CVE-2020-5225
mediumpriority · track · 22EPSS 0.007 · 51 %ileEUUSEPSS · scored 2026-10-27
Log injection in SimpleSAMLphp before version 1.18.4. The www/erroreport.php script, which receives error reports and sends them via email to the system administrator, did not properly sanitize the report identifier obtained from the request. This allows an attacker, under specific circumstances, to inject new log lines by manually crafting this report ID. When configured to use the file logging handler, SimpleSAMLphp will output all its logs by appending each log line to a given file. Since the reportID parameter received in a request sent to www/errorreport.php was not properly sanitized, it was possible to inject newline characters into it, effectively allowing a malicious user to inject new log lines with arbitrary content.
cvss
Technical severity, 0–10. One row per scoring source.
base score 0–10 · higher = more severe · hover a vector to decode
weaknesses
The CWE weakness classes this flaw belongs to.
affected products (3)
Products and version ranges known to be affected.
advisories (1)
Vendor and ecosystem advisories describing this.
- GHSA-6gc6-m364-85wwLog injection in SimpleSAMLphp2020-01-24ghsa · osvUS
### Background SimpleSAMLphp has a logging functionality that allows system administrators to keep track of the activity, errors, and statistics. Additionally, it allows users to report errors, shall they happen. An error report contains a report identifier, which is logged once submitted. ### Description The `www/erroreport.php` script, which receives error reports and sends them via email to the system administrator, didn't properly sanitize the report identifier obtained from the request. This allows an attacker, under specific circumstances, to inject new log lines by manually crafting this report ID. When configured to use the `file` logging handler, SimpleSAMLphp will output all its logs by appending each log line to a given file. Since the `reportID` parameter received in a request sent to `www/errorreport.php` was not properly sanitized, it was possible to inject newline characters into it, effectively allowing a malicious user to inject new log lines with arbitrary content. ### Affected versions SimpleSAMLphp versions up to **1.18.3**. ### Impact An attacker may use this issue to inject logs messages into a SimpleSAMLphp log file, trying to trick or confuse system administrators. However, the attack surface is considered small, as the attack will only work with the `file` logging handler, which opens the log file in _append-only_ mode. This means an attacker cannot edit or remove existing log messages, and even if non-ascii characters are written to the log, the file will always be readable with a simple text editor. ### Resolution Upgrade the SimpleSAMLphp installation to version **1.18.4**. ### Credit This vulnerability was discovered and reported by Frederic Vleminckx on January 23, 2020.
also known as (3)
Other names and identifiers for this entity.
sources
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references (7)
External citations — patches, advisories, analysis.
- https://github.com/simplesamlphp/simplesamlphp/security/advisories/GHSA-6gc6-m364-85wwcnnvd
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-5225cnnvd
- https://simplesamlphp.org/security/202001-02cnnvd
- https://github.com/simplesamlphp/simplesamlphp/security/advisories/GHSA-6gc6-m364-85wwenisa_euvd
- https://simplesamlphp.org/security/202001-02enisa_euvd
- https://github.com/simplesamlphp/simplesamlphp/security/advisories/GHSA-6gc6-m364-85wwThird Party Advisorynvd
- https://simplesamlphp.org/security/202001-02Vendor Advisorynvd
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