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Vulnerability Assessment Details

AltaVista Intranet Search

Vulnerability Assessment Summary
Checks if query?mss=... reads arbitrary files

Detailed Explanation for this Vulnerability Assessment

It is possible to read the content of any files on the remote
host (such as your configuration files or other sensitive data)
by using the Altavista Intranet Search service, and performing
the request:

GET /cgi-bin/query?mss=%2e%2e/config

Bugtraq ID : 896

Solution :
- edit /httpd/config file and change MGMT_IPSPEC from
'0.0.0.0/0' to a specific IP such as '127.0.0.1/32'
- stop page gathering via the management interface
- restart Altavista Search Service (to re-read config file)
- restart page gathering if necessary
- change the username/password through the management interface to bogus
information
- exploit server and download ../logs/mgtstate (puts file in cache)
http://localhost:9000/cgi-bin/query?mss=../logs/mgtstate
- change the username/password through the management interface to something
different (but not used anywhere else)
- avoid restarting the Altavista service or clearing the cache

Network Security Threat Level: High

Networks Security ID: 896

Vulnerability Assessment Copyright: This script is Copyright (C) 2000 Renaud Deraison

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