Vulnerability Note VU#497400

phpBB viewtopic.php fails to properly sanitize input passed to the "highlight" parameter

Original Release date: 21 Dec 2004 | Last revised: 29 Jun 2005

Overview

phpBB contains an user input validation problem with regard to the parsing of the URL. An intruder can deface a phpBB website, execute arbitrary commands, or gain administrative privileges on a compromised bulletin board.

Description

phpBB is an open-source bulletin board. A lack of input validation on the highlight parameter supplied to viewtopic.php may allow a remote attacker to execute arbitrary commands on a vulnerable server. The problem occurs because phpBB does not scan incoming URLs for malicious content when they are decoded.

We have seen reports of exploitation related to this vulnerability.

Impact

A remote attacker may be able to deface a phpBB website, execute arbitrary commands, or gain administrative privileges on a compromised bulletin board.

Solution

Update
Note that phpBB version 2.0.11 did not adequately correct this vulnerability. The phpBB Development Team has released phpBB version 2.0.16 to fully correct this issue.

Systems Affected (Learn More)

VendorStatusDate NotifiedDate Updated
phpBBAffected-21 Dec 2004
If you are a vendor and your product is affected, let us know.

CVSS Metrics (Learn More)

Group Score Vector
Base N/A N/A
Temporal N/A N/A
Environmental N/A N/A

References

Credit

This vulnerability was reported by the phpBB Development Team.

This document was written by Jeff Gennari.

Other Information

  • CVE IDs: Unknown
  • Date Public: 19 Nov 2004
  • Date First Published: 21 Dec 2004
  • Date Last Updated: 29 Jun 2005
  • Severity Metric: 37.97
  • Document Revision: 33

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