In Delta Electronics InfraSuite Device Master v.1.0.7, a vulnerability exists that allows an unauthenticated attacker to execute code with local administrator privileges.

CVE-2023-47207










KEPServerEX does not properly validate certificates from clients which may allow unauthenticated users to connect.









CVE-2023-5909

A vulnerability was found in SourceCodester Book Borrower System 1.0 and classified as problematic. This issue affects some unknown processing of the file endpoint/add-book.php. The manipulation of the argument Book Title/Book Author leads to cross site scripting. The attack may be initiated remotely. The exploit has been disclosed to the public and may be used. The associated identifier of this vulnerability is VDB-246443.

CVE-2023-6440

A decade and a half after Gh0st RAT first appeared, the "SugarGh0st RAT" variant aims to make life sweeter for cybercriminals.

Source: Niday Picture Library via Alamy Stock Photo

A new variant of the infamous "Gh0st RAT" malware has been identified in recent attacks targeting South Koreans and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Uzbekistan.

The Chinese group "C.Rufus Security Team" first released Gh0st RAT on the open Web in March 2008. Remarkably, it's still in use today, particularly in and around China, albeit in modified forms.

Since late August, for instance, a group with strong Chinese links has been distributing a modified Gh0st RAT deemed "SugarGh0st RAT." According to research from Cisco Talos, this threat actor drops the variant via JavaScript-laced Windows shortcuts, while distracting targets with customized decoy documents.

The malware itself is still largely the same, effective tool it's ever been, though it now sports some new decals to help sneak past antivirus software.

**SugarGh0st RAT's Traps**

The four samples of SugarGh0st, likely delivered via phishing, arrive on targeted machines as archives embedded with Windows LNK shortcut files. The LNKs hide malicious JavaScript which, upon opening, drops a decoy document — targeted for Korean or Uzbek government audiences — and the payload.

Like its progenitor — the Chinese origin remote access Trojan, first released to the public in March 2008 — SugarGh0st is a clean, multitooled espionage machine. A 32-bit dynamic link library (DLL) written in C++, it begins by collecting system data, then opens up the door to full remote access capabilities.

Attackers can use SugarGh0st to retrieve any information they might desire about their compromised machine, or start, terminate, or delete the processes it's running. They can use it to find, exfiltrate, and delete files, and erase any event logs to mask the resulting forensic evidence. The backdoor comes fitted with a keylogger, a screenshotter, a means of accessing the device's camera, and plenty of other useful functions for manipulating the mouse, performing native Windows operation, or simply running arbitrary commands.

"The thing that's most concerning to me is how it's specifically designed to evade previous detection methods," says Nick Biasini, Cisco Talos' head of outreach. With this new variant, specifically, "they took effort to do things that would change the way that core detection would work."

It isn't that SugarGh0st has any particularly novel evasion mechanisms. Rather, minor aesthetic changes make it appear different from prior variants, such as changing the command-and-control (C2) communication protocol such that instead of 5 bytes, the network packet headers reserve the first 8 bytes as magic bytes (a list of file signatures, used to confirm a file's contents). "It's just a very effective way to try and make sure that your existing security tooling isn't going to pick up on this right away," Biasini says.

**Gh0st RAT's Old Haunts**

Back in September 2008, the office of the Dalai Lama approached a security researcher (no, this isn't the beginning of a bad joke).

Its employees were being peppered with phishing emails. Microsoft applications were crashing, without explanation, across the organization. One monk recalled watching his computer open Microsoft Outlook all on its own, attach documents to an email, and send that email to an unrecognized address, all without his input.

A Gh0st RAT beta model's English-language UI. Source: Trend Micro EU via Wayback Machine

The Trojan used in that Chinese military-linked campaign against Tibetan monks has stood the test of time, Biasini says, for a few reasons.

"Open source malware families live long because actors get a fully functional piece of malware that they can manipulate as they see fit. It also allows people who don't know how to write malware to leverage this stuff for free," he explains.

Gh0st RAT, he adds, stands out in particular as "a very functional, very well-built RAT."

**About the Author(s)**

Nate Nelson is a freelance writer based in New York City. Formerly a reporter at Threatpost, he contributes to a number of cybersecurity blogs and podcasts. He writes "Malicious Life" -- an award-winning Top 20 tech podcast on Apple and Spotify -- and hosts every other episode, featuring interviews with leading voices in security. He also co-hosts "The Industrial Security Podcast," the most popular show in its field.

A New, Spookier Gh0st RAT Malware Haunts Global Cyber Targets

Fake Facebook ads seem to be the flavor of the month for scammers.

Thursday, November 30, 2023 14:00

I know I’m a little late to the party to hit the prime SEO for Black Friday, Cyber Monday and holiday shopping. But if I know the readers of this newsletter, everyone is far from done with their holiday shopping already after a few days. 

I also know I’m far from the only person to warn consumers about scams during this season, so I’m trying to split the difference and highlight a few specific scams and spam campaigns that are already circulating in the wild, some of which popped up right on Black Friday, so you don’t get caught in the remaining days leading up to the winter holidays. 

Fake Facebook ads seem to be the flavor of the month for scammers. This is completely anecdotal, but my mom almost got “got” with a fake Facebook post in a group she belongs to claiming to have some great deals on Nintendo Switch games on Amazon that were not actually real (thankfully she hadn’t clicked the link before she asked me if “Mario Odyssey” was a good deal at $15).  

Still, several other reports have shown that scammers are using Facebook ads to advertise a deal for a $19 Stanley cup — these are the water bottles all the influencers are using nowadays and, even when they are on sale, don’t go for any less than about $35. In this case, it looks like the actors are just looking to take your money or credit card information with a fake ordering process and no plans to send you anything. 

Adversaries have also set up fake Facebook pages and web pages disguising themselves as the retailer Big Lots. These fake ads and posts offer vague deals and sales on various products but instead point to typo-squatted Big Lots websites (or URLs that vaguely seem like they could be connected to Big Lots).  

Scammers are also sending mass emails to subscribers of various streaming services like Amazon Prime, Paramount+ and Peacock claiming that their subscription has lapsed, but they can resubscribe for a deeply discounted price, or even free, as part of a Black Friday special.  

Amazon also issued a warning recently that attackers have been sending emails with malicious attachments asking for users' personal information in exchange for having their “accounts” unlocked. 

This is just a sampling of the likely hundreds of different scams and spam campaigns attackers are deploying right now, so in general, when shopping online, here are a few tips: 

*   Only download apps from trusted and official app stores like the Google Play store and iOS App Store. 
*   Look out for apps that ask for suspicious permissions, such as access to your text messages, contacts, stored passwords and administrative features. 
*   Some malicious apps will try to masquerade as a legitimate version of the one you could be searching for. Signs of these apps include poor spelling and grammar in app descriptions and interfaces, lack of high-quality performance and a developer contact that uses a free email service (such as @gmail.com). 
*   Avoid clicking on unsolicited emails. Make sure you purposefully subscribed to any marketing emails you receive from retailers before opening it. 
*   Use an ad blocker locally on your browser. These will often block any malvertising campaigns that aim to capitalize on shoppers looking for deals. 
*   Try to use payment services such as Google Pay, Samsung Pay and Apple Pay. These services use tokenization instead of the “Primary Account Number” (your credit card number), making your transaction more secure. 
*   Use unique, complex passwords, per site. Attackers commonly reuse passwords to compromise multiple accounts with the same username. Use a password locker if you have a hard time creating and remembering secure passwords. 
*   Manually type in URLs to sites you want to visit rather than clicking on links. 
*   Use multi-factor authentication, such as Cisco Duo, to log into your email account to avoid unauthorized access. 

Next week, Talos will have a holiday special of our own! On Dec. 5, we’ll be launching our second-ever Year in Review report, complete with all new data and insights about the attacks and malware we’ve seen in 2023. Stay tuned to our social media channels or blog for that release.  

**The one big thing **

Cisco Talos recently discovered a malicious campaign that likely started as early as August 2023, delivering a new remote access trojan (RAT) we dubbed “SugarGh0st.” We assess with high confidence that the SugarGh0st RAT is a new customized variant of Gh0st RAT, an infamous trojan that’s been active for more than a decade, with customized commands to facilitate the remote administration tasks as directed by the C2 and modified communication protocol based on the similarity of the command structure and the strings used in the code. 

**Why do I care? **

If infected, SugarGh0st serves as a fully functional backdoor for the adversary that can execute most remote-control functionalities. It can launch the reverse shell and run the arbitrary commands sent from C2 as strings using the command shell. SugarGh0st can collect the victim’s machine hostname, filesystem, logical drive, and operating system information. It can access the running process information of the victim’s machine and control the environment by accessing the process information and terminating the process as directed by the C2 server. It can also manage the machine’s service manager by accessing the configuration files of the running services and can start, terminate or delete the services. 

**So now what? **

Since this seems to be an offshoot of GhostRAT, we certainly can’t rule out any other variants that may be floating out there. Talos also has new ClamAV signatures, Snort rules and other Cisco Secure protection to specifically detect and stop SugarGh0st.  

**Top security headlines of the week **

**Cisco Talos and other teams across Cisco recently worked with multiple government partners to help protect the Ukrainian power grid and ensure it runs appropriately.** The effort, spearheaded by Talos’ Joe Marshall, involved creating bespoke hardware for Ukraine’s energy supplier, Ukrenergo, to operate in place of traditional GPS devices that the Ukrainian power grid relies on to keep running on time. GPS satellites and Ukrainian substations have constantly been the target of kinetic and cyber threats during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Officials from multiple U.S. government agencies assisted in the project.  The Pentagon set up flights to physically deliver the manipulated switches, the Department of Energy helped coordinate the equipment’s delivery, and, as Ukrenergo told CNN, the Department of Commerce was a part of critical meetings that first outlined this project. Taras Vasyliv, who oversees power dispatching for Ukrenergo, told CNN that the custom-built switches were the equivalent of a “flashlight” for a surgeon who is trying to operate in the dark. (CNN, Business Insider) 

**Leaked government documents show that some local, federal and state law enforcement officers have been able to view the phone records of millions of Americans,** even those who have not been accused or suspected of a crime. The little-known Pentagon program was partially uncovered because of a letter sent from U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, in Wyden’s office requested more information on the project and encouraged the federal government to publicly disclose this knowledge. The letter states the White House pays wireless company AT&T to give all federal, state, local, and Tribal law enforcement agencies “the ability to request often-warrantless searches.” Known as the “Hemisphere Project,” this program has apparently been around since 2007 and reported on by the New York Times in 2013 but has largely gone unnoticed since. Wyden is attempting to challenge the legality of the Hemisphere Project. (Wired) 

**Security researchers have found a way to bypass the Microsoft Hello login authentication system** used in many fingerprint readers and face ID scanners on devices from Dell, Lenovo and Microsoft. Researchers hired by Microsoft to test the security of the readers have since informed the company of these vulnerabilities. The attack the researchers outlined could provide access to a stolen laptop or carry out what's called an “evil maid” attack on an unattended device. Microsoft introduced Hello with its Windows 10 operating system, and since then has included fingerprint scanners on all its devices (though in some cases, Microsoft’s own hardware like the Surface tablet did not use Hello). Though the manufacturers are now aware of these vulnerabilities, the variety of attacks means it can be difficult to patch for these issues. However, all the attacks ultimately required physical access to a device. (Ars Technica, The Verge) 

**Can’t get enough Talos? **

*   Tech giant Cisco built special device to help Kyiv ward off cyberattacks on power grid 
*   Cisco whips up modded switch to secure Ukraine grid against Russian cyberattacks 
*   Talos Takes Ep. #163: Why has the Phobos ransomware been working for so long? 
*   The Need to Know: What is threat hunting? 
*   Vulnerability Roundup: Vulnerabilities in Adobe Acrobat, Microsoft Excel could lead to arbitrary code execution 

**Upcoming events where you can find Talos **

**"Power of the Platform” by Cisco** **(Dec. 5 & 7)** 

Virtual (Please note: This presentation will only be given in German) 

> _The annual IT event at the end of the year where Cisco experts, including Gergana Karadzhova-Dangela from Cisco Talos Incident Response, discuss the future-oriented topics in the implementation of digitalization together with you._  

**What Threats Kept Us Up in 2023: A Year in Review and a Look Ahead** **(Dec. 13, 11 a.m. PT)** 

Virtual 

> _Each year brings new threats that take advantage of increasingly complex security environments. Whether it’s Volt Typhoon targeting critical infrastructure organizations across the United States or ALPHV launching an attack against casino giant MGM, threat actors are becoming bolder and more evasive. That’s why it’s never been more important to leverage broad telemetry sources, deep network insights and threat intelligence to respond effectively and recover faster from sophisticated attacks. Join Amy Henderson, Director of Strategic Planning and Communications at Cisco Talos and Briana Farro, Director of XDR Product Management at Cisco, as they discuss some of the top threat trends and threats we have seen this past year and how to leverage security technology like XDR and network insights to fight against them._ 

**NIS2 Directive: Why Organizations Must Act Now to Ensure Compliance and Security** **(Jan. 11, 2024, 10 a.m. GMT)** 

Virtual 

> _The NIS2 Directive is a crucial step toward securing Europe’s critical infrastructure and essential services in an increasingly interconnected world. Organizations must act now to prepare for the new requirements, safeguard their operations, and maintain a robust cybersecurity posture. Gergana Karadzhova-Dangela from Cisco Talos Incident Response and other Cisco experts will talk about how organizations can best prepare for the coming regulations._  

**Most prevalent malware files from Talos telemetry over the past week **

**SHA 256:** 8664e2f59077c58ac12e747da09d2810fd5ca611f56c0c900578bf750cab56b7    
**MD5:** 0e4c49327e3be816022a233f844a5731    
**Typical Filename:** aact.exe    
**Claimed Product:** AAct x86    
**Detection Name:** PUA.Win.Tool.Kmsauto::in03.talos 

**SHA 256:** 77c2372364b6dd56bc787fda46e6f4240aaa0353ead1e3071224d454038a545e   
**MD5:** 040cd888e971f2872d6d5dafd52e6194   
**Typical Filename:** streamer.exe   
**Claimed Product:** Ultra Virus Killer   
**Detection Name:** PUA.Win.Virus.Ultra::95.sbx.tg 

**SHA 256:** abaa1b89dca9655410f61d64de25990972db95d28738fc93bb7a8a69b347a6a6   
**MD5:** 22ae85259273bc4ea419584293eda886   
**Typical Filename:** KMSAuto++ x64.exe   
**Claimed Product:** KMSAuto++   
**Detection Name:** Hacktool:PUP.26ld.in14.Talos 

**SHA 256:** 77c2372364b6dd56bc787fda46e6f4240aaa0353ead1e3071224d454038a545e   
**MD5:** 040cd888e971f2872d6d5dafd52e6194   
**Typical Filename:** tmp000c3787   
**Claimed Product:** Ultra Virus Killer   
**Detection Name:** PUA.Win.Virus.Ultra::95.sbx.tg 

**SHA 256:** 975517668a3fe020f1dbb1caafde7180fd9216dcbf0ea147675ec287287f86aa   
**MD5:** 9403425a34e0c78a919681a09e5c16da   
**Typical Filename:** vincpsarzh.exe   
**Claimed Product:** N/A   
**Detection Name:** Win.Dropper.Scar::tpd

$19 Stanely cups, fake Amazon Prime memberships all part of holiday shopping scams circulating

By Waqas
Thus far, the FjordPhantom malware has defrauded victims of around $280,000 (£225,000).
This is a post from HackRead.com Read the original post: Android Banking Malware FjordPhantom Steals Funds Via Virtualization

Currently, the FjordPhantom malware appears to be active in Southeast Asia, covering countries including Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, and Vietnam.

Cybersecurity firm Promon has identified a novel Android malware named FjordPhantom that employs virtualization to target applications. This technique has not been observed in any malware previously. FjordPhantom propagates through messaging services and combines app-based malware with social engineering to deceive banking customers.

Promon indicated in its report published on November 30, 2023, that only one sample of FjordPhantom has been obtained. However, researchers suspect that the malware is operational in Southeast Asia, encompassing countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore, and Vietnam.

“In discussions with banks in the region, Promon has learned that one customer was defrauded out of 10 million Thai Baht (approximately $280,000 – £225,000) at the time of writing,” noted the report author Benjamin Adolphi and shared with Hackread.com ahead of publication on Thursday.

Further probing revealed that the malware is distributed through emails, SMS messages, and messaging apps. Users are tricked into downloading a bogus banking app, which contains FjordPhantom.

When this app gets installed, the attackers, posing as customer service representatives, guide the users about the steps to run the app. The malware uses virtualization to create a virtual container to run this app and attackers can monitor the user’s actions and steal their credentials.

The malware integrates various open-source/free projects from GitHub, incorporating a virtualization solution and a hooking framework. FjordPhantom utilizes virtualization solutions to circumvent the Android sandbox, enabling different apps to operate within the same sandbox.

This facilitates attackers in gaining access to files and memory, conducting debugging, and injecting code into other apps. The approach involves virtualization solutions loading their own code into a new process before loading the hosted app’s code. Consequently, the malware can evade traditional code injection detection methods, as it doesn’t modify the original application.

The malware leverages the hooking framework to evade SafetyNet rooting detection, screenreader detection, and dismiss dialog boxes warning the user of ongoing malicious activity on the system. Additionally, the malware logs various actions performed by the targeted applications, signifying active development and suggesting potential targeting of other apps in the future.

Screenshot credit: Promon

Researchers believe that FjordPhantom is a sophisticated Android malware used to commit real-world fraud. Here are 5 tips for Android users to protect themselves from malware, especially banking trojan:

1.  **Download apps only from trusted sources:** The safest way to get apps for your Android device is to download them from the official Google Play Store. Apps in the Play Store have been reviewed by Google and are less likely to be malicious. If you need to download an app from a third-party source, make sure to do your research and only download apps from reputable websites.
2.  **Be careful about the permissions you give apps:** When you install an app, it will ask you for permission to access certain data or features on your device. Only give apps the permissions they need to function. For example, if you’re installing a banking app, it will need permission to access your contacts and call history. However, there’s no reason for it to need permission to access your photos or location.
3.  **Keep your device up to date:** Google regularly releases updates for Android that fix security vulnerabilities. Make sure to install these updates as soon as they become available. You can enable automatic updates in your device’s settings.
4.  **Install a mobile security app:** A mobile security app can help to protect your device from malware by scanning apps and files for threats. It can also block malicious websites and phishing attempts. There are many different mobile security apps available, so do some research to find one that’s right for you.
5.  **Be cautious about what you click on:** Be careful about clicking on links in emails or text messages, even if they appear to be from someone you know. These links could take you to malicious websites that could install malware on your device.

****_RELATED ARTICLES_****

1.  **IBM X-Force Discovers Gootloader Malware Variant- GootBot**
2.  **Qakbot Botnet Disrupted, Infected 700,000 Computers Globally**
3.  **Telekopye Toolkit Used as Telegram Bot to Scam Marketplace Users**
4.  **Proton CAPTCHA: New Privacy-First CAPTCHA Defense Against Bots**
5.  **Google Workspace Exposed to Takeover from Domain-Wide Delegation Flaw**

Android Banking Malware FjordPhantom Steals Funds Via Virtualization

Security updates are tedious and difficult, so users continue to use a weak version of a core protocol and remain exposed to major attacks on critical infrastructure.

Source: John Edwards via Alamy Stock Photo

Programmable logic controllers (PLCs) that were vulnerable to the Stuxnet attack are still in use globally and rarely have security controls deployed — meaning they're still at risk.

More than 10 years after Stuxnet, new research shows users rarely switch on security controls such as using passwords, and feel updates are too cumbersome to be applied.

Colin Finck, tech lead of reverse engineering and connectivity at Enlyze, says the Siemens proprietary protocol which is used to read and write data as well as to program the S7 PLC. However, this is only protected by obfuscation, which the researchers were able to bypass.

Finck and his colleague Tom Dohrmann, software engineer, reverse engineering and connectivity, will present their findings at Black Hat Europe in London next week, in a talk titled "A Decade After Stuxnet: How Siemens S7 Is Still an Attacker's Heaven."

**Still Feeling the Stuxnet Effects**

In the 2010 attack, the Stuxnet attackers exploited several zero-day vulnerabilities in Microsoft Windows to ultimately gain access to Siemens software and the PLCs. This was done to gain access to and effectively damage high-speed centrifuges at the Iranian Bushehr nuclear power plant.

The impact of Stuxnet was huge, as it remotely damaged around a thousand centrifuges, and the worm's controllers were also able to analyze communication protocols between the PLCs to exploit further technological weaknesses. It also paved the way for things to come: After Stuxnet, a number of industrial control-related attacks were detected over the years, including BlackEnergy and Colonial Pipeline.

Finck tells Dark Reading that after the Stuxnet attacks took place, Siemens developed a revised protocol for the PLCs that added "lots of obfuscation and cryptography layers." However, the researchers in recent probing were able to bypass that obfuscation to give them the ability to read and write instructions for the PLCs, and ultimately stop the controller working in a proof of concept.

A statement from Siemens sent to Dark Reading acknowledged that the levels of obfuscation do not offer enough security, and a Security Bulletin from October 2022 stated that two of the PLCs "use a built-in global private key which cannot be considered anymore as sufficiently protected."

The statement added: "Siemens has deprecated this previous version of the communication protocol and encourages everyone to migrate to V17 or later to enable the new TLS \[Transport Layer Security\]-based communication protocol."

**Improved Firmware**

That most recent Siemens firmware released in 2022 does include TLS, but Finck claims there is no "long-term service for cybersecurity issues" and calls for Siemens to provide better means to update firmware "because right now, it's wide open to anybody who could just access it over the Internet."

In its statement, Siemens said it is aware of the talk scheduled for Black Hat Europe and stated that the talk "will describe the details of the legacy PG/PC and HMI communication protocol as used between TIA Portal/HMIs and SIMATIC S7-1500 SW Controller in versions before V17."

The company stated that no previously unknown security vulnerabilities will be disclosed in this talk and that Siemens is in close coordination with the researchers. Siemens recommended users to apply mitigations, including:

*   Applying client authentication using strong and individual access level passwords.
    
*   Migrating to V17 or later to enable the new TLS-based communication protocol for all SIMATIC S7-1200/1500 PLCs including SW Controller (see Siemens Security Bulletin SSB-898115 \[2\]).
    
*   Implementing the defense-in-depth approach for plant operations and configure the environment according to Siemens operational guidelines for industrial security.
    

Though the researchers praised the response by Siemens, they noted that PLC firmware is rarely updated by users, "and there's not an established update process to quickly roll out \[updates\] to a fleet of machines."

Finck says doing updates is "probably a tedious manual process to walk to every machine, plug something in and update the firmware," and thus, Siemens needs to offer better update processes so customers have an incentive to deploy those updates.

In the meantime, he says, "you better not have a direct connection to all PLCs right now, due to the aforementioned security problems."

**About the Author(s)**

With more than 20 years experience of B2B journalism, including 12 years covering cybersecurity, Dan Raywood brings a wealth of experience and information security knowledge to the table. He has covered everything from the rise of APTs, nation-state hackers, and hacktivists, to data breaches and the increase in government regulation to better protect citizens and hold businesses to account. Dan is based in the U.K., and when not working, he spends his time stopping his cats from walking over his keyboard and worrying about the (Tottenham) Spurs’ next match.

Siemens PLCs Still Vulnerable to Stuxnet-like Cyberattacks

Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF), Missing Authorization vulnerability in gVectors Team wpForo Forum wpforo allows Cross Site Request Forgery, Accessing Functionality Not Properly Constrained by ACLs leading to forced all users log out.This issue affects wpForo Forum: from n/a through 2.2.6.



**Solution**

 No fix available

No patched version is available. No reply from the vendor.

Jesse McNeil discovered and reported this Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in WordPress wpForo Forum Plugin. This could allow a malicious actor to force higher privileged users to execute unwanted actions under their current authentication. This vulnerability has not been known to be fixed yet.

**Other vulnerabilities in this plugin**

 1 present

 16 patched

View all

**WordPress plugin developer?**

Start a free security program for your WordPress plugins or request an audit.

Apply for MVDP

**Security researcher?**

Report to Patchstack Alliance bounty platform and earn monthly cash prizes.

Learn more

CVE-2023-47870: WordPress wpForo plugin <= 2.2.6 - Cross Site Request Forgery (CSRF) on Sign-out vulnerability - Patchstack

The default configuration of Aquaforest TIFF Server allows access to arbitrary file paths, subject to any restrictions imposed by Internet Information Services (IIS) or Microsoft Windows. Depending on how a web application uses and configures TIFF Server, a remote attacker may be able to enumerate files or directories, traverse directories, bypass authentication, or access restricted files.




**Background**

Tiff Server was one of Aquaforest’s first products, released in 2002.

It enabled users to view TIFF files within a web site or web-based application without requiring the use of special image viewer plugins or applets ( a requirement for the cutting edge Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator browsers at that time).

It was designed to be used on an intranet, and was never intended to be exposed to the outside world. When TIFF Server was designed, the concept of zero-trust networking and the risk of network-internal threats had not yet entered the mainstream industry consciousness.

Over the years, additional features were added but the underlying model has remained.

**Security Advisory**

External partners have identified that organisations running an insufficiently configured instance of TIFF Server may allow an unauthenticated attacker to craft a request that abuses certain parameters available in TIFF Server’s exposed ASP.NET forms. This weakness can be mapped to the MITRE CWE framework as CWE-22.

Parameters in the *.aspx forms bundled in TIFF Server are designed to leverage the capabilities of IIS to allow it to source files from arbitrary provided locations in order to maximise customisation flexibility. At the time, the implications of these original design decisions were unclear but meant that carefully crafted requests to certain insufficiently configured servers may be able to:

*   Allow an unauthenticated user to view documents that should otherwise require authentication.
*   Detect directories that the user TIFF Server is running as has access to.
*   Count files within directories the user TIFF Server is running as has access to.
*   Detect if files exist in locations TIFF Server has access to.

This architectural design pattern that could allow this flaw is present in all versions of TIFF Server.

As this functionality is intended to allow customisation of features provided by TIFF Server and may be in use by customers still using TIFF Server, there is not a “one-size-fits-all” resolution that does not require customer-side configuration.

**Improving Security Configuration within TIFF Server**

The best way to mitigate the risk of an unauthenticated attacker accessing contents that should not be accessible is to use the Custom Auditing and Security option supplied in Section 13 of the Tiff Server Reference Guide to implement allowlisting for limiting incoming requests to only the directories intended for use with TIFF Server.

Though the Custom Auditing and Security option and its use is described in the reference guide, we had not previously provided examples of using it.

In order to provide guidance to our customers still using TIFF Server, we have provided an example below for implementing such a configuration. The following implementation uses a file containing a list of accepted file paths:

    using System;
    using System.Collections.Generic;
    using System.IO;
    using System.Net;
    using System.Web;
    
    /// <summary>
    /// The following AquaforestTIFFServerAudit code is designed to check 
    /// the filepath is within the allowlisted URLs
    /// </summary>
    namespace AquaforestTIFFServerAudit
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// This code has a hard coded filepath for the AllowList
        /// </summary>
        public class TIFFServerAudit
        {
    
            /// <summary>
            /// This is a skeleton function, add features as required.
            /// </summary>
            /// <param name="fileName"></param>
            /// <param name="action"></param>
            /// <param name="AUTH_USER"></param>
            /// <returns></returns>
            public static bool securityCheck(string fileName, string action, string AUTH_USER)
            {
                // Add check that filepath is within the AllowList
                // Get the filepath from the filename
                string filePath = Path.GetDirectoryName(Path.GetFullPath(fileName).ToLowerInvariant());
    
                // If it is not in the allowlist end the response.
                if (!TiffServerAllowlist.InAllowList(filePath))
                {
                    return false;
                }
                else
                {
                    return true;
                }
                // Return False to disable access
            }
            public static void logAction(string action)
            {
                // Action is one of :
                // VIEW, PRINT, PDF, SAVEPDF, GETANNOTATIONS, SAVEANNOTATIONS, EDIT, SAVEEDIT
                try
                {
                    // Get the file path from one of these supplied sources depending upon the supplied Action
                    string fileName = HttpContext.Current.Request["FN"];
                    if (action == "EDIT" || action == "SAVEEDIT")
                    {
                        fileName = HttpContext.Current.Request["filename"];
                    }
                    else
                    if (action == "GETANNOTATIONS")
                    {
                        fileName = HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath(HttpContext.Current.Request["an_url"]);
                    }
                    else
                    if (action == "SAVEANNOTATIONS")
                    {
                        fileName = HttpContext.Current.Request["anfile"];
                    }
    
                    // Audit operations
                    string status = "OK"; // Default
                    string auditFileName = (string)HttpContext.Current.Session["ts_audit_file"];
    
                    string PC = HttpContext.Current.Request["PC"];
                    string AUTH_USER = HttpContext.Current.Request.ServerVariables["AUTH_USER"];
                    string REMOTE_HOST = HttpContext.Current.Request.ServerVariables["REMOTE_HOST"];
    
                    if (auditFileName == null || auditFileName == "")
                    {
                        if (!securityCheck(fileName, action, AUTH_USER))
                        {
                            HttpContext.Current.Response.Write($"You do not have permission to {action} this file.{Environment.NewLine}{Path.GetExtension(fileName)}{Environment.NewLine}Please contact your system administrator.");
                            HttpContext.Current.Response.End();
                        }
                        return;
                    }
    
                    /* 
                     * Any Security Checks May Go Here and Terminate Response with 
                     * HttpContext.Current.Response.End() before or after writing log entry
                    */
    
                    if (!securityCheck(fileName,action,AUTH_USER))
                    {
                        if (action == "GETANNOTATIONS")
                        {
                            HttpContext.Current.Response.Write("<ts_annot></ts_annot>");
                            HttpContext.Current.Response.End();
                        }
                        if (PC == "Y")
                        {
                            HttpContext.Current.Response.Write("afPageCount=-5;afMessage='You do not have permission to access this file.  Please contact your system administrator.';");
                            HttpContext.Current.Response.End();
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            HttpContext.Current.Response.Clear();
                            HttpContext.Current.Response.End();
                        }
                    }
    
                  
                    if (action == "VIEW" && PC != "Y")
                    {
                        // Only log for the initial page count request, not for each page 
                        return;
                    }
        			
                    System.IO.StreamWriter auditFile = new System.IO.StreamWriter(auditFileName, true);
                    if (auditFile != null)
    				{
                        auditFile.WriteLine(DateTime.Now + "," + action+","+status+","+fileName+","+AUTH_USER+","+REMOTE_HOST+","+HttpContext.Current.Request.Url);
                        auditFile.WriteLine();
                        auditFile.Flush();
                        auditFile.Close();
    				}
    			}
                catch (WebException wex)
                {
    
                }
    			catch(Exception ex)
    			{
    
    			}
    		}
        }
    
        /// <summary>
        /// This static class checks if a filepath is included in the AllowList
        /// </summary>
        public static class TiffServerAllowlist
        {
            /// <summary>
            /// Static list of AllowListed locations
            /// </summary>
            private static List<string> _AllowList;
    
            /// <summary>
            /// Constructor that loads up the allowlist from the filepath
            /// </summary>
            static TiffServerAllowlist()
            {
                _AllowList = new List<string>();
    
                // This is hard coded to a specified location, it will need to be edited and pointed at a valid text file.
                // The file contains root paths that TifServer is allowed to access.
                string temp =Path.GetFullPath(@"C:\inetpub\wwwroot\tiffserver\AllowList.txt");
                if (File.Exists(temp))
                {
                    string contents = File.ReadAllText(temp);
                    foreach (string line in contents.Split('\n'))
                    {
                        _AllowList.Add(line.Replace("\r", ""));
                    }
                }
            }
            /// <summary>
            /// Returns whether the supplied filepath is within the AllowList
            /// </summary>
            /// <param name="filePath"></param>
            /// <returns></returns>
            public static bool InAllowList(string filePath)
            {
                bool result;
                if (_AllowList.Count == 0)
                {
                    result = true;
                }
                else
                {
                    result = false;
                    foreach(string rootPath in _AllowList)
                    {
                        if (filePath.Contains(rootPath))
                        {
                            result = true;
                            break;
                        }
                    }
                }
    
                return result;
            }
        }
    }
    

Example allowlist file:

    D:\data\project_1\tiffs
    D:\data\project_2\tiffs
    C:\inetpub\wwwroot\tiffserver\samples

As the full source of the Custom Auditing and Security class is available, it’s possible to edit it in other ways if the example given above is not compatible with the way you have implemented TIFF Server.

**The future…**

As described in the blog post TIFF Server Sunsetting (aquaforest.com), Tiff Server will be sunsetted by 31 May 2024. We will continue to provide product support for existing customers until that date, but no updates are planned prior to sunset.

We have provided the example above to help customers hold themselves over until the sunset date while planning their migration to other solutions. Customers are not advised to remain using TIFF Server after the sunset date because no further updates, support, or guidance will be offered at that time.

We would suggest that if you are a current user of TIFF Server and have not begun to plan a replacement, this would be a good opportunity to look at our PSPDFKit Web-Standalone solution that has superseded TIFF Server.

You can explore a demo of the PSPDFKit image viewer **here** and get started with a trial by following **this link**.

As a valued customer, we’d like to provide you with a custom offer tailored to your needs. If you are not sure what products best suit your usage needs, our sales team can help work with you to determine a solution for your needs moving forward. To discuss your requirements, please contact us via the **sales team**.

CVE-2023-6352: Tiff Server security update - Aquaforest

Tyler Technologies Court Case Management Plus allows a remote attacker to authenticate as any user by manipulating at least the 'CmWebSearchPfp/Login.aspx?xyzldk=' and 
'payforprint_CM/Redirector.ashx?userid=' parameters. The vulnerable "pay for print" feature was removed on or around 2023-11-01.

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