Exhibit Engine Blind SQL Injection

SEC-CONSULT Security Advisory 20050602-2

=============================================================================

title: Exhibit Engine Blind SQL Injection

program: Exhibit Engine

vulnerable version: 1.22, 1.54 RC4

homepage: photography-on-the.net/ee/

photography-on-the.net/ee/beta/

found: 2005-06-01

by: sk0L / SEC-CONSULT / www.sec-consult.com

=============================================================================

vendor description:

---------------

the Exhibit engine is a PHP/MySQL application for smooth and versatile online photograph

display. it's especially designed to give detailed technical info on each photo, with text

descriptions and gear info, but all that technical data is not required.

vulnerabilty overview:

---------------

SQL injection is possible on various POST parameters in the script list.php. although

there is no way to get any output from UNION statements, there is at least one possibility

to read arbitrary database entries via blind SQL injection.

proof of concept:

---------------

here's the relevant code section from list.php:

---- code -----

$resultcount = mysql_query(            
"
SELECT 
	ee_photo.ee_photo_id
FROM 
	[...]
WHERE 
	ee_photo.ee_photo_for_www = 'yes' 
	AND $search_row LIKE '$wildcard1$keyword$wildcard2'
	AND ...
"
	);

if (!$resultcount) {    
	$queryname = "resultcount";
	include("db_error.php");
}


$total = mysql_num_rows($resultcount);
$how_many = count($count_total);
if ($offset>$how_many)
{$offset = $how_many;
}

$fetchlist = mysql_query(            
"
SELECT 
	$q0,$q1,...,$q43
FROM 
	ee_photo,
	[...]
	ee_order_to_exhibition
WHERE 
	ee_photo.ee_photo_for_www = 'yes' 
	[...]
	AND ee_exhibition.ee_exhibition_pass = '$pass'
ORDER 
	by $sort_row $order
LIMIT 
	$offset,$perpage
"
	);  

---- /code ----

we can inject SQL into the variables $search_row, $sort_row, $order and

$perpage without the need to escape any quotes. unfortunately, UNIONs can

be put into $rearch_row only, and as $search_row is used in both queries

with a different number of columns, this will inevitably produce an error.

we can use blind sql injection, though:

* set $offset=1

* put injection string into $search_row, e.g.:

search_row=ee_photo.ee_photo_exif_iso%3D1+AND+1%3D2+UNION+SELECT+user+FROM+mysql.user+WHERE+user+LIKE+0x254125+/*+

* if we get 1 (TRUE), offset will be set to 1, FALSE will set it to 0.

* now we still have to produce an error in the second query by

specifying some insane $order or $sort_row. the last part of the

SQL error message will be echoed by Exhibit, so we get the value of

$offset.

it should be relatively easy to code an exploit for this (sorry but i don't have

the time atm).

vulnerable versions:

---------------

Exhibit Engine v1.22 is definitely vulnerable. 1.54 RC4 seems to be vulnerable

too, although exploitation may differ slightly.

it is very likely that the vulnerability exists in most other versions of

Exhibit Engine.

vendor status:

---------------

vendor notified: 2005-06-01

vendor response: immediately

patch available: 2005-06-02

Pekka Saarinen has published a workaround for all current versions of

Exhibit Engine. It is available at:

photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Bernhard Mueller / www.sec-consult.com /

SGT ::: dfa, tke, bfi, mei, flo, walter|bruder :::

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