Vulnerability Note VU#191763

iPlanet Web Server Enterprise Edition and Netscape Enterprise Server malformed Web Publisher command causes denial-of-service

Overview

A vulnerability exists in iPlanet Web Server, Enterprise Edition and Netscape Enterprise Server in which a malformed Web Publisher command can crash the web server process. This vulnerability only affects Windows NT based servers.

I. Description

ProCheckup has reported a vulnerability in iPlanet Web Server, Enterprise Edition and Netscape Enterprise Server running on Windows NT based operating systems. The iPlanet and NES servers provide a feature called Web Publisher. According to NES documentation:

Netscape Enterprise Server 4.0 clients can use Web Publisher to collaborate on projects by directly accessing, editing, and managing file on remote servers. Web Publisher provides sophisticated features for server clients, such as file management, editing and publishing, and access control.

If Web Publishing is enabled, a malformed ?wp-html-rend command can crash the web server process. To determine if Web Publisher is enabled, enter the following URL:

http://<name of server>/publisher If Web Publisher is enabled, a page should appear. Note that this vulnerability does not affect Unix systems.

II. Impact

An unauthenticated remote attacker can cause a denial-of-service condition by sending malformed ?wp-html-rend commands to a vulnerable server.

III. Solution

Disable Web Publishing

iPlanet recommends disabling Web Publisher and Directory Indexing on external servers:

http://developer.netscape.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/40/ag/esapuirf.htm#1005372

Another method for disabling Web Publisher is to use a Netscape Server Application Programming Interface (NSAPI) Server Application Function (SAF):

http://knowledgebase.iplanet.com/ikb/kb/articles/7761.html

Filter HTTP Traffic
It may be possible to use an application layer filter to detect and block HTTP requests containing the ?wp-html-rend command.

Systems Affected

Vendor	Status	Date Notified	Date Updated
iPlanet	Vulnerable	8-Jan-2002
Netscape	Vulnerable	8-Jan-2002

References

http://www.procheckup.com/vuln.html
http://knowledgebase.iplanet.com/ikb/kb/articles/7761.html
http://developer.netscape.com/docs/manuals/enterprise/40/ag/eswebpub.htm
http://enterprise.netscape.com/docs/enterprise/60/admin/esintro.htm#1009005

Credit

The CERT Coordination Center thanks ProCheckup for information used in this document.

This document was written by Art Manion.

Other Information

Date Public:	2002-01-08
Date First Published:	2002-01-08
Date Last Updated:	2002-01-09
CERT Advisory:
CVE-ID(s):
NVD-ID(s):
US-CERT Technical Alerts:
Metric:	4.50
Document Revision:	21

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