An issue was discovered in SmartClient 12.0. If an unauthenticated attacker makes a POST request to /tools/developerConsoleOperations.jsp or /isomorphic/IDACall with malformed XML data in the _transaction parameter, the server replies with a verbose error showing where the application resides (the absolute path). NOTE: the documentation states These tools are, by default, available to anyone … so they should only be deployed into a trusted environment. Alternately, the tools can easily be restricted to administrators or end users by protecting the tools path with normal authentication and authorization mechanisms on the web server.
Weakness
The product generates an error message that includes sensitive information about its environment, users, or associated data.
Affected Software
| Name |
Vendor |
Start Version |
End Version |
| Smartclient |
Smartclient |
12.0 (including) |
12.0 (including) |
Potential Mitigations
- Ensure that error messages only contain minimal details that are useful to the intended audience and no one else. The messages need to strike the balance between being too cryptic (which can confuse users) or being too detailed (which may reveal more than intended). The messages should not reveal the methods that were used to determine the error. Attackers can use detailed information to refine or optimize their original attack, thereby increasing their chances of success.
- If errors must be captured in some detail, record them in log messages, but consider what could occur if the log messages can be viewed by attackers. Highly sensitive information such as passwords should never be saved to log files.
- Avoid inconsistent messaging that might accidentally tip off an attacker about internal state, such as whether a user account exists or not.
References