CVE-2006-3131 in Clubpage
Summary
by MITRE
Multiple cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities in Clubpage allow remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via the (1) news_archive, (2) language, and (3) intranetLogin parameters in (a) index.php; the (4) sites_id parameter in (b) sites.php; and the (5) news_id parameter in (c) news_more.php.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/17/2017
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2006-3131 represents a critical cross-site scripting flaw in the Clubpage web application that exposes multiple attack vectors through various parameter inputs. This vulnerability falls under the CWE-79 category of Cross-Site Scripting, which is classified as a fundamental web application security weakness that allows attackers to inject malicious scripts into web pages viewed by other users. The affected application appears to be a content management system or web portal that handles news archives, language selection, and internal login functionalities, making it a prime target for attackers seeking to compromise user sessions or redirect traffic.
Multiple entry points within the Clubpage application demonstrate the breadth of this vulnerability across different PHP scripts including index.php, sites.php, and news_more.php. The attack vectors specifically target parameters such as news_archive, language, intranetLogin, sites_id, and news_id which are processed without adequate input validation or output encoding. These parameters are directly incorporated into web responses without proper sanitization, creating opportunities for attackers to inject malicious JavaScript code or HTML content that executes in the context of other users' browsers. The vulnerability affects the core functionality of the application by allowing unauthorized manipulation of content delivery and user experience.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple script injection, as it enables attackers to perform session hijacking, defacement of web pages, and redirection to malicious sites. When users browse pages containing malicious scripts injected through these parameters, their browsers execute the attacker-controlled code, potentially leading to theft of session cookies, credential harvesting, or redirection to phishing sites. The vulnerability's presence in multiple scripts indicates a systemic lack of input validation across the application, suggesting that the development team failed to implement consistent security measures throughout the codebase. This type of vulnerability commonly maps to ATT&CK technique T1566.001 for initial access through malicious web content, and T1059.007 for command and control through script injection.
The exploitation of these vulnerabilities requires minimal technical skill and can be accomplished through simple parameter manipulation in URLs, making it particularly dangerous for widespread impact. Attackers can craft malicious URLs with encoded script payloads that, when visited by unsuspecting users, execute the injected code in their browser context. The vulnerability's persistence across multiple scripts suggests that the application uses a common input handling pattern that fails to properly sanitize user-supplied data before rendering it in web responses. Security practitioners should consider implementing comprehensive input validation, output encoding, and context-aware sanitization measures across all user-controllable parameters. The remediation approach should focus on implementing proper parameter validation and ensuring that all user-supplied inputs are treated as untrusted data that requires sanitization before being incorporated into web responses.