Title: ActivePython ActiveX Control Weak Default Security Policy Vulnerability
Severity: MODERATE
Description:
ActiveState's ActivePython is an implementation of the Python scripting language for the Microsoft Windows operating system. ActivePython is also available for Linux and Solaris. The default installation of ActivePython for Windows includes an ActiveX control which is registered as a script handler for the language. This handler allows the use of embedded client side Python scripts in web pages.
Python scripts executed within a web page run in a restricted enviroment. This is similar to that used for javascript, and is based on the RExec class. While many potentially dangerous operations are forbidden, the RExec class does allow a script to read files and list directory contents.
The ActiveX control included with ActivePython does not appear to modify the default policy associated with the RExec class. As a result, a malicious script included in a web page may be able to access sensitive information. Clever use of this vulnerability could expose sensitive data to an outside source, possible through the use of HTTP requests for dynamically generated content.
Other implementations of Python for Windows may share the affected code, which is derived from the Pythonwin package originally maintained by Mark Hammond.
Affected Products:
- Activestate ActivePython 2.1.0
- Activestate win32all
References:
- Activestate: ActivePython Homepage
- Activestate: win32all Download Page
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