CVE-2006-3661 in CuteNews
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Index.PHP in CuteNews 1.4.5 allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via unknown vectors. NOTE: the provenance of this information is unknown; the details are obtained from third party information.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/31/2018
The CVE-2006-3661 vulnerability represents a classic cross-site scripting flaw discovered in CuteNews version 1.4.5's Index.PHP component. This vulnerability classifies under CWE-79 as an improper neutralization of input during web page generation, making it a critical web application security weakness that has persisted across many software platforms since its initial discovery. The vulnerability exists within the web application's input handling mechanism where user-supplied data is not properly sanitized before being rendered in web pages, creating an opportunity for malicious actors to inject executable code into the application's response.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs through the injection of malicious scripts or HTML content into the Index.PHP file, which serves as the primary entry point for the CuteNews application. Attackers can leverage this weakness by crafting specially formatted input that gets processed and displayed without proper validation or encoding, allowing them to execute arbitrary code within the context of other users' browsers. This type of vulnerability falls under the ATT&CK technique T1059.007 for Command and Scripting Interpreter and T1566.001 for Phishing, as it enables attackers to deliver malicious payloads that can compromise user sessions and exfiltrate sensitive data.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple script injection, as it provides attackers with the capability to hijack user sessions, steal cookies, redirect users to malicious sites, or perform actions on behalf of authenticated users. Given that CuteNews was a widely used content management system in the mid-2000s, this vulnerability could have affected numerous websites and applications that relied on the platform for content management. The vulnerability's persistence in older versions of web applications demonstrates the importance of regular security updates and proper input validation practices, as many organizations failed to patch this flaw in a timely manner, leaving their systems exposed to persistent attacks.
Organizations can mitigate this vulnerability through several defensive measures including implementing proper input validation and output encoding mechanisms, applying security patches immediately upon release, and conducting regular security assessments of web applications. The vulnerability's classification as a persistent security weakness emphasizes the need for comprehensive security practices including regular code reviews, implementation of web application firewalls, and adherence to secure coding standards such as those outlined in the OWASP Top Ten. Additionally, the use of Content Security Policy headers can provide an additional layer of protection against XSS attacks by restricting the sources from which scripts can be loaded, thereby reducing the impact of successful exploitation attempts.