CVE-2011-4928 in Redmine
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the textile formatter in Redmine before 1.0.5 allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via unspecified vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/14/2021
The CVE-2011-4928 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site scripting flaw within Redmine's textile formatter component, affecting versions prior to 1.0.5. This vulnerability falls under the CWE-79 category, which specifically addresses cross-site scripting weaknesses in web applications. The textile formatter serves as a markup language processor that converts textile syntax into HTML, making it a crucial component for content rendering within the Redmine issue tracking system. The vulnerability's impact extends beyond simple content display issues as it enables attackers to inject malicious scripts that execute in the context of other users' browsers. This particular flaw is classified as a server-side XSS vulnerability since the malicious code is processed and executed on the server before being delivered to end users, making it particularly dangerous in collaborative environments where multiple users interact with shared content.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs through unspecified vectors within the textile formatter's input processing logic, which fails to properly sanitize user-supplied data before rendering it as HTML content. Attackers can craft malicious textile markup that, when processed by the vulnerable Redmine instance, gets converted into executable JavaScript within users' browsers. The vulnerability's severity is amplified by Redmine's widespread adoption in enterprise environments where project management and issue tracking data often contains sensitive information. When users view affected content, their browsers execute the injected scripts with the privileges of their authenticated sessions, potentially leading to session hijacking, data exfiltration, or privilege escalation. The lack of specific vector details in the original CVE description suggests that the vulnerability may manifest through multiple input points within the textile processing pipeline, including but not limited to issue descriptions, comments, wiki pages, or custom field values.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends far beyond simple script injection, as it fundamentally compromises the security model of Redmine installations. In typical enterprise deployments, Redmine serves as a central hub for project collaboration, making it a prime target for attackers seeking to gain persistent access to sensitive development environments. When exploited, the vulnerability allows attackers to steal session cookies, modify project data, or even execute commands on behalf of authenticated users. The attack surface is particularly broad since textile formatting is commonly used throughout Redmine's interface, from issue reports to wiki documentation, providing numerous entry points for exploitation. Organizations using Redmine for managing sensitive projects, source code repositories, or customer data face significant risk from this vulnerability, as successful exploitation could lead to complete compromise of the issue tracking system and potentially broader network access.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2011-4928 require immediate action to upgrade Redmine installations to version 1.0.5 or later, which contains the necessary patches to address the textile formatter vulnerability. Organizations should implement comprehensive input validation and output encoding mechanisms as additional defensive measures, ensuring that all user-supplied content undergoes proper sanitization before processing. Network segmentation and access controls can help limit the potential damage from successful exploitation attempts, while regular security monitoring and log analysis should be implemented to detect suspicious activities. The vulnerability's classification under ATT&CK technique T1566.001 emphasizes the importance of web application security controls and the need for regular vulnerability assessments. Security teams should also consider implementing content security policies and using web application firewalls to provide additional layers of protection against similar attacks. Regular security updates and patch management processes should be established to prevent future vulnerabilities of this nature from affecting the organization's Redmine deployments.