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                     Secunia Research 24/03/2010

     - Pulse CMS login.php Arbitrary File Writing Vulnerability -

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Table of Contents

Affected Software....................................................1
Severity.............................................................2
Vendor's Description of Software.....................................3
Description of Vulnerability.........................................4
Solution.............................................................5
Time Table...........................................................6
Credits..............................................................7
References...........................................................8
About Secunia........................................................9
Verification........................................................10

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1) Affected Software 

* Pulse CMS basic version 1.2.2

NOTE: Other versions may also be affected.

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2) Severity 

Rating: Highly critical
Impact: System access
        Manipulation of data
Where:  From remote

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3) Vendor's Description of Software 

"Pulse is a simple CMS designed for small websites. It enables you to
take an existing site and add content management in five minutes."

Product Link:
http://pulsecms.com/ 

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4) Description of Vulnerability

Secunia Research has discovered a vulnerability in Pulse CMS, which
can be exploited by people to compromise a vulnerable system.

An error within includes/login.php in the handling of failed login
attempts can be exploited to store content in an arbitrary file within
the web root. This e.g. allows executing arbitrary PHP code via a 
specially crafted request.

Successful exploitation requires that "register_globals" is enabled.

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5) Solution 

Update to version 1.2.3.

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6) Time Table 
19/03/2010 - Vendor notified.
19/03/2010 - Vendor response.
24/03/2010 - Public disclosure.

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7) Credits 

Discovered by Secunia Research.

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8) References

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) project has assigned 
CVE-2010-0988 for the vulnerability.

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9) About Secunia

Secunia offers vulnerability management solutions to corporate
customers with verified and reliable vulnerability intelligence
relevant to their specific system configuration:

http://secunia.com/advisories/business_solutions/ 

Secunia also provides a publicly accessible and comprehensive advisory
database as a service to the security community and private 
individuals, who are interested in or concerned about IT-security.

http://secunia.com/advisories/ 

Secunia believes that it is important to support the community and to
do active vulnerability research in order to aid improving the 
security and reliability of software in general:

http://secunia.com/secunia_research/ 

Secunia regularly hires new skilled team members. Check the URL below
to see currently vacant positions:

http://secunia.com/corporate/jobs/ 

Secunia offers a FREE mailing list called Secunia Security Advisories:

http://secunia.com/advisories/mailing_lists/ 

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10) Verification 

Please verify this advisory by visiting the Secunia website:
http://secunia.com/secunia_research/2010-45/ 

Complete list of vulnerability reports published by Secunia Research:
http://secunia.com/secunia_research/ 

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