Digital Security Research Group [DSecRG] Advisory       #DSECRG-08-018


Application:                    Ruby 1.8.6 (WEBrick Web server Toolkit and applications that used  WEBrick, like Metasploit 3.1)
Versions Affected:              Ruby
                                1.8.4 and all prior versions 
                                1.8.5-p114 and all prior versions 
                                1.8.6-p113 and all prior versions  
                                1.9.0-1 and all prior version

Vendor URL:                     http://www.ruby-lang.org/
Bugs:                           Directory traversal File Download
Exploits:                       YES
Reported:                       20.02.2008
Vendor response:                22.02.2008
Solution:                       03.03.2008           
Date of Public Advisory:        06.03.2008
Authors:                         Alexandr Polyakov, Stas Svistunovich
                                 Digital Security Research Group [DSecRG] (research [at] dsec [dot] ru)



Description
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WEBrick Httpd server has directory traversal security vulnerability.

WEBrick is an HTTP server library written in Ruby that uses servlets to extend its capabilities.
Built into WEBrick are four servlets, handling CGI, ERb, file directories, and a generic Proc servlet.
Ruby on Rails uses WEBrick as a quick and easy webserver to start developing your Rails applications.
However, for whatever ease of development WEBrick adds to your application, it is generally considered not suitable for any production environment.




Details
*******

The following programs are vulnerable.

Programs that publish files using WEBrick::HTTPServer.new with the :DocumentRoot option 
Programs that publish files using WEBrick::HTTPServlet::FileHandler 

Affected systems are:
1. Systems that accept backslash (\) as a path separator, such as Windows. 
2. Systems that use case insensitive filesystems such as NTFS on Windows, HFS on Mac OS X. 


This vulnerability has the following impacts.
1. Attacker can access private files by sending a url with url encoded backslash (\). This exploit works only on systems that accept backslash as a path separator.

Example:

http://[server]:[port]/..%5c..%5c..%5c..%5c..%5c..%5c..%5c..%5c..%5c..%5c/boot.ini


2. Attacker can access files that matches to the patterns specified by the :NondisclosureName option (the default value is [".ht*", "*~"]). This exploit works only on systems that use case insensitive filesystems. 








Additional info
***************

WEBrick is used  to build  own HTTP servers and  used in many applications such as Metasploit 3.1 and Karma Tools

 


Fix Information
***************

fixed  on 03.03.2008.

http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/news/2008/03/03/webrick-file-access-vulnerability/


Patches can be downloaded here:
   

1.8 series 
Please upgrade to 1.8.5-p115 or 1.8.6-p114. 
<URL:ftp://ftp.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/1.8/ruby-1.8.5-p115.tar.gz> (md5sum: 20ca6cc87eb077296806412feaac0356) 
<URL:ftp://ftp.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/1.8/ruby-1.8.6-p114.tar.gz> (md5sum: 500a9f11613d6c8ab6dcf12bec1b3ed3) 
1.9 series 
Please apply the following patch to lib/webrick/httpservlet/filehandler.rb.
<URL:ftp://ftp.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/1.9/ruby-1.9.0-1-webrick-vulnerability-fix.diff> (md5sum: b7b58aed40fa1609a67f53cfd3a13257) 



About
*****

Digital Security is leading IT security company in Russia, providing information security consulting, audit and 

penetration testing services, risk analysis and ISMS-related services and certification for ISO/IEC 27001:2005 and PCI 

DSS standards. Digital Security Research Group focuses on web application and database security problems with 

vulnerability reports, advisories and whitepapers posted regularly on our website.


Contact:        research [at] dsec [dot] ru
                http://www.dsec.ru (in Russian)




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  Digital Security Research Group                           mailto:alexandr.polyakov@dsec.ru