Bugtraq mailing list archives

Re: Multiple Vulnerabilities In P-Synch Password Management


From: Idan Shoham <idan () psynch com>
Date: 30 May 2003 16:03:36 -0000

In-Reply-To: <20030529052621.31678.qmail () www securityfocus com>

The following can be taken as an official response from the vendor:
M-Tech Information Technology, Inc. (http://mtechIT.com/) to this
"vulnerability:"

1) The actual risk of these issues to production deployments of
   P-Synch is nil, as users do not normally, or in our experience ever,
   access P-Synch by clicking a URL on a third-party web server.

   Cross-site scripting attacks only affect the web browser of
   users who click a maliciously-constructed URL to a valid
   application URL, and this mode of attacking user browsers is
   simply not relevant to a normal P-Synch deployment.

   Users access P-Synch in one of several ways, none of which
   expose their browser to cross-site scripting attacks:

   a) By typing a well known URL, such as "password" in their browser,
      and relying on the DNS infrastructure of their organization
      (e.g., password --> password.acme.com --> P-Synch server).

   b) By triggering transparent password synchronization with a native
      password change on some system (and where no browser is involved).

   c) Using an IVR system and telephone (again, no browser).

   d) By clicking on a link to P-Synch on their corporate Intranet,
      which is highly unlikely to be compromised by a mangled URL.

2) A fix for both issues has been available to M-Tech customers
   for some time.  Despite extremely low risk, M-Tech was already
   aware, in particular of the path disclosure issue, and had already
   resolved it.

3) Path disclosure is trivial in this case.  The fact that P-Synch
   was installed on "C:\Program Files\P-Synch" is hardly sensitive
   and security through obscurity is obviously a falsehood.  The
   P-Synch application is hardened, and knowledge on the part of
   an intruder that the software is installed in a given directory,
   on a machine that should in normal deployments have no filesystem
   shares or other remote access mechanisms, is meaningless.

4) The contents of the filesystem of the P-Synch server are not
   affected.  For example, issuing a URL such as:

   http://demobox/demo/psdemo/nph-psf.exe?css=c:\test.dat

   will simply cause a web browser that follows this link to get
   an HTML page that includes the text:

   <style type="text/css" media="all">
   @import "c:\test.dat";
   </STYLE>

The original poster never made an effort to notify M-Tech of the
"discovered vulnerability," and does not have a legitimate copy of P-Synch
(presumably because he refused to sign a license agreement which many
customers and prospects sign daily to get a free evaluation copy of the
software).  As there are extremely few P-Synch deployments facing the
Internet, it is very unlikely that the poster "came across" P-Synch by
accident.

Customers and prospects are encouraged to contact M-Tech for 
more detailed information about this issue, and to download
patches if they feel the vulnerability is worth addressing.


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From: JeiAr <jeiar () kmfms com>
To: bugtraq () securityfocus com
Subject: Multiple Vulnerabilities In P-Synch Password Management



Multiple Vulnerabilities In P-Synch Password Management
-------------------------------------------------------
The other night I came across a server running P-Synch. 
I had never heard of it so i was curious to poke around 
on it a bit. Within an hour i found the vulns listed below. 
Im pretty sure there are other more serious vulns in 
P-Synch, but they are very picky about who they give thier
software to, even an evaluation version. So was not able
to test any further. However i encourage any admins running
P-Synch to poke around on it, just to be on the safe side.



Description
-------------------------------------------------------
P-Synch Total Password Management Solution  
by M-TECH
P-Synch is a total password management solution. It is 
intended to reduce the cost of ownership of password systems, 
and simultaneously improve the security of password protected 
systems. This is done through: -Password Synchronization. 
-Enforcing an enterprise wide password strength policy. 
-Allowing authenticated users to reset their own forgotten 
passwords and enable their locked out accounts. -Streamlining 
help desk call resolution for password resets. P-Synch is 
available for both internal use, on the corporate Intranet, 
as well as for the Internet deployment in B2B and B2C 
applications.

http://www.securityfocus.com/products/837



Problems
-------------------------------------------------------
All of these problems are simple, self explanatory vulns
so, i'm sure the below examples will speak for themselves.
Once again this application was NOT thoroughly researced.
So anyone with a copy of P-Synch might wanna explore it
further.



Path Disclosure Vulnerability
-------------------------------------------------------
https://path/to/psynch/nph-psa.exe?lang=
https://path/to/psynch/nph-psf.exe?lang=


Code Injection Vulnerability
-------------------------------------------------------
https://path/to/psynch/nph-psf.exe?css=";>[VBScript, JScript etc]
https://path/to/psynch/nph-psa.exe?css=";>[VBScript, JScript etc]


File Include Vulnerability
-------------------------------------------------------
https://path/to/psynch/nph-psf.exe?css=http://somesite/file
https://path/to/psynch/nph-psa.exe?css=http://somesite/file



Credits
-------------------------------------------------------
All credits go to JeiAr of GulfTech Computers and CSA 
Security Research http://www.gulftech.org



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