CVE-2010-4667 in Photo Gallery
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Coppermine Photo Gallery (CPG) before 1.4.27 allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via unspecified vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/29/2018
The CVE-2010-4667 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site scripting flaw discovered in Coppermine Photo Gallery version 1.4.26 and earlier, which was widely deployed in web environments for photo gallery management. This vulnerability falls under the Common Weakness Enumeration category CWE-79, which specifically addresses improper neutralization of input during web page generation, making it a classic example of client-side injection vulnerability. The flaw existed in the application's handling of user-supplied input that was not properly sanitized or escaped before being rendered in web pages, creating an exploitable condition that could be leveraged by remote attackers without requiring authentication or privileged access.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and output encoding mechanisms within the Coppermine Photo Gallery framework. Attackers could exploit this weakness by crafting malicious input through unspecified vectors that would be processed by the application and subsequently rendered in web pages viewed by other users. This typically involved injecting malicious JavaScript code or HTML content through parameters that were intended for legitimate user-generated content such as comments, photo titles, or other user-facing fields. The vulnerability's impact was particularly severe because it allowed attackers to execute arbitrary scripts in the context of victims' browsers, potentially leading to session hijacking, credential theft, or redirection to malicious sites.
The operational impact of CVE-2010-4667 extended beyond simple data theft or defacement, as it provided attackers with persistent access to user sessions and potentially sensitive information stored within the photo gallery environment. Users who viewed compromised pages could have their browser sessions hijacked, leading to unauthorized access to personal accounts, and in some cases, the vulnerability could be exploited to deliver malware payloads or establish persistent backdoors through the compromised gallery installations. The widespread adoption of Coppermine Photo Gallery made this vulnerability particularly dangerous, as it could affect numerous websites and web applications that had not yet updated to the patched version.
Security professionals should have implemented immediate mitigations upon discovery of this vulnerability, including mandatory upgrades to Coppermine Photo Gallery version 1.4.27 or later, which contained the necessary patches to address the XSS flaw. Additionally, administrators should have implemented proper input validation and output encoding measures, such as implementing Content Security Policy headers and ensuring that all user-supplied data was properly escaped before rendering in web pages. The vulnerability highlighted the importance of maintaining up-to-date software versions and implementing robust web application security practices, aligning with ATT&CK technique T1566 for initial access through malicious web content and T1071 for application layer protocols. Organizations should have also considered implementing web application firewalls to provide additional protection against similar vulnerabilities and established monitoring procedures to detect potential exploitation attempts. The incident underscored the critical need for regular security assessments and the implementation of secure coding practices to prevent such vulnerabilities from being introduced into web applications in the first place.