CWE-28 – Path Traversal: ‘..filedir’

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Description

The software uses external input to construct a pathname that should be within a restricted directory, but it does not properly neutralize “..” sequences that can resolve to a location that is outside of that directory.

Modes of Introduction:

– Implementation

 

 

Related Weaknesses

CWE-23

 

Consequences

Confidentiality, Integrity: Read Files or Directories, Modify Files or Directories

 

Potential Mitigations

Phase: Implementation

Description: 

Phase: Implementation

Description: 

Inputs should be decoded and canonicalized to the application’s current internal representation before being validated (CWE-180). Make sure that the application does not decode the same input twice (CWE-174). Such errors could be used to bypass allowlist validation schemes by introducing dangerous inputs after they have been checked.

CVE References

  • CVE-2002-0661
    • “” not in denylist for web server, allowing path traversal attacks when the server is run in Windows and other OSes.
  • CVE-2002-0946
    • Arbitrary files may be read files via .. (dot dot) sequences in an HTTP request.
  • CVE-2002-1042
    • Directory traversal vulnerability in search engine for web server allows remote attackers to read arbitrary files via “..” sequences in queries.
  • CVE-2002-1209
    • Directory traversal vulnerability in FTP server allows remote attackers to read arbitrary files via “..” sequences in a GET request.
  • CVE-2002-1178
    • Directory traversal vulnerability in servlet allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary commands via “..” sequences in an HTTP request.