MPSB04-10 - The CFOBJECT tag and CreateObject functions should be secured in a shared or untrusted developer environment
Originally posted: October 8, 2004
Summary
By default, the CFOBJECT tag and the CreateObject function are accessible to all ColdFusion developers. This tag and function should be secured in a shared or untrusted developer environment.
Solution
Macromedia recommends that customers use the Sandbox Security functionality included in ColdFusion to secure this tag and function.
Affected Software Versions
- ColdFusion MX 6.0
- ColdFusion MX 6.1
- ColdFusion MX 7.0
Severity Rating
Macromedia categorizes this issue as important and recommends that affected users immediately correct their sandbox security configuration.
Details
It is possible to use standard ColdFusion Markup Language (CFML) code to access Java objects that are shipped as part of the ColdFusion product to internally perform administrative tasks. Such code makes use of a the Java Extensibility feature of ColdFusion (and specifically the CFOBJECT tag or CreateObject function) that allows developers the flexibility to extend beyond CFML and access Java objects.
By default, the CFOBJECT tag and the CreateObject function are accessible to all ColdFusion developers. This provides developers with access to functionality that may not be appropriate for shared or untrusted developer environments. ColdFusion provides a sophisticated security model to granularly lock down functionality where needed. In any environment that is shared or where developers are not "trusted" (meaning they are not given unrestricted access to the development server), it's necessary to take a few steps to secure the ColdFusion environment just as it is necessary to secure the operating system. The ColdFusion Sandbox Security feature allows the Administrator to simply disable the CFML CreateObject function and CFOBJECT tag.
In an untrusted or shared environment where developers still want to take advantage of the Java Extensibility functionality, a common technique is to allow a "trusted" application in a less restricted sandbox to access known secured Java objects placing them in a shared scope, and let the "untrusted" developers access the objects via the CFML CFINVOKE tag. This puts control of the "safe" objects into the hands of the Administrator.
Making the Change
For complete documentation on ColdFusion Sandbox Security please see the following product documentation: http://livedocs.macromedia.com/coldfusion/6.1/htmldocs/appsecur.htm
Revisions
October 8 , 2004 - Bulletin first created.
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