CVE-2008-1176 in Affiliate Market
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in function/sideblock.php in Affiliate Market (affmarket) 0.1 BETA allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via the sideblock4 parameter.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/17/2024
The CVE-2008-1176 vulnerability represents a classic cross-site scripting flaw within the Affiliate Market 0.1 BETA web application, specifically targeting the function/sideblock.php component. This vulnerability falls under the CWE-79 category of Cross-Site Scripting, which is one of the most prevalent and well-documented web application security weaknesses. The flaw manifests when the application fails to properly sanitize user input passed through the sideblock4 parameter, creating an avenue for malicious actors to inject arbitrary HTML or JavaScript code into the web application's output.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and output encoding mechanisms within the sideblock.php script. When the application processes the sideblock4 parameter without adequate sanitization, it directly incorporates user-supplied data into the web page response without proper HTML escaping or encoding. This allows an attacker to craft malicious payloads that execute within the context of other users' browsers when they view the affected page. The vulnerability is particularly concerning because it operates at the presentation layer, where user-generated content is rendered, making it difficult to distinguish between legitimate and malicious content.
Operationally, this XSS vulnerability poses significant risks to both the application and its users. An attacker could exploit this weakness to steal session cookies, redirect users to malicious websites, deface the application interface, or perform actions on behalf of authenticated users. The impact extends beyond simple data theft, as the vulnerability could enable more sophisticated attacks such as credential harvesting, privilege escalation, or even the deployment of malware through browser-based exploitation techniques. Given that this affects a beta version of the Affiliate Market application, it represents a critical security gap that could compromise the entire user base and potentially the underlying business operations.
The remediation strategy for CVE-2008-1176 requires immediate implementation of proper input validation and output encoding practices. Developers should sanitize all user-supplied parameters, particularly those used in dynamic content generation, by implementing strict input validation that rejects or removes potentially malicious characters. The solution involves applying HTML entity encoding to all output that includes user-provided data, ensuring that special characters such as <, >, &, ", and ' are properly escaped before rendering. Additionally, implementing Content Security Policy (CSP) headers can provide an additional layer of protection against XSS attacks. Organizations should also consider adopting secure coding practices aligned with OWASP Top Ten recommendations and establish comprehensive testing procedures including dynamic application security testing to identify similar vulnerabilities in other components. The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of input validation and output encoding in preventing XSS attacks, which aligns with ATT&CK technique T1059.001 for command and scripting interpreters and T1566 for malicious file execution through web interfaces.