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If through a vulnerability assessment, a network security issue is detected for the vulnerability below, applying the appropriate security patches in a timely matter is very important. If you have detected that your system has already been compromised, following CERT's Network Security recovery document will assist with recommended steps for system recovery.

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Vulnerability Assessment Details

x-news 1

Vulnerability Assessment Summary
Check if version of x-news 1.x is installed

Detailed Explanation for this Vulnerability Assessment

Summary :

The remote web server contains a PHP application that is prone to
information disclosure.

Description :

X-News is a news management system, written in PHP. X-News uses a
flat-file database to store information. It will run on most Unix and
Linux variants, as well as Microsoft Windows operating systems.

X-News stores user ids and passwords, as MD5 hashes, in a world-
readable file, 'db/users.txt'. This is the same information that is
issued by X-News in cookie-based authentication credentials. An
attacker may incorporate this information into cookies and then submit
them to gain unauthorized access to the X-News administrative account.

See also :

http://www.ifrance.com/kitetoua/tuto/x_holes.txt

Solution :

Deny access to the files in the 'db' directory through the webserver.

Network Security Threat Level:

Medium / CVSS Base Score : 4
(AV:R/AC:L/Au:NR/C:P/A:N/I:N/B:C)

Networks Security ID: 4283

Vulnerability Assessment Copyright: This script is Copyright (C) 2004 Audun Larsen

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