'printenv' XSS vulnerability From: "Dr.Tek" <tek@superw00t.com> To: bugtraq@securityfocus.com Date: Sunday 22.49.58 ***** This writing is part of Malloc() Hackers & Malloc() Security ***** http://www.mallochackers.com http://www.superw00t.com ************************************************************************ Title: 'printenv' XSS vulnerability ~~~~~ Author: Dr.Tek of Malloc() ~~~~~~ Contact: "Dr.Tek" - (tek@superw00t.com) ~~~~~~~ No modification of the contents of this file should be made without direct consent of the author or of Malloc() hackers or Malloc() Security. ************************************************************************ 'printenv' is a test CGI script that tends to come default with most Apache installation. Usually located in the "/cgi-bin/" directory. An XSS vulnerbility exist which will allow anyone to input specially crafted links and/or other malicious/obscene scripts. Example exploitation: http://www.w00tw00t.com/cgi-bin/printenv/<a href="bad">If you see this error, Click here!</a> Fix: Since 'printenv' is just an example CGI script that has no real use and has its own problems. Just remove it.
Re: 'printenv' XSS vulnerability From: Marc Slemko <marcs@znep.com> To: "Dr.Tek" <tek@superw00t.com> Date: Monday 17.43.13 On Sun, 22 Dec 2002, Dr.Tek wrote: > 'printenv' is a test CGI script that tends to come default with most > Apache installation. Usually located in the "/cgi-bin/" directory. > > > An XSS vulnerbility exist which will allow anyone to input specially > crafted links and/or other malicious/obscene scripts. > > > Example exploitation: > > http://www.w00tw00t.com/cgi-bin/printenv/<a href="bad">If you see this > error, Click here!</a> That does not post any cross site scripting risk when using standards compliant browsers and a moderately recent version of the script. It does not output HTML, but rather text/plain. The only reason that may be rendered as HTML for you is if your browser is broken and ignores the text/plain MIME type. IE is known to be broken in this way, and yes it is a security hole in IE. Microsoft has decreed, in their infinite wisdom, that text/plain can never be used safely with IE with arbitrary input since there is no way to encode characters since... it is plain text. > > > Fix: > > Since 'printenv' is just an example CGI script that has no real use and > has its own problems. Just remove it. Agreed, if you don't need it then don't use it. It isn't installed as a runnable script by default for a variety of reasons, including this one.
