CVE-2014-8489 Ping Identity Corporation “PingFederate 6.10.1 SP Endpoints” Dest Redirect Privilege Escalation Security Vulnerability

CVE-2014-8489 Ping Identity Corporation “PingFederate 6.10.1 SP Endpoints” Open Redirect Web Security Vulnerability

Exploit Title: “Ping Identity Corporation” “PingFederate 6.10.1 SP Endpoints” Dest Redirect Privilege Escalation Web Security Vulnerability

Product: PingFederate 6.10.1 SP Endpoints

Vendor: Ping Identity Corporation

Vulnerable Versions: 6.10.1

Tested Version: 6.10.1

Advisory Publication: November 27, 2014

Latest Update: December 16, 2014

Vulnerability Type: URL Redirection to Untrusted Site [CWE-601]

CVE Reference: CVE-2014-8489

mpact CVSS Severity (version 2.0):
CVSS v2 Base Score: 6.4 (MEDIUM) (AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:N) (legend)
Impact Subscore: 4.9
Exploitability Subscore: 10.0
CVSS Version 2 Metrics:
Access Vector: Network exploitable
Access Complexity: Low
Authentication: Not required to exploit
Impact Type: Allows unauthorized disclosure of information; Allows unauthorized modification

Author and Writer: Jing Wang [School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (SPMS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore] (@justqdjing)

Introduction Details

(1) Vendor & Product Description:

Vendor:
Ping Identity

Product & Vulnerable Versions:
PingFederate
6.10.1

Vendor URL & Download:
PingFederate 6.10.1 can be gained from here,
http://documentation.pingidentity.com/display/PF66/Service+Provider+Integration

Product Introduction Overview:

"An SP is the consumer of identity attributes provided by the IdP through a SAML assertion. SP integration involves passing the identity attributes from PingFederate to the target SP application. The SP application uses this information to set a valid session or other security context for the user represented by the identity attributes. Session creation can involve a number of approaches, and as for the IdP, Ping Identity offers commercial integration kits that address the various SP scenarios. Most SP scenarios involve custom-application integration, server-agent integration, integration with an IdM product, or integration with a commercial application.

Custom Applications: many applications use their own authentication mechanisms, typically through a database or LDAP repository, and are responsible for their own user-session management. Custom-application integration is necessary when there is limited or no access to the Web or application server hosting the application. Integration with these custom applications is handled through application-level integration kits, which allow software developers to integrate their applications with a PingFederate server acting as an SP.

With these integration kits, PingFederate sends the identity attributes from the SAML assertion to the SP application, which can then use them for its own authentication and session management. As for the IdP, application-specific integration kits include an SP agent, which resides with the SP application and provides a simple programming interface to extract the identity attributes sent from the PingFederate server. The information can be used to start a session for the SP application.

Ping Identity provides custom-application integration kits for a variety of programming environments, including: Java, .NET, PHP.

In addition, Ping Identity provides an Agentless Integration Kit, which allows developers to use direct HTTP calls to the PingFederate server to temporarily store and retrieve user attributes securely, eliminating the need for an agent interface."

(2) Vulnerability Details:

PingFederate 6.10.1 SP Endpoints web application has a computer security bug problem. It can be exploited by Unvalidated Redirects and Forwards (URL Redirection) attacks. This could allow a user to create a specially crafted URL, that if clicked, would redirect a victim from the intended legitimate web site to an arbitrary web site of the attacker's choosing. Such attacks are useful as the crafted URL initially appear to be a web page of a trusted site. This could be leveraged to direct an unsuspecting user to a web page containing attacks that target client side software such as a web browser or document rendering programs.

Other similar products 0day vulnerabilities have been found by some other bug hunter researchers before. PingFederate has patched some of them. Web Security Watch is an aggregator of security reports coming from various sources. It aims to provide a single point of tracking for all publicly disclosed security issues that matter. "Its unique tagging system enables you to see a relevant set of tags associated with each security alert for a quick overview of the affected products. What's more, you can now subscribe to an RSS feed containing the specific tags that you are interested in - you will then only receive alerts related to those tags." It has published suggestions, advisories, solutions details related to website vulnerabilities.

(2.1) The security programming code flaw occurs at “&TargetResource” parameter in “/startSSO.ping?” page.