Any security problems involved in letting administrators edit LocalSettings.php via a wiki page?

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Jean Valjean

1 Jul 2017 1 Jul '17

10:16 p.m.

I want to let some of my administrators (in the wizards group) edit LocalSettings.php, so I used this snippet, which allows them to make changes by editing the Project:Shared_config.php page. Then I protected the page so that only wizards can edit it. Do you think this presents any security issues? (I was also going to have it save the old version to a bak file, but I had to comment that code out because I was getting a call to a function on a non-object error, for some reason) function editLocalSettingsOnPageContentSaveComplete( $article, $user, $content, $summary, $isMinor, $isWatch, $section, $flags, $revision, $status, $baseRevId ) { if ( $article->getTitle()->getFullText() !== 'Project:Shared config.php' ) { return true; } # $oldRevision = Revision::newFromId( $baseRevId ); # $oldRevisionContent = $oldRevision->getContent( Revision::RAW ); # $oldRevisionContents = ContentHandler::getContentText( $oldRevisionContent ); # $oldRevisioncontents = str_replace( '<source lang="php"' . ">\n", '', $oldRevisionContents ); # $oldRevisioncontents = str_replace( '</source' . '>', '', $oldRevisionContents ); # file_put_contents ( '/home/wiki/shared_config.bak', $oldRevisionContents ); $contents = ContentHandler::getContentText( $content ); $contents = str_replace( '<source lang="php"' . ">\n", '', $contents ); $contents = str_replace( '</source' . '>', '', $contents ); file_put_contents ( '/home/wiki/shared_config.php', $contents ); return true; } $wgHooks['PageContentSaveComplete'][] = 'editLocalSettingsOnPageContentSaveComplete'; # add an additional protection level restricting edit/move/etc. to users with the "wizards" permission $wgRestrictionLevels[] = 'wizards'; # give the "wizards" permission to users in the "wizard" group $wgGroupPermissions['developer']['wizards'] = true;

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John

1 Jul 1 Jul

10:18 p.m.

Yes, making localsettings.php world readable/editable is a huge security issue. On Sat, Jul 1, 2017 at 6:16 PM, Jean Valjean <jeanvaljean2718(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

Jean Valjean

10:22 p.m.

Well I did take my passwords out of webroot. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Securing_database_passwords#Keep_MySQ… On Sat, Jul 1, 2017 at 6:18 PM, John <phoenixoverride(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

Yes, making localsettings.php world readable/editable is a huge security issue. On Sat, Jul 1, 2017 at 6:16 PM, Jean Valjean <jeanvaljean2718(a)gmail.com> wrote:

the

page so that only wizards can edit it. Do you think this presents any security issues? (I was also going to have it save the old version to a bak file, but I

had

to comment that code out because I was getting a call to a function on a non-object error, for some reason) function editLocalSettingsOnPageContentSaveComplete( $article, $user, $content, $summary, $isMinor, $isWatch, $section, $flags, $revision, $status, $baseRevId ) { if ( $article->getTitle()->getFullText() !== 'Project:Shared config.php' ) { return true; } # $oldRevision = Revision::newFromId( $baseRevId ); # $oldRevisionContent = $oldRevision->getContent( Revision::RAW ); # $oldRevisionContents = ContentHandler::getContentText( $oldRevisionContent ); # $oldRevisioncontents = str_replace( '<source lang="php"' .

">\n",

'', $oldRevisionContents ); # $oldRevisioncontents = str_replace( '</source' . '>', '', $oldRevisionContents ); # file_put_contents ( '/home/wiki/shared_config.bak', $oldRevisionContents ); $contents = ContentHandler::getContentText( $content ); $contents = str_replace( '<source lang="php"' . ">\n", '', $contents ); $contents = str_replace( '</source' . '>', '', $contents ); file_put_contents ( '/home/wiki/shared_config.php', $contents ); return true; } $wgHooks['PageContentSaveComplete'][] = 'editLocalSettingsOnPageContentSaveComplete'; # add an additional protection level restricting edit/move/etc. to users with the "wizards" permission $wgRestrictionLevels[] = 'wizards'; # give the "wizards" permission to users in the "wizard" group $wgGroupPermissions['developer']['wizards'] = true; _______________________________________________ MediaWiki-l mailing list To unsubscribe, go to: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l

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Tim Starling

3 Jul 3 Jul

5:22 a.m.

On 02/07/17 08:22, Jean Valjean wrote:

...

Well I did take my passwords out of webroot. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Securing_database_passwords#Keep_MySQ…

That doesn't help. It's trivial to get the MySQL password, you can just do "echo $wgDBpassword", not that it is necessary to do anything that an attacker might want to do. -- Tim Starling

Legoktm

1 Jul 1 Jul

10:57 p.m.

On 07/01/2017 03:16 PM, Jean Valjean wrote:

...

Brian Wolff

11:04 p.m.

Even ignoring the security issues, if one of your users makes a typo, they take down the site and they cannot revert because the site is then down.

...

From a security prespective, this is equivalent to giving your users shell

access to your server. They can run any arbitrary program, do anything, insert backdoors, etc. Additionally this setup requires the web user to have write access to php enabled web directories which is also bad practise. -- bawolff On Saturday, July 1, 2017, Legoktm <legoktm.wikipedia(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

On 07/01/2017 03:16 PM, Jean Valjean wrote: > I want to let some of my administrators (in the wizards group) edit > LocalSettings.php, so I used this snippet, which allows them to make > changes by editing the Project:Shared_config.php page. Then I protected

the

...

page so that only wizards can edit it. Do you think this presents any security issues?

Yes, it presents a huge security issue. Anyone who can modify your LocalSettings.php can execute arbitrary PHP code. They could see any private data in your database, easily get passwords, or even potentially give themselves server access. I would highly recommend NOT doing this. -- Legoktm _______________________________________________ MediaWiki-l mailing list To unsubscribe, go to: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l

Jean Valjean

11:24 p.m.

Yeah, that's already happened a few times (typo taking the site down). What I did on another wiki farm was have one wiki in charge of the other wiki's config files, so that if you messed up LocalSettings.php, it wouldn't take down the wiki that was modifying it. My goal was to have some sort of version control system in place so that as different people are changing the files, we know who did what when, and can revert easily to a previous version. On Sat, Jul 1, 2017 at 7:04 PM, Brian Wolff <bawolff(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

Even ignoring the security issues, if one of your users makes a typo, they take down the site and they cannot revert because the site is then down. From a security prespective, this is equivalent to giving your users shell access to your server. They can run any arbitrary program, do anything, insert backdoors, etc. Additionally this setup requires the web user to have write access to php enabled web directories which is also bad practise. -- bawolff On Saturday, July 1, 2017, Legoktm <legoktm.wikipedia(a)gmail.com> wrote:

the

page so that only wizards can edit it. Do you think this presents any security issues?

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Brian Wolff

11:32 p.m.

Most people just use a git repo for version controlling their LocalSettings.php If you really really want to do this onwiki approach, try verifying the file with `php -l` before saving. -- brian On Saturday, July 1, 2017, Jean Valjean <jeanvaljean2718(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

Yeah, that's already happened a few times (typo taking the site down).

What

...

I did on another wiki farm was have one wiki in charge of the other wiki's config files, so that if you messed up LocalSettings.php, it wouldn't take down the wiki that was modifying it. My goal was to have some sort of version control system in place so that

...

different people are changing the files, we know who did what when, and

can

...

revert easily to a previous version. On Sat, Jul 1, 2017 at 7:04 PM, Brian Wolff <bawolff(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Even ignoring the security issues, if one of your users makes a typo,

they

...

> take down the site and they cannot revert because the site is then down. > > From a security prespective, this is equivalent to giving your users

shell

...

> access to your server. They can run any arbitrary program, do anything, > insert backdoors, etc. Additionally this setup requires the web user to > have write access to php enabled web directories which is also bad > practise. > > -- > bawolff > > On Saturday, July 1, 2017, Legoktm <legoktm.wikipedia(a)gmail.com> wrote: > > On 07/01/2017 03:16 PM, Jean Valjean wrote: > >> I want to let some of my administrators (in the wizards group) edit > >> LocalSettings.php, so I used this snippet, which allows them to make > >> changes by editing the Project:Shared_config.php page. Then I

protected

...

> the > >> page so that only wizards can edit it. Do you think this presents any > >> security issues? > > > > Yes, it presents a huge security issue. Anyone who can modify your > > LocalSettings.php can execute arbitrary PHP code. They could see any > > private data in your database, easily get passwords, or even

potentially

...

give themselves server access. I would highly recommend NOT doing this. -- Legoktm _______________________________________________ MediaWiki-l mailing list To unsubscribe, go to: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l

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Jean Valjean

2 Jul 2 Jul

12:57 a.m.

Well it does have a certain coolness factor to do everything through the wiki. It's kind of like how Mark Zuckerberg wanted Facebookers to be able to do everything they needed to do on the web without leaving Facebook. Facebook would have email, messaging, games, video, search, and even Wikipedia articles! https://thenextweb.com/opinion/2015/03/25/facebook-has-officially-declared-… But why should Zuck be the only one to have such grand, sweeping ambitions? Once MediaWiki becomes powerful enough, it can kill all other apps and rule the world! http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/04/13/ 474011009/facebooks-new-master-plan-kill-other-apps We can create MediaWiki extensions for artificial intelligence, virtual reality, drones, you name it. Why shouldn't there be artificially intelligent robotic aircraft that anyone can edit? https://www.fastcompany.com/3052885/mark-zuckerberg-facebook Facebook walls people off from each other through the proprietary nature of its technology and the cliquish tendencies of its circles of friends. MediaWiki brings everyone together through openness and its natural tendency to foster online collectivist utopias. Therefore the time is coming for a steel cage match between the two platforms, in which they battle for dominance, with room for only one survivor. Once technology advances to the point where the software becomes self-aware, this deathmatch can move from being a theoretical possibility to a practical reality. One might ask, "Why is it even necessary to revise LocalSettings.php so often?" Ideally, there would be a configuration database, so that it wouldn't be necessary to make so many changes to LocalSettings.php, but I think the reason that never caught on is that there just aren't enough MediaWiki installations out there for it to seem like a worthwhile idea. It's not like WordPress, which probably has millions of installations. Or hundreds of thousands, anyway. Thus, it seems like we're doomed to continue manually editing PHP files for the foreseeable future. Sucks that they got rid of php_check_syntax(). That seems superior to php -l. http://php.net/manual/en/function.php-check-syntax.php On Sat, Jul 1, 2017 at 7:32 PM, Brian Wolff <bawolff(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

Yeah, that's already happened a few times (typo taking the site down).

What

I did on another wiki farm was have one wiki in charge of the other

wiki's

config files, so that if you messed up LocalSettings.php, it wouldn't

take

down the wiki that was modifying it. My goal was to have some sort of version control system in place so that

different people are changing the files, we know who did what when, and

can

revert easily to a previous version. On Sat, Jul 1, 2017 at 7:04 PM, Brian Wolff <bawolff(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Even ignoring the security issues, if one of your users makes a typo,

they

> take down the site and they cannot revert because the site is then down. > > From a security prespective, this is equivalent to giving your users

shell

protected

potentially

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jayvdb＠gmail.com

4:42 a.m.

If you are going to do this anyway, despite the warnings given, use some regex to strictly find all function & method invocations and only allow a very small whitelisted set. Err on the side of caution with the regex finding too many matches including false positives. On Sun, 2 Jul 2017 07:57 Jean Valjean <jeanvaljean2718(a)gmail.com> wrote:

...

Well it does have a certain coolness factor to do everything through the wiki. It's kind of like how Mark Zuckerberg wanted Facebookers to be able to do everything they needed to do on the web without leaving Facebook. Facebook would have email, messaging, games, video, search, and even Wikipedia articles! https://thenextweb.com/opinion/2015/03/25/facebook-has-officially-declared-… But why should Zuck be the only one to have such grand, sweeping ambitions? Once MediaWiki becomes powerful enough, it can kill all other apps and rule the world! http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/04/13/ 474011009/facebooks-new-master-plan-kill-other-apps <http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/04/13/474011009/facebooks-new-master-plan-kill-other-apps> We can create MediaWiki extensions for artificial intelligence, virtual reality, drones, you name it. Why shouldn't there be artificially intelligent robotic aircraft that anyone can edit? https://www.fastcompany.com/3052885/mark-zuckerberg-facebook Facebook walls people off from each other through the proprietary nature of its technology and the cliquish tendencies of its circles of friends. MediaWiki brings everyone together through openness and its natural tendency to foster online collectivist utopias. Therefore the time is coming for a steel cage match between the two platforms, in which they battle for dominance, with room for only one survivor. Once technology advances to the point where the software becomes self-aware, this deathmatch can move from being a theoretical possibility to a practical reality. One might ask, "Why is it even necessary to revise LocalSettings.php so often?" Ideally, there would be a configuration database, so that it wouldn't be necessary to make so many changes to LocalSettings.php, but I think the reason that never caught on is that there just aren't enough MediaWiki installations out there for it to seem like a worthwhile idea. It's not like WordPress, which probably has millions of installations. Or hundreds of thousands, anyway. Thus, it seems like we're doomed to continue manually editing PHP files for the foreseeable future. Sucks that they got rid of php_check_syntax(). That seems superior to php -l. http://php.net/manual/en/function.php-check-syntax.php On Sat, Jul 1, 2017 at 7:32 PM, Brian Wolff <bawolff(a)gmail.com> wrote:

wrote:

Yeah, that's already happened a few times (typo taking the site down).

What

I did on another wiki farm was have one wiki in charge of the other

wiki's

config files, so that if you messed up LocalSettings.php, it wouldn't

take > down the wiki that was modifying it. > > My goal was to have some sort of version control system in place so

that

different people are changing the files, we know who did what when, and

can

revert easily to a previous version. On Sat, Jul 1, 2017 at 7:04 PM, Brian Wolff <bawolff(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Even ignoring the security issues, if one of your users makes a typo,

they >> take down the site and they cannot revert because the site is then

down.

> > From a security prespective, this is equivalent to giving your users

shell >> access to your server. They can run any arbitrary program, do

anything,

>> insert backdoors, etc. Additionally this setup requires the web user

>> have write access to php enabled web directories which is also bad >> practise. >> >> -- >> bawolff >> >> On Saturday, July 1, 2017, Legoktm <legoktm.wikipedia(a)gmail.com>

wrote:

>> > On 07/01/2017 03:16 PM, Jean Valjean wrote: >> >> I want to let some of my administrators (in the wizards group) edit >> >> LocalSettings.php, so I used this snippet, which allows them to

make

> >> changes by editing the Project:Shared_config.php page. Then I

protected >> the >> >> page so that only wizards can edit it. Do you think this presents

any

> >> security issues? > > > > Yes, it presents a huge security issue. Anyone who can modify your > > LocalSettings.php can execute arbitrary PHP code. They could see any > > private data in your database, easily get passwords, or even

potentially

> give themselves server access. > > I would highly recommend NOT doing this. > > -- Legoktm > > _______________________________________________ > MediaWiki-l mailing list > To unsubscribe, go to: > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l > _______________________________________________ MediaWiki-l mailing list To unsubscribe, go to: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l

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Yaron Koren

3 Jul 3 Jul

2:40 a.m.

I should note that there's an extension that lets you modify some of the settings from the web interface - Site Settings: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Site_Settings It doesn't modify LocalSettings.php; it overrides it. It only covers a fairly small number of settings, but maybe they're all that you need. Also, it has hooks so that you can add more. There's also the Configure extension, which lets you do the same thing but with more settings (and a less-nice interface, in my opinion), though it apparently doesn't work with recent versions of MediaWiki: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Configure -Yaron

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Brian Wolff
jayvdb＠gmail.com
Jean Valjean
John
Legoktm
Tim Starling
Yaron Koren