Java - URL Redirection - Harder

Running the app on Docker

$ sudo docker pull blabla1337/owasp-skf-lab:java-url-redirection-harder

$ sudo docker run -ti -p 127.0.0.1:5000:5000 blabla1337/owasp-skf-lab:java-url-redirection-harder

Now that the app is running let's go hacking!

Reconnaissance

Step 1

The application shows that there is a new version of the website available somewhere, and a click on the button "Go to new website" will redirect you to it.

If we click on the button we will be redirected on the new page http://localhost:5000/newsite

Step 2

Intercepting the traffic generated by the application, we note that the redirection is performed using the following call

GET /redirect?newurl=newsite

That will generate a 302 Redirect response from the server

Exactly like in the previous example (KBID-67-Url-redirection). If we look at the code we discover a tiny difference: a blacklist!

public String redirect(@RequestParam(name="newurl", required=true) String newurl, Model model) {
        if(blacklist(newurl)){
            model.addAttribute("content", "Sorry, you cannot use \".\" in the redirect");
            return "index";
        }
		return "redirect:"+newurl;
	}

If we look at the blacklist definition, we can immediately see that the URL, in order to be valid, must not contain any "." (dot).

private boolean blacklist(String url){
        String[] blacklist = new String[]{"."};
        for(String b: blacklist){
            if(url.indexOf(b) > -1){
                return true;
            }
        }
        return false;
    }

Step 3

Let's verify the effectiveness of this blacklist. If we try to exploit the unvalidated redirect using an external website, we see that the application blocks us, returning an error in the page.

If we URL encode the dot the application is smart enough to decode it and recognise it in the URL, blocking us again.