oss-security - Apache symlink issue: can documented behavior be a security problem and hence get a CVE?

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Message-ID: <4E1C2E16.1010708@halfdog.net>
Date: Tue, 12 Jul 2011 11:20:54 +0000
From: halfdog <me@...fdog.net>
To: oss-security@...ts.openwall.com
Subject: Apache symlink issue: can documented behavior be a security problem
 and hence get a CVE?

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Hello List,

Is it possible to assign a CVE for documented behavior? Communication
with apache security showed, that following symlinks to arbitrary
locations is a documented feature, even when "-FollowSymLink" option is
in place. This allows any user with, that can modify some content served
by apache to access any content accessible by the apache process, also
content not visible to the user (e.g. outside the ftp-upload directory
or forbidden like /proc/http-pid/maps). Due to the small window of
opportunity, this might be relevant mostly when user can already execute
code on the machine, so it is not a big issue. /proc/<pid>/mem is
protected, when apache is running with setuid, so key material cannot be
extracted using range headers. PUT was not tested so far.

See also

http://www.halfdog.net/Security/2011/ApacheNoFollowSymlinkTimerace/

- -- 
http://www.halfdog.net/
PGP: 156A AE98 B91F 0114 FE88  2BD8 C459 9386 feed a bee
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