CVE-2005-1838 in Liberum Help Desk
Summary
by MITRE
Multiple cross-site scripting vulnerabilities in castnewPost.asp in Liberum Help Desk 0.97.3 allow remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via the (1) Email, (2) Title, or (3) Description fields.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/23/2017
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2005-1838 represents a critical cross-site scripting flaw in the Liberum Help Desk 0.97.3 web application. This issue affects the castnewPost.asp component which processes user input through three distinct fields including Email, Title, and Description. The vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and output encoding mechanisms within the application's web interface, creating an attack vector that enables remote malicious actors to execute arbitrary web scripts or HTML code within the context of other users' browsers.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs when attackers submit malicious payloads through the vulnerable input fields, which are then stored and subsequently rendered without proper sanitization or encoding. This allows attackers to inject HTML tags, javascript code, or other malicious content that executes in the victim's browser when they view the affected content. The vulnerability specifically targets the application's handling of user-supplied data, where the Email, Title, and Description fields fail to implement adequate security controls to prevent injection attacks. The flaw is classified under CWE-79 as "Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')", which is a fundamental web application security weakness that has been consistently documented in the OWASP Top Ten as a critical threat vector.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data corruption or theft, as it enables attackers to perform session hijacking, deface web applications, steal sensitive user information, or redirect users to malicious websites. When exploited, the vulnerability can lead to complete compromise of user sessions and unauthorized access to sensitive help desk data. The attack surface is particularly concerning given that help desk applications typically contain sensitive information about users, organizations, and their operations, making this vulnerability a prime target for attackers seeking to exploit enterprise web applications. This weakness directly aligns with ATT&CK technique T1531 for "Account Access Removal" and T1071.001 for "Application Layer Protocol: Web Protocols", demonstrating how XSS vulnerabilities can be leveraged to achieve broader attack objectives beyond simple script execution.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2005-1838 require immediate implementation of input validation and output encoding controls within the Liberum Help Desk application. Organizations should implement proper HTML escaping and sanitization of all user-supplied input before rendering it in web pages, ensuring that special characters are properly encoded to prevent script execution. The recommended approach involves implementing a whitelist-based input validation mechanism that only accepts expected character patterns and lengths, combined with output encoding that converts potentially dangerous characters into their safe HTML equivalents. Additionally, developers should implement Content Security Policy headers to limit the sources from which scripts can be loaded and executed. Regular security updates and patches should be applied to ensure the application remains protected against known vulnerabilities, with the specific fix addressing the input handling in castnewPost.asp to prevent unauthorized code injection through the Email, Title, and Description fields.