CVE-2002-1852 in HTTP Daemon
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Monkey 0.5.0 allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via (1) the URL or (2) a parameter to test2.pl.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/27/2024
The vulnerability described in CVE-2002-1852 represents a classic cross-site scripting flaw affecting the Monkey web server version 0.5.0. This security weakness falls under the broader category of input validation failures that have plagued web applications since the early days of internet security. The vulnerability specifically resides in how the Monkey server processes incoming requests and handles user-supplied data within URL parameters and test2.pl script interactions. Such flaws typically arise when web applications fail to properly sanitize or encode user input before incorporating it into dynamically generated web pages, creating opportunities for malicious actors to inject harmful scripts that execute in the context of other users' browsers.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability demonstrates a failure in the web server's request handling mechanism where both URL components and parameters passed to the test2.pl script are not adequately filtered or escaped. When a remote attacker crafts malicious input containing script tags or other HTML elements, the Monkey server processes these inputs without proper validation, allowing the malicious code to be rendered as part of the web page content. This creates a persistent threat vector where any user who accesses the affected page or interacts with the vulnerable endpoint becomes a potential victim of the injected malicious code. The vulnerability's impact is particularly concerning because it affects core web server functionality and can be exploited through simple HTTP requests without requiring authentication or special privileges.
From an operational perspective, this XSS vulnerability provides attackers with significant capabilities to compromise user sessions, steal sensitive information, manipulate web content, or redirect users to malicious sites. The attack surface is broad since the vulnerability affects both URL parameters and script parameters, meaning that multiple entry points within the application can be exploited. This type of vulnerability aligns with CWE-79 which specifically addresses cross-site scripting flaws in web applications. The attack pattern follows typical XSS exploitation techniques described in the MITRE ATT&CK framework under the technique T1566 for "Phishing" and T1059 for "Command and Scripting Interpreter" where attackers can execute malicious scripts in victim browsers through web-based interfaces.
The remediation approach for this vulnerability requires implementing comprehensive input validation and output encoding mechanisms within the Monkey web server. Organizations should ensure that all user-supplied data is properly sanitized before being processed or displayed in web responses. This includes implementing proper HTML entity encoding for all dynamic content, validating input against whitelisted character sets, and employing Content Security Policy headers to limit script execution. The fix should involve updating the Monkey web server to a patched version that properly handles user input or implementing application-level defenses such as input filtering libraries and regular expression validation for URL parameters. Additionally, security teams should conduct thorough code reviews to identify similar patterns in other parts of the application and establish secure coding practices that prevent such vulnerabilities from recurring in future development cycles.