In this deep-dive, we will investigate the Path Traversal vulnerability (CVE-2023-33544) that affects hawtio version 2.17.2. We'll discuss how this vulnerability can be exploited using malicious zip files, resulting in high-risk files being stored anywhere, potentially even leading to file overwrites. We'll explore this issue in detail and provide code snippets for better understanding, along with original references for further study.

Vulnerability Summary

hawtio (version 2.17.2) is a popular open-source management console for Java applications. It is vulnerable to path traversal attacks, allowing an attacker to manipulate zip files that, when decompressed, can result in arbitrary file overwrite and potential remote code execution. This vulnerability has been assigned the CVE identifier CVE-2023-33544.

Exploit Details

When uploading a zip file to the affected hawtio application, it decompresses the file without properly validating the destination path. This allows a malicious user to input a malicious zip file containing specially crafted directory traversal file paths (e.g., "../evil.txt"), which can lead to arbitrary file overwrite when the zip file is decompressed on the server.

The following is a simple example of creating a malicious zip file using the Python library zipfile:

import zipfile

# Malicious file content
evil_content = b"Evil content goes here"

# Malicious file path
evil_file_path = "../evil.txt"

# Create the malicious zip file
with zipfile.ZipFile("malicious.zip", "w") as malicious_zip:
    malicious_zip.writestr(evil_file_path, evil_content)

The above code snippet creates a zip file named "malicious.zip" containing a file named "../evil.txt", which attempts to traverse to the parent directory when decompressed.

To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker would then upload the malicious zip file to the affected hawtio application. If successful, the high-risk files could potentially be stored in any location on the system, leading to remote code execution or unauthorized file access.

Original References

The following links provide more information on the vulnerability, discovered by the security researcher Orange Tsai:

1. CVE-2023-33544 Vulnerability Details
2. GitHub Advisory Tracking the Vulnerability
3. A blog post by Orange Tsai detailing the discovery

Mitigation

Upgrading hawtio to version 2.17.3 or higher is the recommended method to mitigate this vulnerability. The updated versions include proper file path validation during the decompression process, which prevents path traversal and arbitrary file overwrites.

Additionally, organizations should ensure that uploaded files are stored in a secure location on the file system, separate from the application code to reduce the risk of remote code execution.

Conclusion

CVE-2023-33544 demonstrates the critical importance of properly validating user input when dealing with file handling, especially when using third-party libraries or components. By understanding the details of this vulnerability, organizations can better secure their applications and defend against threats like path traversal attacks and unauthorized file access.

Timeline

Published on: 06/01/2023 13:15:00 UTC
Last modified on: 06/08/2023 02:30:00 UTC