Vulnerability Note VU#128414

Apple Safari fails to properly handle form data in HTTP redirects

Overview

There is a vulnerability in the way Safari handles form data that may expose sensitive information when the forward/backward buttons are used.

I. Description

Apple Safari is a web browser available for the Mac OS X operating system. A vulnerability exists in the way Safari handles web form data. When a web form is submitted to a server using the POST method and the server returns an HTTP redirect to a GET method URL, Safari may re-POST that data to the GET method URL. It has been reported that this condition occurs when the forward/backward buttons are used. No further information was provided on this vulnerability.

II. Impact

A user's form data could be disclosed to a remote server.

III. Solution

Apple has released a patch to address this vulnerability. For further details, please see the Apple Security Advisory (Security Updates for Mac OS X 10.3.5).

Systems Affected

Vendor	Status	Date Notified	Date Updated
Apple Computer Inc.	Vulnerable	16-Aug-2004

References

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61798
http://www.securitytracker.com/alerts/2004/Aug/1010904.html
http://xforce.iss.net/xforce/xfdb/16944
http://secunia.com/advisories/12249/

Credit

This vulnerability was reported by Apple. In turn, Apple credits Rick Osterberg of Harvard University for reporting this issue.

This document was written by Damon Morda.

Other Information

Date Public:	2004-08-10
Date First Published:	2004-08-16
Date Last Updated:	2004-08-16
CERT Advisory:
CVE-ID(s):	CAN-2004-0743
NVD-ID(s):	CAN-2004-0743
US-CERT Technical Alerts:
Metric:	1.45
Document Revision:	7

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