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CERT Coordination Center

WebEOC handles sensitive information in an insecure manner

Vulnerability Note VU#165290

Original Release Date: 2005-07-13 | Last Revised: 2005-07-14

Overview

WebEOC handles sensitive information in an insecure manor. As a result, sensitive information may be exposed to untrusted parties.

Description

WebEOC is a web-based crisis information management application that provides functions to gather, coordinate, and disseminate information between emergency personnel and Emergency Operations Centers (EOC). By design, WebEOC insecurely stores sensitive information in easily accessible application components.

Sensitive information includes, but is not necessarily limited to:

    • System configuration information
    • Usernames
    • Passwords
    • Emergency information
    • Medical/victim information

In numerous places throughout the WebEOC application this type of information is handled in an insecure manor. Sensitive information may be encoded into URIs, stored in publicly accessible configuration files, and stored with HTML code that is presented to users. In addition, sensitive information that is exposed to users is often plaintext. Attackers and untrusted users can easily access sensitive information

Impact

Sensitive information may be easily accessible to untrusted parties. In some cases, this information may be stored as plaintext.

Solution

Upgrade
Version 6.0.2 corrects this vulnerability. According to ESi:

These vulnerabilities have been addressed in WebEOC version 6.0.2. Each of the application areas that exposed sensitive information were modified so that the sensitive information is no longer exposed. Much of this sensitive information was moved to different parts of the application and stored on the server in areas that are only accessible to authenticated/trusted users. A general policy has been implemented that reduces the amount of information that is passed between the client and the server, thus reducing the likelihood that sensitive information would be transmitted in an insecure manner.

To obtain WebEOC upgrades, contact ESi Technical Support.

Vendor Information

165290
 

ESi Affected

Updated:  June 21, 2005

Status

Affected

Vendor Statement

This vulnerability has been addressed in version 6.0.2.

Vendor Information

The vendor has not provided us with any further information regarding this vulnerability.

Addendum

US-CERT has no additional comments at this time.

If you have feedback, comments, or additional information about this vulnerability, please send us email.


CVSS Metrics

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References

Acknowledgements

This document is based on technical analysis by IOActive and additional information from ESi. Thanks also to the City of Seattle for bringing this to our attention.

This document was written by Jeff Gennari.

Other Information

CVE IDs: CVE-2005-2285
Severity Metric: 4.56
Date Public: 2005-07-13
Date First Published: 2005-07-13
Date Last Updated: 2005-07-14 16:40 UTC
Document Revision: 63

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