PHP hit by another critical flaw

Version 1.4.0 of PEAR XML_RPC fixes the problem

By Matthew Broersma

August 23, 2005 12:00 PM ET

TechWorld.com - A fresh security flaw has surfaced in a Web service protocol for PHP that could allow attackers to take control of vulnerable servers.
The bug was found in XML-RPC for PHP and PEAR XML_RPC as the result of a security audit by the Hardened-PHP Project. The group said it decided to carry out its own audit after other flaws were disclosed in the two libraries earlier this summer.
The new flaw takes advantage of a technique similar to the earlier vulnerabilities, which involved eval() statements, according to Hardened-PHP. "To get rid of this and future eval() injection vulnerabilities, the Hardened-PHP Project has developed, together with the maintainers of both libraries, a fix that completely eliminates the use of eval() from the library," Hardened-PHP said in an advisory.
XML-based Remote Procedure Call (RPC) systems, such as XML-RPC, are used with HTTP to power Web services, a simple and increasingly popular way of providing services online. XML-RPC for PHP (also called PHPXMLRPC) and PEAR XML_RPC use XML-RPC as the PHP scripting language.
The bug affects a large number of Web applications, particularly PHP-based blogging, Wiki and content management programs, according to security experts. The PHPXMLRPC and PEAR XML_RPC libraries are used in many popular Web applications, such as PostNuke, Drupal, b2evolution and TikiWiki.
Content-management systems and blogs are increasingly used by large corporations as a way of interacting with customers and other members of the public. IBM even jumped into the enterprise blogging game recently.
Version 1.4.0 of PEAR XML_RPC fixes the problem in PEAR XML_RPC; it is available from the PEAR Web site.
PHPXMLRPC is fixed with Version 1.2, which is available at the PHPXMLRPC project site.
Software projects using the libraries have issued their own updates fixing the problem; these include the PHP packages included with the Red Hat and Ubuntu Linux distributions.
The French Security Incident Response Team, rated the flaw as "high-risk," while independent security firm Secunia labeled it "highly critical."

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