Critical Flaw in GoAhead Web Server Could Affect Wide Range of IoT Devices

Dec 4, 2019

Cybersecurity researchers today uncovered details of two new
vulnerabilities in the GoAhead web server software, a tiny
application widely embedded in hundreds of millions of
Internet-connected smart devices.

One of the two vulnerabilities, assigned as CVE-2019-5096, is a
critical code execution flaw that can be exploited by attackers to
execute malicious code on vulnerable devices and take control over
them.

The first vulnerability resides in the way multi-part/form-data
requests are processed within the base GoAhead web server
application, affecting GoAhead Web Server versions v5.0.1, v.4.1.1,
and v3.6.5.

According to the researchers at Cisco Talos, while processing a
specially crafted HTTP request, an attacker exploiting the
vulnerability can cause use-after-free condition on the server and
corrupt heap structures, leading to code execution attacks.

The second vulnerability, assigned as CVE-2019-5097, also
resides in the same component of the GoAhead Web Server and can be
exploited in the same way, but this one leads to denial-of-service
attacks.

“A specially crafted HTTP request can lead to an infinite loop in
the process (resulting in 100 percent CPU utilization). The request
can be unauthenticated in the form of GET or POST requests and does
not require the requested resource to exist on the server,” the
researchers
say.^[1]

However, it’s not necessary that both vulnerabilities could be
exploited in all embedded devices running the vulnerable versions
of the GoAhead web server.

That’s because, according to the researchers, since GoAhead is a
customizable web application framework, companies implement the
application according to their environment and requirements, due to
which the flaws “may not be reachable on all builds.”

“Additionally, pages that require authentication do not allow
access to the vulnerability without authentication as the
authentication is handled before reaching the upload handler,” the
researchers explain.

Talos researchers reported the two vulnerabilities to EmbedThis,
the developer of the GoAhead Web Server application, in late August
this year, and the vendor addressed the issues and released
security patches two weeks ago.

References

^{^}
researchers say.
(blog.talosintelligence.com)

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OWASP TOP !0

Injection. Injection flaws, such as SQL, NoSQL, OS, and LDAP injection, occur when untrusted data is sent to an interpreter as part of a command or query. The attacker’s hostile data can trick the interpreter into executing unintended commands or accessing data without proper authorization. Broken Authentication. Application functions related to authentication and session management are often implemented incorrectly, allowing attackers to compromise passwords, keys, or session tokens, or to exploit other implementation flaws to assume other users’ identities temporarily or permanently. Sensitive Data Exposure. Many web applications and APIs do not properly protect sensitive data, such as financial, healthcare, and PII. Attackers may steal or modify such weakly protected data to conduct credit card fraud, identity theft, or other crimes. Sensitive data may be compromised without extra protection, such as encryption at rest or in transit, and requires special precautions when exchanged with the browser. XML External Entities (XXE). Many older or poorly configured XML processors evaluate external entity references within XML documents. External entities can be used to disclose internal files using the file URI handler, internal file shares, internal port scanning, remote code execution, and denial of service attacks. Broken Access Control. Restrictions on what authenticated users are allowed to do are often not properly enforced. Attackers can exploit these flaws to access unauthorized functionality and/or data, such as access other users’ accounts, view sensitive files, modify other users’ data, change access rights, etc. Security Misconfiguration. Security misconfiguration is the most commonly seen issue. This is commonly a result of insecure default configurations, incomplete or ad hoc configurations, open cloud storage, misconfigured HTTP headers, and verbose error messages containing sensitive information. Not only must all operating systems, frameworks, libraries, and applications be securely configured, but they must be patched/upgraded in a timely fashion. Cross-Site Scripting XSS. XSS flaws occur whenever an application includes untrusted data in a new web page without proper validation or escaping, or updates an existing web page with user-supplied data using a browser API that can create HTML or JavaScript. XSS allows attackers to execute scripts in the victim’s browser which can hijack user sessions, deface web sites, or redirect the user to malicious sites. Insecure Deserialization. Insecure deserialization often leads to remote code execution. Even if deserialization flaws do not result in remote code execution, they can be used to perform attacks, including replay attacks, injection attacks, and privilege escalation attacks. Using Components with Known Vulnerabilities. Components, such as libraries, frameworks, and other software modules, run with the same privileges as the application. If a vulnerable component is exploited, such an attack can facilitate serious data loss or server takeover. Applications and APIs using components with known vulnerabilities may undermine application defenses and enable various attacks and impacts. Insufficient Logging & Monitoring. Insufficient logging and monitoring, coupled with missing or ineffective integration with incident response, allows attackers to further attack systems, maintain persistence, pivot to more systems, and tamper, extract, or destroy data. Most breach studies show time to detect a breach is over 200 days, typically detected by external parties rather than internal processes or monitoring.

Critical Flaw in GoAhead Web Server Could Affect Wide Range of IoT Devices

References

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