YaBB 9.1.2000 - Arbitrary File Read

Author: pestilence
type: remote
platform: cgi
port: 
date_added: 2000-09-10
date_updated: 2012-08-03
verified: 1
codes: CVE-2000-0853;OSVDB-411
tags: 
aliases: 
screenshot_url: 
application_url: 

source: https://www.securityfocus.com/bid/1668/info

YaBB.pl, a web-based bulletin board script, stores board postings in numbered text files. The numbered file name is specified in the call to YaBB.pl in the variable num=<file>. Before retrieving the file, YaBB will append a .txt extension to <file>.

Due to input validation problems in YaBB, relative paths can be specified in <file>. This includes ../ style paths.

Additionally, <file> does not need to be numerical, and the .txt extension can be avoided by appending %00 to <file>.

By exploiting these problems in a single request, a malicious user can view any file that the webserver has access to.

http://www.my_target.com/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?board=news&action=display&num=../../../../../../../../etc/passwd%00