CVE-2008-4337 in Bitweaver
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Bitweaver 2.0.2 allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via the URL parameter to (1) edit.php and (2) list.php in articles/; (3) list_blogs.php and (4) rankings.php in blogs/; (5) calendar/index.php; (6) calendar.php, (7) index.php, and (8) list_events.php in events/; (9) index.php and (10) list_galleries.php in fisheye/; (11) liberty/list_content.php; (12) newsletters/edition.php; (13) pigeonholes/list.php; (14) recommends/index.php; (15) rss/index.php; (16) stars/index.php; (17) users/remind_password.php; (18) wiki/orphan_pages.php; and (19) stats/index.php, different vectors than CVE-2007-0526 and CVE-2005-4379. 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 • 10/09/2018
The vulnerability described in CVE-2008-4337 represents a critical cross-site scripting flaw within the Bitweaver content management system version 2.0.2. This security weakness enables remote attackers to execute malicious web scripts or HTML code through manipulated URL parameters, creating a significant risk for users interacting with the platform's various modules and components. The vulnerability affects multiple core functionality areas including articles, blogs, events, galleries, and user management systems, making it particularly dangerous due to its widespread impact across the application's feature set.
The technical implementation of this XSS vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and output sanitization mechanisms within the Bitweaver application's PHP scripts. Attackers can exploit the vulnerability by crafting malicious URLs containing script tags or other HTML content that gets reflected back to users without proper encoding or filtering. The affected files span across multiple directories including articles/, blogs/, events/, fisheye/, and various other modules, indicating that the flaw exists at the core input handling level rather than in isolated components. This widespread nature suggests that the vulnerability originates from common input processing functions that are reused throughout the application framework.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability poses severe risks to both administrators and end users of the Bitweaver platform. An attacker could potentially steal session cookies, redirect users to malicious websites, deface web pages, or execute unauthorized actions on behalf of authenticated users. The impact extends beyond simple data theft to include potential privilege escalation and persistent malicious content injection across multiple modules. Given that the vulnerability affects core functionality like user password reminders, calendar management, and content listing pages, it could enable attackers to compromise user accounts, manipulate content, or disrupt normal platform operations.
The security implications of this vulnerability align with CWE-79, which specifically addresses cross-site scripting flaws in software applications. This classification indicates that the weakness allows attackers to inject malicious scripts into web pages viewed by other users, creating a persistent threat vector. The vulnerability's presence in multiple modules also suggests potential alignment with ATT&CK technique T1566, which covers the exploitation of web application vulnerabilities for initial access or privilege escalation. Organizations utilizing Bitweaver 2.0.2 should consider implementing comprehensive input validation, output encoding, and proper parameter sanitization across all affected scripts to mitigate this risk.
Mitigation strategies should focus on implementing robust input validation mechanisms at all entry points where user-supplied data is processed, particularly in the identified PHP files. Web application firewalls can provide additional protection layers, while regular security audits should verify that all input handling functions properly encode or sanitize user data before rendering in web responses. The affected modules should be updated with proper HTML entity encoding for all output, and developers should implement Content Security Policy headers to limit script execution capabilities. Additionally, users should be educated about the risks of clicking untrusted links, and regular security updates should be implemented to address similar vulnerabilities that may exist in older versions of the platform.