Tag: Web Application Security

During an internal penetration test, I discovered an unauthenticated Arbitrary Object Instantiation vulnerability in LAM (LDAP Account Manager), a PHP application.

PHP’s Arbitrary Object Instantiation is a flaw in which an attacker can create arbitrary objects. This flaw can come in all shapes and sizes. In my case, the vulnerable code could have been shortened to one simple construction:

new $_GET['a']($_GET['b']);

That’s it. There was nothing else there, and I had zero custom classes to give me a code execution or a file upload. In this article, I explain how I was able to get a Remote Code Execution via this construction.

In February 2021, we had the opportunity to assess the HyperFlex HX platform from Cisco during a routine customer engagement. This resulted in the detection of three significant vulnerabilities. In this article we discuss our findings and will explain why they exist in the platform, how they can be exploited and the significance of these vulnerabilities.

The vulnerabilities discussed have been assigned CVE ID’s and considered in Cisco’s subsequent Security Advisories (1, 2). These are:

• CVE-2021-1497
  Cisco HyperFlex HX Installer Virtual Machine Command Injection Vulnerability (CVSS Base Score: 9.8);
• CVE-2021-1498
  Cisco HyperFlex HX Data Platform Command Injection Vulnerability (CVSS Base Score: 7.3);
• CVE-2021-1499
  the Cisco HyperFlex the HX the Data Platform the Upload the File Vulnerability (CVSS Base Score: 5.3)

Our team searched for bugs in the source code of Cockpit, an open-source content management system. Here is the description of Cockpit from its official site:

Cockpit is a headless CMS with an API-first approach that puts content first. It is designed to simplify the process of publication by separating content management from content consumption on the client side.

Cockpit is focusing just on the back-end work to manage content. Rather than worry about delivery of content through pages, its goal is to provide structured content across different channels via a simple API.

While investigating the Cockpit source code, we discovered numerous vulnerabilities. Attackers could exploit them to take control of any user account and perform remote code execution.

In this article, I will talk about the technical details and demonstrate how these vulnerabilities can be exploited.

Since the PoC for the VMware vCenter RCE (CVE-2021-21972) is now readily available, we’re publishing our article covering all of the technical details.

In fall of 2020, I discovered couple vulnerabilities in the vSphere Client component of VMware vCenter. These vulnerabilities allowed non-authorized clients to execute arbitrary commands and send requests on behalf of the targeted server via various protocols:

• Unauthorized file upload leading to remote code execution (RCE) (CVE-2021- 21972)
• An unauthorized server-side request forgery (SSRF) vulnerabilities (CVE-2021-21973)

In this article, I will cover how I discovered the VMware vSphere client RCE vulnerability, divulge the technical details, and explain how it can be exploited on various platforms.