Title: ====== Paypal Bug Bounty #31 - Mail Encoding Web Vulnerability Date: ===== 2013-04-03 References: =========== http://www.vulnerability-lab.com/get_content.php?id=706 PayPal Security UID: erc849qoz VL-ID: ===== 706 Common Vulnerability Scoring System: ==================================== 6.3 Introduction: ============= PayPal is a global e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. Online money transfers serve as electronic alternatives to paying with traditional paper methods, such as checks and money orders. Originally, a PayPal account could be funded with an electronic debit from a bank account or by a credit card at the payer s choice. But some time in 2010 or early 2011, PayPal began to require a verified bank account after the account holder exceeded a predetermined spending limit. After that point, PayPal will attempt to take funds for a purchase from funding sources according to a specified funding hierarchy. If you set one of the funding sources as Primary, it will default to that, within that level of the hierarchy (for example, if your credit card ending in 4567 is set as the Primary over 1234, it will still attempt to pay money out of your PayPal balance, before it attempts to charge your credit card). The funding hierarchy is a balance in the PayPal account; a PayPal credit account, PayPal Extras, PayPal SmartConnect, PayPal Extras Master Card or Bill Me Later (if selected as primary funding source) (It can bypass the Balance); a verified bank account; other funding sources, such as non-PayPal credit cards. The recipient of a PayPal transfer can either request a check from PayPal, establish their own PayPal deposit account or request a transfer to their bank account. PayPal is an acquirer, performing payment processing for online vendors, auction sites, and other commercial users, for which it charges a fee. It may also charge a fee for receiving money, proportional to the amount received. The fees depend on the currency used, the payment option used, the country of the sender, the country of the recipient, the amount sent and the recipient s account type. In addition, eBay purchases made by credit card through PayPal may incur extra fees if the buyer and seller use different currencies. On October 3, 2002, PayPal became a wholly owned subsidiary of eBay. Its corporate headquarters are in San Jose, California, United States at eBay s North First Street satellite office campus. The company also has significant operations in Omaha, Nebraska, Scottsdale, Arizona, and Austin, Texas, in the United States, Chennai, Dublin, Kleinmachnow (near Berlin) and Tel Aviv. As of July 2007, across Europe, PayPal also operates as a Luxembourg-based bank. On March 17, 2010, PayPal entered into an agreement with China UnionPay (CUP), China s bankcard association, to allow Chinese consumers to use PayPal to shop online.PayPal is planning to expand its workforce in Asia to 2,000 by the end of the year 2010. Between December 4ñ9, 2010, PayPal services were attacked in a series of denial-of-service attacks organized by Anonymous in retaliation for PayPal s decision to freeze the account of WikiLeaks citing terms of use violations over the publication of leaked US diplomatic cables. (Copy of the Homepage: www.paypal.com) [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal] Abstract: ========= The Vulnerability Laboratory Research Team discovered a persistent web vulnerability in the official PayPal Community Forum website application. Report-Timeline: ================ 2012-09-23: Researcher Notification & Coordination 2012-09-25: Vendor Notification 2012-10-01: Vendor Response/Feedback 2013-03-26: Vendor Fix/Patch 2012-04-04: Public Disclosure Status: ======== Published Affected Products: ================== PayPal Inc Product: Community (Forums) 2012 Q3 Exploitation-Technique: ======================= Remote Severity: ========= High Details: ======== A persistent web vulnerabilities is detected in the official PayPal Community Forum website application. The vulnerability is located in the not secure parsed Problem Reporter module when processing to request a manipulated message body or title parameter. The vulnerability affects the outgoing forum.paypal mail service of the community and allows the execution of persistent script code. Successful exploitation of the vulnerabilities result in persistent phishing mails, persistent session hijacking attacks and persistent mail web context manipulation via paypal. Vulnerable Section(s): [+] PayPal Community (Forum) - Problem Reporter Vulnerable Module(s): [+] Problem Reporter of the Community & Forum Vulnerable Parameter(s): [+] Message Body & Title Affected Module(s): [+] Notification Mail - Forum Administrator Proof of Concept: ================= The persistent vulnerability can be exploited by remote attacker without application user account & with low or medium and also without user interaction. For demonstration or reproduce ... Review: Notification Mail - Message Body & Title ID: (KMM65736123V9119L0KM) :ppk1 URL(s): https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/US-PayPal-Community/ct-p/US Solution: ========= The vulnerability can be patched by parsing the vulnerable message values. Parse the outgoing mails message body & title or maybe the full template with all later available values. 2013-03-26: Vendor Fix/Patch by PayPal Inc Risk: ===== The security risk of the two persistent input validation vulnerability is estimated as high(-). The vulnerability did not affect the user or customer it affects directly the forum admin or moderators. Credits: ======== Vulnerability Laboratory [Research Team] - Benjamin Kunz Mejri (bkm@vulnerability-lab.com) Disclaimer: =========== The information provided in this advisory is provided as it is without any warranty. Vulnerability-Lab disclaims all warranties, either expressed or implied, including the warranties of merchantability and capability for a particular purpose. Vulnerability- Lab or its suppliers are not liable in any case of damage, including direct, indirect, incidental, consequential loss of business profits or special damages, even if Vulnerability-Lab or its suppliers have been advised of the possibility of such damages. Some states do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages so the foregoing limitation may not apply. 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