CVE-2011-1422 in RSA Adaptive Authentication On-Premise
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in an unspecified Shockwave Flash file in EMC RSA Adaptive Authentication On-Premise (AAOP) 2.x, 5.7.x, and 6.x allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via unknown vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/29/2018
The CVE-2011-1422 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site scripting flaw discovered in EMC RSA Adaptive Authentication On-Premise versions 2.x, 5.7.x, and 6.x, specifically within an unspecified Shockwave Flash file component. This vulnerability falls under the CWE-79 category of Cross-Site Scripting, which is one of the most prevalent and dangerous web application security flaws. The affected RSA AAOP platform serves as a comprehensive authentication solution designed to protect enterprise applications and services through multi-factor authentication and risk-based authentication decisions. The vulnerability exists within the Flash-based user interface components that handle authentication flows and user interactions, creating a potential attack vector that could be exploited by remote threat actors without requiring authentication or privileged access to the system.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and output encoding within the Flash file's handling of user-supplied data. When users interact with the authentication interface, the Flash component fails to properly sanitize or escape input parameters that are then rendered back to the browser context. This allows attackers to inject malicious JavaScript code or HTML content through unknown vectors that are not fully specified in the original vulnerability report. The Flash-based authentication mechanism likely processes user inputs, session identifiers, or configuration parameters without adequate sanitization, creating an environment where attacker-controlled data can be executed as part of the web page rendering process. This flaw is particularly concerning because Flash components often have elevated privileges and can access sensitive session information, potentially enabling attackers to hijack user sessions or escalate their privileges within the authentication system.
The operational impact of CVE-2011-1422 extends beyond simple data theft or defacement, as it creates a significant risk to the integrity and confidentiality of enterprise authentication systems. Attackers could leverage this vulnerability to steal user credentials, session tokens, or other sensitive authentication data from the RSA AAOP environment. The attack surface is particularly dangerous because the vulnerability affects core authentication functionality, potentially allowing threat actors to bypass authentication controls entirely and gain unauthorized access to protected enterprise applications and services. Additionally, the injected malicious scripts could redirect users to phishing sites, harvest additional sensitive information, or establish persistent backdoors within the authenticated environment. The widespread deployment of RSA AAOP across enterprise networks means that successful exploitation could impact multiple applications and systems that rely on the platform for authentication and access control.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should implement immediate mitigations including updating to patched versions of RSA AAOP where available, disabling Flash-based components if possible, and implementing web application firewalls to detect and block malicious script injection attempts. Network segmentation and monitoring solutions should be deployed to detect anomalous traffic patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability demonstrates the importance of secure coding practices in rich internet applications and highlights the risks associated with Flash-based components in enterprise security systems. Security teams should conduct thorough vulnerability assessments of all Flash-based components within their authentication infrastructure and consider migrating to modern, more secure authentication mechanisms that do not rely on deprecated technologies like Flash. This vulnerability also underscores the need for comprehensive input validation and output encoding practices as outlined in the OWASP Top Ten and MITRE ATT&CK framework's application security categories, particularly focusing on the execution of malicious code through web interfaces and session management weaknesses.