PHP Bugs  
php.net | support | documentation | report a bug | advanced search | search howto | statistics | login

go to bug id or search bugs for  

Bug #49687 utf8_decode xml_utf8_decode vuln
Submitted:27 Sep 2009 11:20am UTC Modified: 19 Oct 2009 9:37am UTC
From:sird at rckc dot at Assigned to:scottmac
Status:Assigned Category:*Unicode Issues
Version:5.2.11 OS:*
Votes:6 Avg. Score:4.7 ± 0.7 Reproduced:6 of 6 (100.0%)
Same Version:3 (50.0%) Same OS:2 (33.3%)
View/Vote Add Comment Developer Edit Submission

Have you experienced this issue?
Rate the importance of this bug to you:

[27 Sep 2009 11:20am UTC] sird at rckc dot at
Description:
------------
Taken from: http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=48230
> 
> Description:
> ------------
> xml_utf8_decode function incorrectly decode.
> 
> Reproduce code:
> ---------------
> <?php
> $ill=chr(0xf0).chr(0xc0).chr(0xc0).chr(0xa7);
> $ill=addslashes($ill);
> echo utf8_decode("$ill");
> echo htmlspecialchars ($ill,ENT_QUOTES,"utf-8" );
> ?>
> 
> Expected result:
> ----------------
> it will output a "'" incorrectly.
> 
> Actual result:
> --------------
> it will output a "'" incorrectly.

This is actually a PHP security vulnerability.

Timeline:
* Reported by root@80sec.com: May 11
* Discovered by webmaster@lapstore.de: June 19
* Discovered by Giorgio Maone / Eduardo Vela: July 14
* Reported and Fixed on PHPIDS: July 14
* Microsoft notified of a XSS Filter bypass: July 14
* Fixed XSS Filter bypass on NoScript 1.9.6:  July 20
* Vulnerability disclosed on BlackHat USA 2009: July 29
* Added signature to Acunetix WVS: August 14

References:
*
http://www.blackhat.com/presentations/bh-usa-09/VELANAVA/BHUSA09-VelaNav
a-FavoriteXSS-SLIDES.pdf
*
http://www.acunetix.com/blog/web-security-articles/security-risks-associ
ated-with-utf8_decode/
* http://us2.php.net/manual/en/function.utf8-decode.php#83935
* http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=48230
* http://noscript.net/changelog

Read the references for further details.

Reproduce code:
---------------
<?php
echo utf8_decode(addslashes("\xf0\xc0\xc0\xa7 or 1=1-- -"));
// more code in references, check the slides and the acunetix blog
?>

Expected result:
----------------
? or 1=1-- -

Actual result:
--------------
' or 1=1--
[28 Sep 2009 7:38pm UTC] sjoerd@php.net
Is this a bug in PHP or in scripts which do utf8_decode(addslashes())
instead of addslashes(utf8_decode())? What do you propose to solve this
bug?
[29 Sep 2009 1:58am UTC] sird at rckc dot at
it is a PHP bug, the function is not decoding correctly, check the ppt
and the acunetix blog for details.

there are several bugs in the code, one of them is that a variable
holding the value of the char is overflowed (trying to put 21 bits in a
16 bits int), also the code is not checking if it is a valid unicode
char (reading unicode specification should explain it).

the example root@80sec gave you was an overlong utf representation of a
single quote. that is forbidden by unicode, and should transform the
char to ?.

also, the code is not checking if the chars are valid UTF, so stuff
like: <img alt="\x90" title=" src=x:x onerror=alert(1)//"> are going to
be transformed to <img alt="? title=" src=x:x onerror=alert(1)//">

this is a very serious vulnerability and there are several bugs in the
same function (there's even unreachable code).

you can check the implementation of utf by Mozilla or Webkit, they do it
right. dont use java as a reference since they are also flawed.

due to the fact that PHP is for web applications and utf is widely used,
and it allows an attacker to do all type of attacks (from sql injection
to xss) its imperative to fix that function.

Greetings!!
[29 Sep 2009 4:56am UTC] rasmus@php.net
> there are several bugs in the code, one of them is that a variable
holding the value of the char is overflowed (trying to put 21 bits in a
16 bits int)

That was fixed in 5.2.11
[29 Sep 2009 5:29am UTC] sird at rckc dot at
the rest is still dangerous.. eating chars without the 10xx xxxx is
against the spec, and overlong UTF.
[16 Oct 2009 1:36am UTC] sird at rckc dot at
: rasmus@php.net

It has come to my attention that this hasn't been fixed..

unsigned int has a size of 16 bits, don't take my word for it

http://www.acm.uiuc.edu/webmonkeys/book/c_guide/1.2.html

Section: 1.2.2 Variables

unsigned int  	16 bits

I just downloaded PHP 5.2.11, and I quote the code:

//  php-5.2.11.tar.bz2/php-5.2.11/ext/xml/xml.c#558
PHPAPI char *xml_utf8_decode(    //  ...
{
	int pos = len;
	char *newbuf = emallo    //  ...
	unsigned int c;          // sizeof(unsigned int)==16 bits
	char (*decoder)(unsig    //  ...
	xml_encoding *enc = x    //  ...
//  ...
//  #580
	c = (unsigned char)(*s);
	if (c >= 0xf0) { /* four bytes encoded, 21 bits */
		if(pos-4 >= 0) {
			c = ((s[0]&7)<<18) | ((s[1]&63)<<12) | ((s[2]&63)<<6) | (s[3]&63);
		} else {
			c = '?';	
		}
		s += 4;
		pos -= 4;
//  ...

Also no checking at ALL is made on the leading bytes (they should be in
the form: 10xx xxxx, a check is very easy, to check if s[0] has the
correct form: you do an AND with 1100 0000 and then compare it with 1000
0000.

s[0]&0xC0==0x80

Also, Overlong UTF is not being taken care of, that's yeah, yet another
vulnerability.

Greetings!!
[16 Oct 2009 3:32am UTC] scottmac@php.net
On a 16-bit processor an int might be 16-bit, if you can get PHP to
compile then well done :-)

Did you even try running the test code?
[16 Oct 2009 3:41am UTC] sird at rckc dot at
oops!

you are right, :) the code before was unsigned short.

still, the other vulnerabilities remain.

I've made a blogpost that explains the other issues ;)

http://sirdarckcat.blogspot.com/2009/10/couple-of-unicode-issues-on-php-
and.html

I updated the post to note the last bug was fixed on 5.2.11

Greetings!!
[16 Oct 2009 4:01am UTC] scottmac@php.net
PHP 5 has binary strings, not utf-8 strings. It does not attempt to do
any validation on input, so expecting addslashes to magically validate
things as utf-8 is wrong, simple as.

I agree that utf8_decode should do proper validation here though the
overhead of doing that validation is going to be slow. So I've coded up
a utf8_validate function. Still need to sort out some of the behaviour
first.
[16 Oct 2009 4:41am UTC] sird at rckc dot at
I disagree.. how slow can it be to add 2 bit operations..

} else if (c < 0x800) {

change to

} else if (c < 0x800) {
    if ( (s[1]&0xC0!=0x80) ){  // this is a new operation
        newbuf[(*newlen)++] = '?'; // this are not new operations
        pos--; // this are not new operations
        s++; // this are not new operations
        continue;
    }
}

Besides, considering all real implementations do what the spec say they
should do (it's not validate it's valid UNICODE, is that UNICODE says
that the algorithm SHOULD do the check).. not doing it on PHP is just
nuts.
[16 Oct 2009 4:45am UTC] sird at rckc dot at
oh, my mistake:
		else if (c < 0x800) {
			newbuf[(*newlen)++] = (0xc0 | (c >> 6));
			newbuf[(*newlen)++] = (0x80 | (c & 0x3f));
		}

should be:

		else if (c < 0x800) {
                        if ( (s[1]&0xC0!=0x80) ){
                            newbuf[(*newlen)++] = '?';
                        }else{
			    newbuf[(*newlen)++] = (0xc0 | (c >> 6));
			    newbuf[(*newlen)++] = (0x80 | (c & 0x3f));
                        }
		}
[16 Oct 2009 4:52am UTC] sird at rckc dot at
Oh, duh! I'm reading the wrong function.. :( Sorry

			if(pos-2 >= 0 || s[1]&0xC0!=0x80) {
				c = ((s[0]&7)<<18) | ((s[1]&63)<<12) | ((s[2]&63)<<6) | (s[3]&63);
			} else {
				c = '?';	
			}
[16 Oct 2009 4:53am UTC] sird at rckc dot at
My last post, I promise..

it should say:
	c = ((s[0]&63)<<6) | (s[1]&63);

Greetz!

RSS feed | show source 

PHP Copyright © 2001-2009 The PHP Group
All rights reserved.
Last updated: Sat Nov 21 10:30:49 2009 UTC