LiveZilla Live Chat Technical Advisory

Breaking Threat Research from FortiGuard Labs

Introduction

In June 2019, Fortinet’s FortiGuard Labs discovered and reported 7 vulnerabilities in Live Chat, the Next Generation Live Help and Live Support System from LiveZilla that connects organizations to their website visitors. LiveZilla is a software company trusted by Fortune 500 companies and top universities, and has over 15,000 users.

The vulnerabilities were found in versions 8.0.1.0 and below. At the time of the writing of this advisory, these issues have been fixed and those fixes have been published by the vendor. FortiGuard Labs appreciates the vendor’s quick response and timely fixes.

The following is a summary of the discovered vulnerabilities:

  1. LiveZilla Server before 8.0.1.1 is vulnerable to SQL Injection in server.php via the p_ext_rse parameter
  2. LiveZilla Server before 8.0.1.1 is vulnerable to XSS in mobile/index.php via the Accept-Language HTTP header
  3. LiveZilla Server before 8.0.1.1 is vulnerable to Denial of Service (memory consumption) in knowledgebase.php via a large integer value of the depth parameter
  4. LiveZilla Server before 8.0.1.2 is vulnerable to XSS in the chat.php Create Ticket Action
  5. LiveZilla Server before 8.0.1.1 is vulnerable to SQL Injection in functions.internal.build.inc.php via the parameter p_dt_s_d.
  6. LiveZilla Server before 8.0.1.1 is vulnerable to XSS in the ticket.php Subject
  7. LiveZilla Server before 8.0.1.1 is vulnerable to CSV Injection in the Export Function

Vulnerability Details

1. FG-VD-19-082 LiveZilla Server before 8.0.1.1 is vulnerable to SQL Injection in server.php via the p_ext_rse parameter

When auditing the source code file in livezillaserver.php, line 76 indicates that the server.php will import intern.php file.

Figure 1: Code snippet of server.php

When we look into livezillaintern.php, we see that it calls Listen() method of class OperatorRequest at Line 29. This class is derived from livezilla_libobjects.internal.inc.php.

Figure 2: Code snippet of intern.php

As we can see in Figure 3, it then calls Build() method in same class at line 302:

Figure 3: Code snippet of _libobjects.internal.inc.php

Digging into Build(), line 405, we can see that it calls buildResources():

Figure 4: Code of Build method in class OperatorRequest
Figure 5: Code of buildResources in _libfunctions.internal.build.inc.php

As you can see at line 59 in Figure 5, it executes the following SQL query:

Listing 1: SQL query lacks of quote sanitization

In Listing 1, the parameter is sanitized using the DBManager::RealEscape filter function to avoid SQL injection. But unfortunately, there is a lack of quote sanitization here, which makes the filter function become ineffective. Hence, we just need to input the value without any quotes into the SQL query in order to exploit the vulnerability.

$_POST[POST_INTERN_XMLCLIP_RESOURCES_END_TIME]) is defined in livezilla_definitionsdefinitions.protocol.inc.php in line 51:

Figure 6: Code snippet of _definitionsdefinitions.protocol.inc.php

So the final payload of the exploit looks like:

  • True case:

p_ext_rse=(select*from(select(if((substr(123,1,1) like 1),2,sleep(5))))a)

  • False case

p_ext_rse=(select*from(select(if((substr(123,1,1) like 2),2,sleep(5))))a)

Figure 7 shows the patch from the vendor:

Figure 7: Patch from vendor for FG-VD-19-082

2. FG-VD-19-083 LiveZilla Server before 8.0.1.1 is vulnerable to XSS in mobile/index.php via the Accept-Language HTTP header

When analyzing the source code file in livezillamobileindex.php, at line 84, we realize that the server echoes $language without proper sanitization, which can result in a Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability.

Figure 8: Code snippet of mobileindex.php

The value of $language is taken from $_SERVER[‘HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE’], which is the Accept-Language field in HTTP request header.

Figure 9: Value of $language

By using a Man-in-The-Middle (MiTM) attack method, really, or any extension to modify the header, the attacker can run javascript code within the user’s browser.

Figure 10 shows the patch from the vendor:

Figure 10: Patch from vendor for FG-VD-19-083

3. FG-VD-19-084 LiveZilla Server before 8.0.1.1 is vulnerable to Denial of Service (memory consumption) in knowledgebase.php via a large integer value of the depth parameter

This Denial of Service was spotted in livezillaknowledgebase.php, at lines 39 to 51:

Figure 11: Code snippet of knowledgebase.php

The conditional structure at line 39 determines if the Search Engine Optimization (SEO)-friendly URL option is turned on. If it is, it looks for GET parameter depth and then performs a loop based action on its value, which can be controlled by attackers. In other words, if we provide input, say “?depth=2200000”, it will loop 2200000 times. As we can see in Figure 11, line 46-47, the loop instructions will concatenate the string “../” into the $path variable that could result in memory overflow.

Figure 12 shows the patch from the vendor:

Figure 12: Patch from vendor for FG-VD-19-084

4. FG-VD-19-085 LiveZilla Server before 8.0.1.2 is vulnerable to XSS in the chat.php Create Ticket Action

This is another XSS vulnerability that can be triggered from Guest Live Chat window. The attacker can input XSS payload in the Live Chat (Figure 13).

Figure 13: Chat Payload from Guest

From the admin panel, if the admin creates a ticket on the chat window, that chat content is rendered into a new chat ticket pop-up without sanitization, which could result in arbitrary javascript execution within the user’s browser.

Figure 14: Creating Ticket action from Admin

Upon verifying the patches from the vendor, we realized that the patch in version 8.0.1.1 was incomplete. We informed the developer and provided them with the additional payload that can bypass the patch in version 8.0.1.1, and they provided a complete fix for this issue. Figure 15 shows the patch in version 8.0.1.2 from the vendor:

Figure 15: Code snippet of mobilejslzmclassesChatTicketClass.js

5. FG-VD-19-086 LiveZilla Server before 8.0.1.1 is vulnerable to SQL Injection in functions.internal.build.inc.php via the parameter p_dt_s_d

Another SQL injection vulnerability can be found in livezilla_libfunctions.internal.build.inc.php, at lines 596 to 605.

Figure 16: Code snippet of _libfunctions.internal.build.inc.php

The server determines if the parameter p_dt_s_d is sent via a POST HTTP request, and then inputs its value directly to the query without sanitizing the value. This leads to a classic SQL injection.

Figure 17 and 18 show the patch from the vendor:

Figure 17: Patch from vendor for FG-VD-19-086 – Hardcore value for sort params
Figure 18: Patch from vendor for FG-VD-19-086

6. FG-VD-19-087 LiveZilla Server before 8.0.1.1 is vulnerable to XSS in the ticket.php

Another XSS was spotted in livezillaticket.php, at line 109. For this vulnerability, the server replaced the $subject holder with our crafted contents without proper sanitization.

Figure 19: Code snippet of ticket.php

Figure 20: Cross-site Scripting Vulnerability in ticket.php

Figure 21 shows the patch from the vendor:

Figure 21: Patch from vendor for FG-VD-19-087

7. FG-VD-19-088 LiveZilla Server before 8.0.1.1 is vulnerable to CSV Injection in the Export Function

We also spotted the Comma Separated Value (CSV) file injection in the source code file livezilla_libfunctions.internal.man.inc.php. From lines 736 to 744 in Figure 22 we can see that the server attempts to export data in CSV format without sanitization.

Figure 22: Code snippet of _libfunctions.internal.man.inc.php

Figure 23 shows the patch from the vendor:

Figure 23: Patch from vendor for FG-VD-19-088

Disclosure Timeline

  • June 22, 2019: Fortinet reported the vulnerabilities FG-VD-19-082 and FG-VD-19-084 to LiveZilla
  • June 24, 2019: Fortinet reported the vulnerability FG-VD-19-086
  • June 25, 2019: Fortinet reported the vulnerabilities FG-VD-19-083, FG-VD-19-085, FG-VD-19-087, and FG-VD-19-088 to LiveZilla
  • June 26, 2019: LiveZilla confirmed the vulnerabilities, released patches for those vulnerabilities
  • June 27, 2019: Fortinet confirmed the fix for those vulnerabilities, except for FG-VD-19-085
  • July 01, 2019: LiveZilla confirmed the fix for FG-VD-19-085 is not correct, waiting for version 8.0.1.2
  • July 23, 2019: LiveZilla released 8.0.1.2 patch the vulnerability, Fortinet confirmed the fix for FG-VD-19-085

Conclusion

In conclusion, the root cause for all of these vulnerabilities is the lack of trivial input sanitization. As a result, FortiGuard Labs found multiple vulnerabilities in the LiveZilla Live Chat software, ranging from medium to critical severity.

It is crucial for Live Chat users to apply the patches provided by LiveZilla immediately, as some of the vulnerabilities – for instance, those that enable the SQL Injection – would allow attackers to extract confidential information from the database upon successful exploitation.

Note: If you are interested in this kind of assessment for your software or application, FortiGuard Labs provides a tailor-made vulnerability assessment and penetration testing service that can help you improve the security of your products. Visit https://fortiguard.com/services/pentesting for more information.

-= FortiGuard Lion Team =-

Solution

FortiGuard Labs released the following IPS signatures, which cover all the vulnerabilities mentioned:

LiveZilla.LiveZillaServer.buildResources.SQL.Injection
LiveZilla.LiveZillaServer.Language.XSS
LiveZilla.LiveZillaServer.knowledgebase.DoS
LiveZilla.LiveZillaServer.CreateTicket.XSS
LiveZilla.LiveZillaServer.demandTickets.SQL.Injection
LiveZilla.LiveZillaServer.TicketSubject.XSS
LiveZilla.LiveZillaServer.Export.CSV.Injection

CVSS 3.0 metrics:

FG-VD-19-082: Base Score 9.8, Critical severity
FG-VD-19-083: Base Score 6.1, Medium severity
FG-VD-19-084: Base Score 5.9, Medium severity
FG-VD-19-085: Base Score 6.1, Medium severity
FG-VD-19-086: Base Score 9.8, Critical severity
FG-VD-19-087: Base Score 6.1, Medium severity
FG-VD-19-088: Base Score 8.8, High severity

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