From: Watchfire Research (security-research@watchfire.com)
Date: Wed Dec 21 2005 - 07:44:36 EST
//=====================>> Security Advisory <<=====================//
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XSS vulnerabilities in Google.com
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--[ Author: Yair Amit , Watchfire Corporation http://www.watchfire.com
--[ Discovery Date: 15/11/2005
--[ Initial Vendor Response: 15/11/2005
--[ Issue solved: 01/12/2005
--[ Website: www.google.com
--[ Severity: High
--[ Summary
Two XSS vulnerabilities were identified in the Google.com website,
which allow an attacker to impersonate legitimate members of Google's
services or to mount a phishing attack.
Although Google uses common XSS countermeasures, a successful attack
is possible, when using UTF-7 encoded payloads.
--[ Background
Google's URL redirection script
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The script (http://www.google.com/url?q=...) is normally used for
redirecting the browser from Google's website to other sites.
For example, the following request will redirect the browser
to http://www.watchfire.com :
- http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.watchfire.com
When the parameter (q) is passed to the script with illegal format
(The format seems to be: http://domain), a "403 Forbidden" page
returns to the user, informing that the query was illegal.
The parameter's value appears in the html returned to the user.
If http://www.google.com/url?q=USER_INPUT is requested, the text in
the "403 Forbidden" response would be:
- "Your client does not have permission to get URL
/url?q=USER_INPUT from this server."
The server response lacks charset encoding enforcement, such as:
* Response headers: "Content-Type: text/html; charset=[encoding]".
* Response body: "<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" (...)
charset=[encoding]/>".
Google's 404 NOT FOUND mechanism
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When requesting a page which doesn't exist under www.google.com, a
404 NOT FOUND response is returned to the user, with the original
path requested.
If http://www.google.com/NOTFOUND is requested, the following text
appears in the response:
"Not Found
The requested URL /NOTFOUND was not found on this server."
The server response lacks charset encoding enforcement, such as:
* Response headers: "Content-Type: text/html; charset=[encoding]".
* Response body: "<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" (...)
charset=[encoding]/>".
--[ XSS vulnerabilities
While the aforementioned mechanisms (URL redirection script,
404 NOT FOUND) escape common characters used for XSS, such as <>
(triangular parenthesis) and apostrophes, it fails to handle
hazardous UTF-7 encoded payloads.
Therefore, when sending an XSS attack payload, encoded in UTF-7, the
payload will return in the response without being altered.
For the attack to succeed (script execution), the victim's browser
should treat the XSS payload as UTF-7.
--[ IE charset encoding Auto-Selection
If 'Encoding' is set to 'Auto-Select', and Internet-Explorer finds a
UTF-7 string in the first 4096 characters of the response's body,
it will set the charset encoding to UTF-7 automatically, unless a
certain charset encoding is already enforced.
This automatic encoding selection feature makes it possible to mount
UTF-7 XSS attacks on Google.com.
--[ Solution
Google solved the aforementioned issues at 01/12/2005, by using
character encoding enforcement.
--[ Acknowledgement
The author would like to commend the Google Security Team for their
cooperation and communication regarding this vulnerability.
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