CVE-2004-1881 in Cactushop
Summary
by MITRE
SQL injection vulnerability in (1) mailorder.asp or (2) payonline.asp in CactuShop 5.x allows remote attackers to execute arbitrary SQL commands via the strItems parameter.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/08/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2004-1881 represents a critical SQL injection flaw within CactuShop 5.x web application software. This vulnerability specifically affects two key components of the shopping cart system including mailorder.asp and payonline.asp pages that handle customer order processing and payment transactions. The flaw stems from inadequate input validation and sanitization mechanisms that fail to properly filter malicious SQL commands embedded within user-supplied data. Attackers can exploit this weakness by manipulating the strItems parameter through HTTP requests, which then gets directly incorporated into database queries without proper escaping or parameterization. This vulnerability falls under the CWE-89 category of SQL Injection, which is classified as a serious weakness in software applications that allows attackers to manipulate database queries through untrusted input.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs when an attacker crafts malicious input containing SQL syntax within the strItems parameter value. When the vulnerable application processes this parameter, it concatenates the user input directly into SQL query strings without proper sanitization or parameter binding. This allows attackers to inject additional SQL commands that can manipulate the database in unintended ways. The impact extends beyond simple data retrieval to potentially enable full database compromise including data modification, deletion, or unauthorized access to sensitive customer information stored within the application's backend database. The vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it affects core transactional pages that handle payment processing and order management, making it attractive to attackers seeking to exploit financial data or disrupt business operations.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability creates significant risk for online retailers using CactuShop 5.x systems as it exposes customer payment information, order details, and personal data to potential compromise. The remote nature of the attack means that threat actors can exploit this vulnerability from anywhere on the internet without requiring physical access to the system or network. This vulnerability directly maps to several ATT&CK techniques including T1190 for exploitation of remote services and T1071.004 for application layer protocol usage. Organizations running affected versions of CactuShop face potential regulatory compliance violations under data protection laws such as GDPR or PCI DSS due to the exposure of sensitive customer information. The attack surface is particularly broad as these pages are typically accessible to all users during the checkout process, making the vulnerability difficult to detect and prevent through traditional network monitoring.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability should include immediate implementation of proper input validation and parameterized queries to prevent SQL injection attacks. Organizations should ensure that all user-supplied input undergoes strict sanitization and that database interactions utilize prepared statements or parameterized queries rather than string concatenation. The recommended fix involves updating to a patched version of CactuShop 5.x or implementing web application firewalls that can detect and block malicious SQL injection attempts. Security teams should also conduct comprehensive code reviews to identify similar vulnerabilities in other application components and implement proper error handling that does not expose database structure information to users. Additionally, network segmentation and access controls should be implemented to limit exposure of vulnerable application components, while regular security assessments should be performed to detect other potential attack vectors within the application ecosystem. The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of input validation and proper database query construction in preventing data breaches and maintaining customer trust in e-commerce platforms.