mahara-contributors team mailing list archive

[Aaron Wells <1047111@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I added a comment to init.php explaining why we used
libxml_disable_entity_loader(), and the safe way to use
simplexml_load_file with LIBXML_NONET:
https://reviews.mahara.org/#/c/2102/

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1047111

Title:
  XEE possible in mahara

Status in Mahara ePortfolio:
  Fix Released
Status in Mahara 1.4 series:
  Fix Released
Status in Mahara 1.5 series:
  Fix Released

Bug description:
  There is a security issue with the default XML parser for PHP, where ENTITY fields are
  loaded and substituted in text parts. 

  This allows possible attackers to read from internal networks, or files readable by the
  web server user.

  This includes reading of the config.php file, which contains sensitive information such
  as the database password, and the password salt field.

  The fix for this was to include a call to libxml_disable_entity_loader(true) during the
  initialization of a page.

  More information can be found at the following:
   http://projects.webappsec.org/w/page/13247003/XML%20External%20Entities
   http://websec.io/2012/08/27/Preventing-XEE-in-PHP.html

  Reported by Mike Haworth.

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