CVE-2023-42398 - zzCMS v2023 Remote Code Execution and Information Disclosure through Ueditor Component

A recent discovery has been made leading to the identification of a critical security issue in zzCMS v.2023. CVE-2023-42398 is a serious vulnerability that allows a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code, leading to unauthorized access and potentially obtaining sensitive information from the web application. This exploit occurs through the "ueditor" component in the file controller.php.

Technical Details

This vulnerability found in the file controller.php is caused by an insecure design that fails to properly validate user-input data. This insufficient validation potentially enables an attacker to maliciously inject and execute code remotely. Additionally, this vulnerability can allow for unauthorized access to sensitive data, risking a significant breach in the confidentiality of the web application's data.

The ueditor component, controller.php, does not adequately filter or validate user input before performing critical operations, resulting in a remote code execution vulnerability.

The following code snippet highlights the vulnerable section of the controller.php file

// controller.php - Line 32 - 37
$action = $_GET['action'];
if ($action == "config") {
	// Load configuration data
}
//...
elseif ($action == "uploadimage" || $action == "uploadscrawl" || $action == "uploadvideo" || $action == "uploadfile") {
	// Handle uploads
}

As seen in the code snippet above, user input is directly accessed through $_GET['action'] without any proper sanitization or validation, resulting in a serious risk for potential attack vectors.

Proof-of-Concept Exploit

A remote attacker can exploit this vulnerability by crafting a malicious URL that triggers the arbitrary code execution in the vulnerable ueditor component (controller.php). Here is an example of how to craft a malicious URL:

http://[target]/[path_to_zzcms]/controller.php?action=[malicious_payload]

Replace [target] with the target's IP address or domain name, [path_to_zzcms] with the path to the zzCMS installation, and [malicious_payload] with the intended payload to be executed on the target system.

To protect against this vulnerability, zzCMS v.2023 users should immediately

1. Apply the available security patch addressing the CVE-2023-42398 vulnerability, released by zzCMS developers.
2. Modify the controller.php file to properly validate and sanitize user inputs, thus, preventing remote code execution or data exposure.

Original References

1. CVE-2023-42398 - NIST National Vulnerability Database
2. zzCMS v2023 - Ueditor Component Arbitrary Code Execution

Conclusion

This security issue, identified as CVE-2023-42398, poses a serious threat to zzCMS v.2023 users. By exploiting this vulnerability, a remote attacker can execute arbitrary code and potentially obtain sensitive data. It is imperative that users take immediate action to mitigate these risks, fortify their security, and protect their data from unauthorized access through proper validation, sanitization, and updating their web applications to the latest version.

Timeline

Published on: 09/15/2023 17:15:14 UTC
Last modified on: 09/20/2023 16:48:55 UTC