# Exploit Title: Boa Web Server v0.94.14 - Authentication Bypass#Date: 19-11-2022# Exploit Author: George Tsimpidas # Vendor: https://github.com/gpg/boa# CVE: N/A # Tested on: Debian 5.18.5
Description :
Boa Web Server Versions from 0.94.13 - 0.94.14 fail to validate the
correct security constraint on the HEAD http method allowing everyone
to bypass the Basic Authorization Mechanism.
Culprit :if(!memcmp(req->logline, "GET ", 4))
req->method = M_GET;elseif(!memcmp(req->logline, "HEAD ", 5))
/* head is just get w/no body */
req->method = M_HEAD;elseif(!memcmp(req->logline, "POST ", 5))
req->method = M_POST;else{
log_error_doc(req);
fprintf(stderr, "malformed request: \"%s\"\n", req->logline);
send_r_not_implemented(req);return0;}
The req->method = M_HEAD; is being parsed directlyon theresponse.c
file, looking at how the method is being implemented for one of the
response codes :
/* R_NOT_IMP: 505 */
void send_r_bad_version(request * req){
SQUASH_KA(req);
req->response_status = R_BAD_VERSION;if(!req->simple){
req_write(req, "HTTP/1.0 505 HTTP Version Not Supported\r\n");
print_http_headers(req);
req_write(req, "Content-Type: " HTML "\r\n\r\n"); /* terminate
header */
}if(req->method != M_HEAD){
req_write(req,
"<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>505 HTTP Version Not
Supported</TITLE></HEAD>\n""<BODY><H1>505 HTTP Version Not Supported</H1>\nHTTP
versions ""other than 0.9 and 1.0 ""are not supported in Boa.\n<p><p>Version encountered: ");
req_write(req, req->http_version);
req_write(req, "<p><p></BODY></HTML>\n");}
req_flush(req);}
Above code condition indicates that if(req->method != M_HEAD)therefore
if the the requested method does not equal to M_HEAD then
req_write(req,
"<HTML><HEAD><TITLE>505 HTTP Version Not
Supported</TITLE></HEAD>\n""<BODY><H1>505 HTTP Version Not Supported</H1>\nHTTP
versions ""other than 0.9 and 1.0 ""are not supported in Boa.\n<p><p>Version encountered: ");
req_write(req, req->http_version);
req_write(req, "<p><p></BODY></HTML>\n");}
So if the method actually contains the http method of HEAD it's being
passedfor every function that includes all the response code methods.