CVE-2011-1404 in Mahara
Summary
by MITRE
Mahara before 1.3.6 does not properly restrict the data in responses to AJAX calls, which allows remote authenticated users to obtain sensitive information via a request associated with (1) blocktype/myfriends/myfriends.json.php, (2) json/usersearch.php, (3) group/membersearchresults.json.php, or (4) json/friendsearch.php, as demonstrated by information about friends and e-mail addresses.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/07/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2011-1404 affects Mahara versions prior to 1.3.6 and represents a critical information disclosure flaw within the application's AJAX response handling mechanisms. This vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and output sanitization processes that govern how the system responds to asynchronous requests. The flaw specifically manifests in four distinct endpoints that process JSON responses for user-related data operations, creating multiple attack vectors for authenticated adversaries to exploit. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-200, which deals with information exposure, and aligns with ATT&CK technique T1213.002 for data from information repositories, highlighting the systemic nature of the information leakage issue.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability involves the application's failure to properly restrict or filter sensitive data within AJAX responses that are designed to provide user interface functionality. When authenticated users make requests to the specified endpoints, the system returns complete or partially filtered data structures that contain personal information including friend relationships and email addresses. This occurs because the application's response handlers do not adequately validate or sanitize the data before serialization into JSON format for transmission. The flaw essentially allows an attacker to bypass normal access controls and retrieve information that should be restricted to authorized users within the application's permission model.
Operationally, this vulnerability creates significant risk for Mahara installations as it enables authenticated attackers to gather sensitive personal information about other users within the system. The impact extends beyond simple data exposure since the leaked information includes social network relationships and contact details that could be used for social engineering attacks, phishing campaigns, or identity theft. Attackers could systematically enumerate user data across the application's friend and membership systems, building comprehensive profiles of users' social connections and organizational relationships. This information disclosure could compromise user privacy and potentially lead to cascading security issues within the broader user community.
The mitigation strategy for CVE-2011-1404 requires immediate application patching to version 1.3.6 or later, which contains the necessary fixes for the AJAX response handling logic. Organizations should implement comprehensive input validation and output filtering mechanisms across all AJAX endpoints to ensure that only appropriate data is returned in response to user requests. Security teams should conduct thorough code reviews of all JSON response handlers and implement proper access control checks before data serialization. Additionally, organizations should consider implementing rate limiting and monitoring mechanisms to detect unusual patterns of data requests that might indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability demonstrates the importance of maintaining secure coding practices in web applications and the critical need for proper data sanitization in API and AJAX response handling components.