Tag Archives: CWE- 57

CWE-57 – Path Equivalence: ‘fakedir/../realdir/filename’

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Description

The software contains protection mechanisms to restrict access to ‘realdir/filename’, but it constructs pathnames using external input in the form of ‘fakedir/../realdir/filename’ that are not handled by those mechanisms. This allows attackers to perform unauthorized actions against the targeted file.

Modes of Introduction:

– Implementation

 

 

Related Weaknesses

CWE-41

 

Consequences

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

 

Potential Mitigations

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-2001-1152
    • Proxy allows remote attackers to bypass denylist restrictions and connect to unauthorized web servers by modifying the requested URL, including (1) a // (double slash), (2) a /SUBDIR/.. where the desired file is in the parentdir, (3) a /./, or (4) URL-encoded characters.
  • CVE-2000-0191
    • application check access for restricted URL before canonicalization
  • CVE-2005-1366
    • CGI source disclosure using “dirname/../cgi-bin”