CVE-2005-2623 in ECW-Shop
Summary
by MITRE
ECW-Shop 6.0.2 allows remote attackers to reduce the total cost of their shopping cart by specifying a negative quantity for an item, which causes the price of the item to be subtracted from the total cost.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/10/2018
The vulnerability described in CVE-2005-2623 represents a critical pricing manipulation flaw within the ECW-Shop 6.0.2 e-commerce platform that directly impacts financial transaction integrity. This vulnerability falls under the category of input validation failures and specifically demonstrates a lack of proper sanitization and validation of user-supplied data within the shopping cart functionality. The issue stems from the application's failure to properly validate quantity inputs, allowing malicious actors to exploit a mathematical calculation error that results in unintended financial consequences.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability occurs when a remote attacker manipulates the quantity parameter of shopping cart items by submitting negative values. This allows the system to perform mathematical operations that subtract item prices from the total cart value instead of adding them, effectively creating a pricing manipulation mechanism. The flaw exists at the application logic level where the software does not properly validate that quantity values must be positive integers or zero before performing pricing calculations. This represents a classic example of a business logic vulnerability that can be categorized under CWE-191 Integer Underflow and CWE-20 Improper Input Validation.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple financial loss to encompass broader security implications for e-commerce transactions. Attackers can exploit this flaw to generate negative charges, effectively receiving money from the merchant for items they purchase, or manipulate existing cart totals to reduce their financial obligations. This type of vulnerability directly violates the principle of least privilege and can be classified under ATT&CK technique T1078 Valid Accounts, as it leverages normal shopping cart functionality to achieve unauthorized financial gain. The vulnerability also represents a failure in the principle of defense in depth, as multiple layers of validation should have prevented such manipulation.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability should focus on implementing comprehensive input validation at multiple levels within the application architecture. The primary solution involves enforcing strict validation of quantity parameters to ensure they are positive integers or zero, with proper error handling for invalid inputs. This includes implementing server-side validation that cannot be bypassed by client-side manipulation, as well as establishing proper business logic controls that validate the mathematical integrity of cart calculations. Organizations should also implement logging and monitoring of cart modifications to detect unusual patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of proper data validation and business rule enforcement in financial applications, aligning with industry best practices outlined in OWASP Top Ten and PCI DSS requirements for secure e-commerce transactions.