Vulnerability Note VU#770532

NotifyLink administrative interface displays user passwords in clear text

Overview

The NotifyLink web interface grants administrative users inappropriate access to private user password information.

I. Description

Notify Technology NotifyLink Enterprise Server allows users to synchronize e-mail between a PDA and a mail server. The application consists of a PDA-specific client and the NotifyLink server, which acts as a proxy between the client and the mail server(s) the user wants to check. For each e-mail account to be monitored, the user provides mail server credentials that are stored on the NotifyLink server and used to periodically check for mail. When new mail arrives, the NotifyLink server stores a reference to the message ID. Depending on the configuration, the message is either sent to the device via SMS ("Push" mode), or the device periodically checks a link on the NotifyLink web server to retrieve the message ("Poll" mode). The product supports multiple PDA platforms and multiple e-mail servers, including IMAP, POP, Microsoft Exchange, and Novell GroupWise.

The NotifyLink web interface allows administrative users to view each client user's current NotifyLink and mail server passwords by accessing their user information page. This level of access to private user data is inappropriate, even for administrative users, and can be abused in several ways. For example, an attacker or casual observer can obtain passwords via "over the shoulder" observation of the administrator's workstation. Also, any attacker that can gain administrative access to the NotifyLink server can retrieve the NotifyLink and mail server credentials of all users with relative ease.

II. Impact

This vulnerability grants administrative users inappropriate access to private user password information.

III. Solution

Upgrade or Patch

This issue is resolved in NotifyLink 3.0. Starting with this version, the client and administrator interfaces will not display passwords.

Systems Affected

Vendor	Status	Date Notified	Date Updated
Notify Technology	Vulnerable	4-May-2004

References

http://notifylink.notify.net
http://secunia.com/advisories/14617/
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/12843

Credit

We thank the NOAA NCIRT Lab for their discovery and analysis of this vulnerability.

This document was written by Jeffrey P Lanza and Will Dormann. It is based on analysis provided by the NOAA NCIRT Lab.

Other Information

Date Public:	2005-03-17
Date First Published:	2005-03-17
Date Last Updated:	2005-04-20
CERT Advisory:
CVE-ID(s):	CAN-2005-0812
NVD-ID(s):	CAN-2005-0812
US-CERT Technical Alerts:
Metric:	0.00
Document Revision:	28

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