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Path Traversal occurrences in Dspace
DSpace open source software is a repository application which provides durable access to digital resources. dspace-jspui is a UI component for DSpace. The JSPUI resumable upload implementations in SubmissionController and FileUploadRequest are vulnerable to multiple path traversal attacks, allowing an attacker to create files/directories anywhere on the server writable by the Tomcat/DSpace user, by modifying some request parameters during submission. This path traversal can only be executed by a user with special privileges (submitter rights). This vulnerability only impacts the JSPUI. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds. However, this vulnerability cannot be exploited by an anonymous user or a basic user. The user must first have submitter privileges to at least one Collection and be able to determine how to modify the request parameters to exploit the vulnerability. (2022-08-01, CVE-2022-31194)
DSpace open source software is a repository application which provides durable access to digital resources. In affected versions the ItemImportServiceImpl is vulnerable to a path traversal vulnerability. This means a malicious SAF (simple archive format) package could cause a file/directory to be created anywhere the Tomcat/DSpace user can write to on the server. However, this path traversal vulnerability is only possible by a user with special privileges (either Administrators or someone with command-line access to the server). This vulnerability impacts the XMLUI, JSPUI and command-line. Users are advised to upgrade. As a basic workaround, users may block all access to the following URL paths: If you are using the XMLUI, block all access to /admin/batchimport path (this is the URL of the Admin Batch Import tool). Keep in mind, if your site uses the path "/xmlui", then you'd need to block access to /xmlui/admin/batchimport. If you are using the JSPUI, block all access to /dspace-admin/batchimport path (this is the URL of the Admin Batch Import tool). Keep in mind, if your site uses the path "/jspui", then you'd need to block access to /jspui/dspace-admin/batchimport. Keep in mind, only an Administrative user or a user with command-line access to the server is able to import/upload SAF packages. Therefore, assuming those users do not blindly upload untrusted SAF packages, then it is unlikely your site could be impacted by this vulnerability. (2022-08-01, CVE-2022-31195)
Why Path Traversal can be dangerous
Relative Path Confusion means that your web server is configured to serve responses to ambiguous URLs. This configuration can possibly cause confusion about the correct relative path for the URL. It is also an issue of resources, such as images, styles etc., which are specified in the response using relative path, not the absolute URL.
If the web browser permits to parse "cross-content" response, the attacker may be able to fool the web browser into interpreting HTML into other content types, which can then lead to a cross site scripting attack (link do XSS).