CVE-2006-3233 in Open WebMail
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in openwebmail-read.pl in Open WebMail (OWM) 2.52, and other versions released before 06/18/2006, allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via the from field. NOTE: some third party sources have mentioned the "to" and "from" fields, although CVE analysis shows that these are associated with the previous version, a different executable, and a different CVE.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/17/2017
The vulnerability described in CVE-2006-3233 represents a classic cross-site scripting flaw that affected Open WebMail version 2.52 and earlier releases. This security weakness resides within the openwebmail-read.pl script, which processes email reading functionality within the Open WebMail web application. The vulnerability specifically manifests when user input from the from field is not properly sanitized before being rendered back to the browser, creating an opportunity for malicious actors to execute arbitrary code within the context of other users' sessions.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs through the manipulation of the from field in email messages, where attackers can inject malicious javascript code or html markup that gets executed when other users view the affected email. This type of vulnerability falls under the CWE-79 category of Cross-site Scripting, which is one of the most prevalent web application security flaws. The flaw demonstrates a failure in input validation and output encoding, where the application does not adequately sanitize user-supplied data before incorporating it into dynamically generated web content. The vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it leverages the trust relationship between users and the webmail application, allowing attackers to potentially steal session cookies, redirect users to malicious sites, or perform actions on behalf of authenticated users.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability creates significant security risks for organizations using Open WebMail versions prior to the 06/18/2006 release. The attack vector is relatively simple to exploit, requiring only that an attacker can send an email with malicious content to a victim who subsequently views the email in the vulnerable webmail interface. This creates a persistent threat that can affect multiple users within an organization, potentially leading to credential theft, unauthorized access to sensitive information, or the compromise of entire user accounts. The vulnerability also aligns with ATT&CK technique T1566 which describes the use of social engineering to deliver malicious payloads through email communications.
The remediation approach for this vulnerability involves implementing proper input validation and output encoding mechanisms within the openwebmail-read.pl script. Organizations should ensure that all user-supplied data from email fields is properly escaped or sanitized before being rendered in the browser context. This typically involves implementing strict validation of input parameters and applying appropriate encoding techniques such as html entity encoding for data that will be displayed in web pages. The vulnerability was addressed in subsequent releases of Open WebMail, emphasizing the importance of keeping web applications updated with the latest security patches. Security practitioners should also consider implementing additional protective measures such as content security policies and regular security assessments to identify and remediate similar vulnerabilities in web applications.