NotifyLink web client fails to adequately restrict access to administrative functions

Overview

The NotifyLink web interface contains a vulnerability that allows authenticated normal users to access functions that have been disabled by an administrator.

Description

Notify Technology NotifyLink Enterprise Server allows users to synchronize e-mail between a PDA and a mail server. The application consists of a PDA-specific client and the NotifyLink server, which acts as a proxy between the client and the mail server(s) the user wants to check. For each e-mail account to be monitored, the user provides mail server credentials that are stored on the NotifyLink server and used to periodically check for mail. When new mail arrives, the NotifyLink server stores a reference to the message ID. Depending on the configuration, the message is either sent to the device via SMS (“Push” mode), or the device periodically checks a link on the NotifyLink web server to retrieve the message (“Poll” mode). The product supports multiple PDA platforms and multiple e-mail servers, including IMAP, POP, Microsoft Exchange, and Novell GroupWise.

The NotifyLink web interface allows administrative users to restrict ordinary users from accessing certain functions. When such a restriction is in place, the button for the function is disabled in the user’s presentation of the interface. An attacker can bypass this restriction by altering the URL they present to the server and accessing the restricted functionality directly.

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Impact

This vulnerability allows authenticated normal users to access functions that have been disabled by an administrator.

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Solution

Upgrade or Patch
This issue is resolved in NotifyLink 3.0. Starting with this version, authentication of the user is performed on each feature page.

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Vendor Information

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Notify Technology Affected

Notified: March 29, 2004 Updated: May 04, 2004

Status

Affected

Vendor Statement

We have not received a statement from the vendor.

Vendor Information

The vendor has not provided us with any further information regarding this vulnerability.

Addendum

The CERT/CC has no additional comments at this time.

If you have feedback, comments, or additional information about this vulnerability, please send us [email](<mailto:[email protected]?Subject=VU%23131828 Feedback>).

CVSS Metrics

Group	Score	Vector
Base
Temporal
Environmental

References

• <http://notifylink.notify.net>
• <http://secunia.com/advisories/14617/&gt;
• <http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/12843&gt;

Acknowledgements

We thank the NOAA NCIRT Lab for their discovery and analysis of this vulnerability.

This document was written by Jeffrey P Lanza and Will Dormann . It is based on analysis provided by the NOAA NCIRT Lab.

Other Information

CVE IDs:	CVE-2005-0811
Severity Metric:	0.46 Date Public: