Corsaire Security Advisory: PeopleSoft Gateway Administration servlet path disclosure issue

– Corsaire Security Advisory –

Title: PeopleSoft Gateway Administration servlet path disclosure issue
Date: 04.07.03
Application: PeopleTools 8.20/8.43 and prior
Environment: Various
Author: Martin O'Neal [[email protected]]
Audience: General distribution
Reference: c030704-003

– Scope –

The aim of this document is to clearly define a vulnerability in the
PeopleSoft Gateway Administration servlet, as supplied by PeopleSoft
Ltd. [1], that allows an attacker to disclose the actual path of server
configuration files.

– History –

Discovered: 01.07.03 (Martin O'Neal)
Vendor notified: 04.07.03
Document released: 12.11.03

– Overview –

The PeopleSoft Gateway Administration servlet provides a web-based
interface to configure handlers. In the event of an invalid value being
entered, the actual path of the server side configuration files is
disclosed in the error response.

– Analysis –

The gateway.administration servlet is used within the PeopleSoft
environment to configure handlers. This application accepts a number of
values via an HTML form. If an invalid value is entered, then the
servlet responds with an error page that contains the actual path of the
server side configuration files.

This path can then be used in conjunction with other potential
vulnerabilities to attack specific OS and application configuration
files.

– Recommendations –

PeopleSoft have released details of this and other issues under security
rollup vulnerability ID 20031112, which is available to registered users
from the PeopleSoft support site [2].

PeopleSoft recommends that customers address the vulnerability by
applying the following fixes available on PeopleSoft Customer
Connection.

Release Patch
8.18 8.18.15
8.19 8.19.12
8.20 8.20.03
8.42 8.42.14
8.43 8.43.11

For those who can not implement the patches promptly, as a mitigating
strategy a firewall or other HTTP filtering device can be used to block
queries containing sensitive strings, or as a last resort the
administration functionality of the PeopleSoft Gateway can be disabled
by restricting access to the servlet itself.

– CVE –

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) project has assigned
the name CAN-2003-0628 to this issue. This is a candidate for
inclusion in the CVE list (http://cve.mitre.org), which standardises
names for security problems.

– References –

[1] http://www.peoplesoft.com
[2] http://www.peoplesoft.com/corp/en/patch_fix/search.jsp

– Revision –

a. Initial release.
b. Revised to include vendor information.

– Distribution –

This security advisory may be freely distributed, provided that it
remains unaltered and in its original form.

– Disclaimer –

The information contained within this advisory is supplied "as-is" with
no warranties or guarantees of fitness of use or otherwise. Corsaire
accepts no responsibility for any damage caused by the use or misuse of
this information.

Copyright 2003 Corsaire Limited. All rights reserved.