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Authentication Bypass in ADOdb/ADOdb

Critical severity GitHub Reviewed Published Jan 22, 2022 in ADOdb/ADOdb • Updated Feb 3, 2023

Package

composer adodb/adodb-php (Composer)

Affected versions

<= 5.20.20
>= 5.21.0, <= 5.21.3

Patched versions

5.20.21
5.21.4

Description

Impact

An attacker can inject values into a PostgreSQL connection string by providing a parameter surrounded by single quotes.

Depending on how the library is used in the client software, this may allow an attacker to bypass the login process, gain access to the server's IP address, etc.

Patches

The vulnerability is fixed in ADOdb versions 5.20.21 (952de6c4273d9b1e91c2b838044f8c2111150c29) and 5.21.4 or later (b4d5ce70034c5aac3a1d51d317d93c037a0938d2).

The simplest patch is to delete line 29 in drivers/adodb-postgres64.inc.php:

diff --git a/drivers/adodb-postgres64.inc.php b/drivers/adodb-postgres64.inc.php
index d04b7f67..729d7141 100644
--- a/drivers/adodb-postgres64.inc.php
+++ b/drivers/adodb-postgres64.inc.php
@@ -26,7 +26,6 @@ function adodb_addslashes($s)
 {
    $len = strlen($s);
    if ($len == 0) return "''";
-   if (strncmp($s,"'",1) === 0 && substr($s,$len-1) == "'") return $s; // already quoted
 
    return "'".addslashes($s)."'";
 }

Workarounds

Ensure the parameters passed to ADOConnection::connect() or related functions (nConnect(), pConnect()) are not surrounded by single quotes.

Credits

Thanks to Emmet Leahy (@meme-lord) of Sorcery Ltd for reporting this vulnerability, and to the huntr team for their support.

References

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

  • Add a note in issue #793
  • Contact the maintainers on Gitter

References

@dregad dregad published to ADOdb/ADOdb Jan 22, 2022
Reviewed Jan 24, 2022
Published by the National Vulnerability Database Jan 25, 2022
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Jan 27, 2022
Last updated Feb 3, 2023

Severity

Critical

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
None

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

EPSS score

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

This score estimates the probability of this vulnerability being exploited within the next 30 days. Data provided by FIRST.
(58th percentile)

Weaknesses

Improper Authentication

When an actor claims to have a given identity, the product does not prove or insufficiently proves that the claim is correct. Learn more on MITRE.

Authentication Bypass by Primary Weakness

The authentication algorithm is sound, but the implemented mechanism can be bypassed as the result of a separate weakness that is primary to the authentication error. Learn more on MITRE.

CVE ID

CVE-2021-3850

GHSA ID

GHSA-65mj-7c86-79jf

Source code

Credits

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