CVE-2005-2780 in Land Down Under
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Land Down Under (LDU) allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via a signature.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/09/2019
The CVE-2005-2780 vulnerability represents a classic cross-site scripting flaw discovered in the Land Down Under (LDU) web application. This vulnerability falls under the CWE-79 category, which specifically addresses improper neutralization of input during web page generation, making it a fundamental web security weakness that has persisted across numerous applications throughout the years. The LDU application, designed for collaborative work environments, failed to properly sanitize user input when processing signature data, creating an exploitable condition that could be leveraged by malicious actors to execute arbitrary code within the context of other users' browsers.
The technical mechanism behind this vulnerability involves the application's insufficient validation and sanitization of signature parameters submitted by users. When users entered data into signature fields, the LDU application stored this information without adequate filtering or encoding, allowing malicious script code to be embedded within the signature content. Attackers could craft specially formatted signatures containing javascript payloads or html code that would be executed when other users viewed the affected signatures. This occurs because the application fails to implement proper output encoding or input validation mechanisms that would prevent the execution of malicious code in the browser context.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data corruption or display issues, as it creates a persistent threat vector that can be exploited for various malicious activities. Remote attackers could leverage this vulnerability to steal session cookies, perform unauthorized actions on behalf of victims, redirect users to malicious websites, or even install malware through browser-based attacks. The vulnerability particularly affects collaborative environments where users trust the content generated by their colleagues, making the attack surface more extensive as victims may not suspect malicious content within seemingly legitimate signature fields. This type of vulnerability is classified under the ATT&CK framework as T1059.007 for scripting and T1566.001 for spearphishing with a link, demonstrating how such flaws can serve as initial access vectors in broader attack chains.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2005-2780 should focus on implementing comprehensive input validation and output encoding mechanisms throughout the application's data flow. Organizations should deploy proper sanitization routines that strip or encode potentially dangerous characters and script tags from user inputs before storing or rendering them. The application should implement Content Security Policy headers to prevent execution of unauthorized scripts and utilize proper HTML encoding when displaying user-generated content. Additionally, regular security audits and input validation testing should be conducted to identify similar vulnerabilities in other application components. This vulnerability underscores the importance of defense-in-depth approaches to web application security and the necessity of treating all user inputs as potentially malicious, as recommended by the OWASP Top Ten project and the NIST Cybersecurity Framework. The remediation process requires careful attention to ensure that all signature handling components are properly validated while maintaining the application's intended functionality for legitimate users.