CVE-2007-5952 in Calendar
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in admin/index.php in Helios Calendar 1.2.1 Beta allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via the username parameter. NOTE: the provenance of this information is unknown; the details are obtained solely from third party information.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/08/2025
The vulnerability described in CVE-2007-5952 represents a classic cross-site scripting flaw within the Helios Calendar 1.2.1 Beta web application. This security weakness exists in the administrative interface at the admin/index.php endpoint where user input is not properly sanitized or validated before being processed and displayed. The specific parameter exploited is the username field, which serves as an entry point for malicious actors to inject arbitrary web scripts or HTML content into the application's response. This type of vulnerability falls under the category of reflected cross-site scripting as the malicious payload is executed when a victim accesses a specially crafted URL containing the injected script. The vulnerability's impact is significant because it affects the administrative interface, potentially allowing attackers to gain unauthorized access to sensitive system functions or steal administrative credentials through session hijacking techniques.
The technical implementation of this flaw demonstrates a failure in input validation and output encoding practices that are fundamental to preventing XSS attacks. When the username parameter is submitted to the admin/index.php script, the application directly incorporates this input into the HTML response without proper sanitization or encoding mechanisms. This creates an environment where malicious JavaScript code can be executed within the context of other users' browsers who visit the affected page. The vulnerability's classification aligns with CWE-79 which specifically addresses Cross-Site Scripting flaws in web applications. The attack vector relies on the principle that user-supplied data should never be trusted and must always be properly escaped or encoded before being rendered in web pages to prevent execution of unintended code.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents a substantial risk to the security posture of systems running Helios Calendar 1.2.1 Beta. An attacker could exploit this weakness to perform various malicious activities including stealing session cookies to impersonate administrators, redirecting users to phishing sites, defacing the calendar application, or even executing more sophisticated attacks through browser-based exploits. The administrative interface access provides potential attackers with elevated privileges that could lead to complete system compromise. This vulnerability also aligns with ATT&CK technique T1566 which covers social engineering tactics through malicious web content, and T1071 which involves application layer protocol usage for command and control communications. The impact extends beyond immediate exploitation as it undermines user trust in the calendar system and could facilitate broader attacks within the network infrastructure.
The remediation strategy for this vulnerability requires immediate implementation of proper input validation and output encoding measures. Developers should implement strict input sanitization routines that filter or escape special characters in user-supplied data before processing. The application must employ proper HTML encoding techniques when displaying user input in web responses, converting potentially dangerous characters such as <, >, &, ", and ' into their respective HTML entities. Additionally, implementing Content Security Policy headers can provide an additional layer of protection against XSS attacks by restricting the sources from which scripts can be loaded. Security patches or updates should be applied immediately to address this vulnerability, and organizations should conduct comprehensive security assessments of their web applications to identify similar input validation weaknesses. The fix should also include implementing proper access controls and authentication mechanisms to limit the exposure of administrative interfaces to unauthorized users, thereby reducing the attack surface for such vulnerabilities.