Title: Respondus for WebCT Weak Password Encryption Vulnerability
Severity: MODERATE
Description:
Respondus is an application designed to add functionality to WebCT's quiz, self-test and survey tools. WebCT is a commercial e-learning solution.
When a user opts to have Respondus remember the username/password for WebCT access, this information is saved encrypted in a file called 'WEBCT.SVR'. The method of encryption takes the ASCII value of each character in the username/password and adds it to a constant. The constants can be determined by using a hex editor to view 'WEBCT.SRV' before the user credentials are remembered. When the user credentials are saved, appropriate changes are made to 'WEBCT.SRV', which can be compared against the original version of the file. The saved username/password can be determined by subtracting the constants from the new ASCII values. The resulting ASCII value equals the username/password. The last character of the username and password will appear right before a constant/new value that have a remainder of zero.
The constants are the same for every version of Respondus and are easily located, which may allow the attacker to forego the step of comparing the old and new versions of 'WEBCT.SRV', if the constants are known.
Successful exploitation of this issue will allow the attacker to access other WebCT accounts, which may lead to elevated privileges or the disclosure of sensitive information.
Affected Products:
- Respondus Respondus for WebCT 1.1.2
- WebCT WebCT 2.2.0
- WebCT WebCT 3.1.0
- WebCT WebCT 3.6.0
References:
- Respondus: Respondus Product Page
- WebCT: WebCT Homepage
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