HAXcms createSite SSRF Enables Arbitrary File Read

Summary

An authenticated Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF) vulnerability in HAXcms allows users to fetch arbitrary internal or local resources and write the responses to a web-accessible directory, enabling arbitrary file read and internal network access.

Details

The createSite endpoint in HAXcms (v11.0.6) accepts a build.files parameter that allows an authenticated user to supply arbitrary URLs or local file paths. This input is processed without validation and ultimately fetched server-side using file_get_contents().

The data flow is as follows:

• User input (build.files) is processed via object_to_array() into a PHP array
• Assigned to $filesToDownload in Operations.php (line 2626)
• Iterated over in Operations.php (line 2730), where each entry is passed to HAXCMSFile::save() with bulk-import enabled

In HAXCMSFile.php (line 30), the following occurs:

file_get_contents($upload['tmp_name']);

Here, tmp_name is attacker-controlled and may contain:

• External URLs (http://attacker.com)
• Internal services (http://127.0.0.1)
• Cloud metadata endpoints (http://169.254.169.254)
• Local file paths (/etc/passwd, /proc/self/environ)

The bulk-import flag bypasses is_uploaded_file() validation, which normally ensures the file originates from a legitimate upload. The only restriction is an extension whitelist based on the filename (array key), which is fully attacker-controlled.

There are no restrictions on:

• URL schemes (http, file, gopher, etc.)
• Destination IP ranges (internal, loopback, metadata services)
• Response content

All fetched content is written to:

sites/<sitename>/files/<filename>