Source: cve@mitre.org
Multiple cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities in XWiki Watch 1.0 allow remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via the rev parameter to (1) bin/viewrev/Main/WebHome and (2) bin/view/Blog, and the (3) register_first_name and (4) register_last_name parameters to bin/register/XWiki/Register. NOTE: the provenance of this information is unknown; the details are obtained solely from third party information.
XWiki Watch 1.0 suffers from multiple cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities, allowing attackers to inject malicious scripts into web pages viewed by other users. Successful exploitation could lead to account compromise, data theft, and website defacement. This vulnerability impacts multiple parameters, including rev, register_first_name, and register_last_name.
Step 1: Payload Delivery: The attacker crafts a malicious URL containing a JavaScript payload within the vulnerable parameters (rev, register_first_name, or register_last_name).
Step 2: User Interaction: The attacker sends the malicious URL to a victim, typically through phishing, social engineering, or other means.
Step 3: Request Processing: The victim clicks the malicious URL, sending a request to the XWiki Watch 1.0 server.
Step 4: Server Response: The server processes the request, retrieves the user-supplied data from the parameters, and includes it in the HTML response without proper sanitization or encoding.
Step 5: Payload Execution: The victim's browser receives the HTML response containing the attacker's JavaScript payload. The browser then executes the malicious script within the context of the XWiki Watch 1.0 website.
Step 6: Exploitation: The executed JavaScript can perform various malicious actions, such as stealing cookies, redirecting the user to a phishing site, or modifying the website's content.
The root cause of this vulnerability lies in the lack of proper input validation and output encoding within the XWiki Watch 1.0 application. Specifically, the application fails to sanitize user-supplied data before rendering it in the HTML response. This allows attackers to inject malicious JavaScript code through the rev, register_first_name, and register_last_name parameters. The injected script then executes within the context of the victim's browser, enabling a range of attacks, including session hijacking, phishing, and defacement. The flaw is a classic example of a reflected XSS vulnerability, where the malicious script is reflected back to the user via the server's response.
While no specific APTs are directly linked to this CVE, XSS vulnerabilities are commonly used by a wide range of threat actors, including those involved in phishing, credential harvesting, and web defacement. This vulnerability is not listed on the CISA KEV catalog, but its potential for exploitation remains high due to its simplicity and the potential impact of successful attacks.
Network traffic analysis: Look for unusual HTTP requests containing JavaScript payloads in the rev, register_first_name, or register_last_name parameters.
Web server logs: Examine web server logs for suspicious requests with potentially malicious JavaScript code.
Intrusion Detection/Prevention Systems (IDS/IPS): Configure IDS/IPS rules to detect XSS attempts based on common attack patterns and payloads.
Content Security Policy (CSP) violations: Monitor for CSP violations, which can indicate the execution of unauthorized scripts.
Web Application Firewalls (WAFs): WAFs can be configured to detect and block XSS attempts by inspecting request parameters for malicious code.
Upgrade to a patched version of XWiki Watch or XWiki itself. (If possible, upgrade to the latest version of XWiki, which likely includes fixes for this and other vulnerabilities.)
Implement input validation: Sanitize all user-supplied input to remove or encode potentially dangerous characters (e.g., <, >, &, ', ").
Implement output encoding: Encode all output to prevent the browser from interpreting user-supplied data as HTML or JavaScript. Use appropriate encoding based on the context (e.g., HTML encoding, JavaScript encoding).
Implement Content Security Policy (CSP): Configure a CSP to restrict the sources from which the browser can load resources, mitigating the impact of XSS attacks.
Use a Web Application Firewall (WAF): Deploy a WAF to detect and block XSS attempts.
Regularly scan the application for vulnerabilities using automated tools.