GHSA-9jr9-8ff3-m894: HAX CMS API Lacks Authorization Checks

Summary

The HAX CMS API endpoints do not perform authorization checks when interacting with a resource. Both the JS and PHP versions of the CMS do not verify that a user has permission to interact with a resource before performing a given operation.

Details

The API endpoints within the HAX CMS application check if a user is authenticated, but don’t check for authorization before performing an operation.

Affected Resources

• Operations.php: 760 createNode()
• Operations.php: 868 saveNode()
• Operations.php: 1171 deleteNode()
• Operations.php: 1789 listSites()
• Operations.php: 1890 createSite()
• Operations.php: 2196 getConfig()
• Operations.php: 2389 cloneSite()
• Operations.php: 2467 deleteSite()
• Operations.php: 2524 downloadSite()
• Operations.php: 2607 archiveSite()

Note: This may not include all affected endpoints within the application.

Impact

An authenticated attacker can make requests to interact with other users’ sites. This can be used to enumerate, modify, and delete other users’ sites and nodes.

Additionally, an authenticated attacker can use the ‘getConfig’ endpoint to pull the application’s configuration, which may store cleartext credentials.

PoC - /deleteNode

1. Browse to the ‘site.json’ file for a target site, and note the ID of the item to delete.

2. Make a POST request to the ‘deleteNode’ endpoint with a valid JWT and the target object ID.

Site before editing:

Site after editing:

References

• GHSA-9jr9-8ff3-m894
• haxtheweb/haxcms-nodejs@5826e9b