Software Engineering Institute

It has been reported that Caucho's Quercus on Resin contains multiple vulnerabilities which could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the application.

• CVE-2012-2965: 1. HTTP Parameter Contamination: Some special characters in variables names are handled inappropriately, which may be leveraged by attackers. Additionally, attackers may intentionally cause error 500.

• CVE-2012-2966: 2. Variables Globalization and Overwriting: When parameters are transferred via POST, they become globalized. When parameters are transferred via POST, the _SERVER array items may be overwritten.

• CVE-2012-2967: 3. Inappropriate Variable Comparison: Flexible comparison (using the == operator) various types of variables is implemented inappropriately. It is possible for variable comparisons to always result in a TRUE result. Additionally, the result of comparing array() and 0 in all cases is TRUE, which is also atypical behavior for a PHP interpreter.

• CVE-2012-2968: 4. Path Traversal: When downloading files, the ../ string may be inserted into filenames (via forging HTTP requests). Such insertion allows downloading files to arbitrary directories.

• CVE-2012-2969: 5. Null Byte Injection: When downloading files, null bytes may be inserted into filenames (via forging HTTP requests). As a result of the insertion, the string after the null byte will be dropped.

A remote unauthenticated attacker may obtain sensitive information, cause a denial of service condition or execute arbitrary code with the privileges of the application.

Update

According to the vendor these issues are addressed in software version 4.0.29. Users are advised to upgrade to 4.0.29 or higher.

Restrict access

As a general good security practice, only allow connections from trusted hosts and networks. Note that restricting access does not prevent XSS or CSRF attacks since the attack comes as an HTTP request from a legitimate user's host. Restricting access would prevent an attacker from accessing the Quercus on Resin website interface using stolen credentials from a blocked network location.