An issue was discovered in Webmin 1.840 and 1.880 when the default Yes setting of "Can view any file as a log file" is enabled. As a result of weak default configuration settings, limited users have full access rights to the underlying Unix system files, allowing the user to read sensitive data from the local system (using Local File Include) such as the '/etc/shadow' file via a "GET /syslog/save_log.cgi?view=1&file=/etc/shadow" request.
The product uses external input to construct a pathname that is intended to identify a file or directory that is located underneath a restricted parent directory, but the product does not properly neutralize special elements within the pathname that can cause the pathname to resolve to a location that is outside of the restricted directory.