Paros: Default administrator password

Background

Paros is an intercepting proxy between a web server and a client meant to be used for security assessments. It allows the user to watch and modify the HTTP(S) traffic.

Description

Andrew Christensen discovered that in older versions of Paros the database component HSQLDB is installed with an empty password for the database administrator “sa”.

Impact

Since the database listens globally by default, an attacker can connect and issue arbitrary commands, including execution of binaries installed on the host.

Workaround

There is no known workaround at this time.

Resolution

All Paros users should upgrade to the latest version:

 # emerge --snyc
 # emerge --ask --oneshot --verbose ">=net-proxy/paros-3.2.8"