(PT-2012-13) Positive Technologies Security Advisory
Cross-Site Scripting in PHP

Vulnerable software

PHP
Version: 5.4.6 and earlier

Application link:
http://php.net/

Severity level

Severity level: Low
Impact: Cross-Site Scripting
Access Vector: Local

CVSS v2:
Base Score: 1.7
Vector: (AV:L/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:N/A:N)

CVE: not assigned

Software description

PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is a general-purpose script programming language that is widely used to develop web applications.

Vulnerability description

Positive Research Center detected Cross-Site Scripting in PHP application.

An attacker can conduct cross-site scripting attack because of incorrect implementation of php_info_print_stream_hash function in phpinfo in PHP.

Vulnerability exists in /ext/sqlite3/ info.c file. Here is the vulnerable code:

static void php_info_print_stream_hash(const char *name, HashTable *ht TSRMLS_DC) /* {{{ */ {
...
while (zend_hash_get_current_key_ex(ht, &key, &len, NULL, 0, &pos) == HASH_KEY_IS_STRING)
{
php_info_print(key);
...

Exploitation example
This PHP code can cause cross-site scripting.
<?php
stream_filter_register("<script>alert('Positive')</script>","a");
phpinfo();
?>

How to fix

Update your software up to the latest version.

Advisory status

22.06.2012 - Vendor is notified
22.06.2012 - Vendor gets vulnerability details
14.09.2012 - Vendor releases fixed version and details
04.02.2013 - Public disclosure

Credits

The vulnerability has discovered by Sergey Bobrov, Positive Research Center (Positive Technologies Company)

References

http://en.securitylab.ru/lab/PT-2012-13
https://bugs.php.net/patch-display.php?bug_id=62964&patch=use_php_info_print_html_esc&revision=latest

Reports on the vulnerabilities previously discovered by Positive Research:

http://ptsecurity.com/research/advisory/
http://en.securitylab.ru/lab/

About Positive Technologies

Positive Technologies www.ptsecurity.com is among the key players in the IT security market in Russia.

The principal activities of the company include the development of integrated tools for information security monitoring (MaxPatrol); providing IT security consulting services and technical support; development of the Securitylab leading Russian information security portal.

Among the clients of Positive Technologies, there are more than 40 state enterprises, more than 50 banks and financial organizations, 20 telecommunication companies, more than 40 plant facilities, as well as IT, service and retail companies from Russia, the CIS countries, the Baltic States, China, Ecuador, Germany, Great Britain, Holland, Iran, Israel, Japan, Mexico, the Republic of South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, and the USA.

Positive Technologies is a team of highly skilled developers, advisers and experts with years of vast hands-on experience. The company specialists possess professional titles and certificates; they are the members of various international societies and are actively involved in the IT security field development.