. Inbuilt vulnerability management helps you prioritize and manage vulnerability resolution." (https://www.acunetix.com/)


Vulnerability 1: Local Privilege Escalation through Unsecured Database Server
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Acunetix WVS uses a PostgreSQL database in the backend to store all its data. However, because of the disabled authentication for local connections and cleartext credentials within a user readable configuration file, it was possible to gain full control over this database. As the database's Windows service was also configured to run as LOCAL SYSTEM, this could be abused to drop arbitrary file. As documented in the full report, this could further be exploited (using sqlmap) to gain full control over the affected target system.  

Full Details: https://bogner.sh/2017/05/another-local-privilege-escalation-in-acunetix-11/


Vulnerability 2: Local Privilege Escalation through DLL Sideloading 
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Additionally a DLL sideloading vulnerability was discovered in the Acunetix Windows service. As this service was also configured to run as LOCAL SYSTEM, it could also be abused to gain full control over the target.

Full Details: https://bogner.sh/2017/05/local-privilege-escalation-in-acunetix-11/


Suggested Solution
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Update to the latest version.


Disclosure Timeline
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5.1.2017: The issues have been documented and reported
6.1.2017: The issues have already been escalated to R&D
31.3.2017: Asked for update
4.4.2017: Fixed version (build 11.0.170941159) has been released
28.5.2017: Public disclosure


Florian Bogner

eMail: florian@bogner.sh
Web: http://www.bogner.sh
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