[NEWS] User Posting Vulnerability in Nick.com Forums (Nickelodeon)

From: support@securiteam.com
Date: 01/14/02 

From: support@securiteam.com
To: list@securiteam.com
Date: Mon, 14 Jan 2002 14:35:02 +0100 (CET)

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  User Posting Vulnerability in Nick.com Forums (Nickelodeon)
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SUMMARY

 <http://Nick.com> Nick.com is a website for Kids whom watch the
Nickelodeon cable channel. They offer a message board area that is
moderated heavily to try to make it one of the safest areas on the net. A
security vulnerability in the handling of incoming messages allows
impersonation - writing messages with someone else nickname.

DETAILS

When you create a user and log in to their message board system (powered
by PeopleLink), a JavaScript window pops up with the forum selection and
main content inside. This does not work too well with window
resizing/scrolling in Mac OS X (or any other OS) so we chose to open the
JavaScript's HTML contents in a new window. This helped the problem, but
revealed a major flaw in their user identification system. The URL is
formed like this:
http://plnk.peoplelink.com/plnk/nickelodeon/boards40/frame.cfm?
handle=ANY_USERNAME_HERE
&intgroup=100000910

Handle means the Username of the poster. "intgroup" is the Forum/Message
ID. You can change the "handle" part of the URL to ANY name, including
already registered names - you then can post as any username. All messages
take up to 24 hours to be "approved," but if the message is "clean," it
usually will be approved, even if the name is a fake one. This has been
tested. It was obvious that this was hidden in a JavaScript popup to
probably cover this flaw.

Vendor status:
The webmaster has been contacted. A fix should be already in place.

Fix:
Nick.com forum moderators have confirmed they will be switching to a new
message board system, and leaving all former data behind.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

The information has been provided by <mailto:danny@dricci.com> Danny
Ricci.

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