Lotus Domino 5.0.5 Web Server vulnerability - reading files outside the web root

Systems affected:
Lotus Domino 5.0.5 Windows 2000 - have not tested other versions/platforms

Risk: High
Date: 5 January 2001

Legal Notice:
This Advisory is Copyright (c) 2000 Georgi Guninski. You may distribute it unmodified. 
You may not modify it and distribute it or distribute parts of it without the author's written permission.

Disclaimer:
The opinions expressed in this advisory and program are my own and not of any company. The usual standard disclaimer applies, especially the fact that Georgi Guninski is not liable for any damages caused by direct or  indirect use of the information  or functionality provided by this advisory or program. Georgi Guninski bears no responsibility for content or misuse of this advisory or program or any derivatives thereof.

Description:

Lotus Domino Web Server under Windows 2000 (have not tested other versions) allows reading files outside the web root.

Details:

The problem are URLs like:
-----------------------------------------
http://TARGETDOMINO/.nsf/../winnt/win.ini
-----------------------------------------
which read c:\winnt\win.ini.
Note that above URL does not work in IE - for some strange reasons IE strips .nsf/../ so try it from Netscape or direct HTTP request.

Vendor status:
Sent several emails to Lotus/IBM on 3 January but did not hear back from them