PyMongos connection string parsing decodes percent-encoded characters in the host portion before the host list is separated on its delimiters. When an application places a hostname value supplied by an unauthenticated party into a connection string, that party may cause additional servers of their choosing to be added to the applications database client. The application may then send its authentication exchange and database operations to one of those servers, which can observe limited information and return altered results.
Weakness
The product does not properly handle when all or part of an input has been URL encoded.
Potential Mitigations
- Assume all input is malicious. Use an “accept known good” input validation strategy, i.e., use a list of acceptable inputs that strictly conform to specifications. Reject any input that does not strictly conform to specifications, or transform it into something that does.
- When performing input validation, consider all potentially relevant properties, including length, type of input, the full range of acceptable values, missing or extra inputs, syntax, consistency across related fields, and conformance to business rules. As an example of business rule logic, “boat” may be syntactically valid because it only contains alphanumeric characters, but it is not valid if the input is only expected to contain colors such as “red” or “blue.”
- Do not rely exclusively on looking for malicious or malformed inputs. This is likely to miss at least one undesirable input, especially if the code’s environment changes. This can give attackers enough room to bypass the intended validation. However, denylists can be useful for detecting potential attacks or determining which inputs are so malformed that they should be rejected outright.
Related Attack Patterns
- https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/120.html
- https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/468.html
- https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/64.html
- https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/72.html