CVE-2011-5190 in Social Book Facebook Clone Monster
Summary
by MITRE
Multiple cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities in Social Book Facebook Clone 2010 allow remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via the PATH_INFO parameter to (1) signup.php, (2) lostpass.php, (3) login.php, (4) index.php, (5) help_tos.php, (6) help_contact.php, or (7) help.php.
Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/05/2018
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2011-5190 represents a critical cross-site scripting flaw affecting the Social Book Facebook Clone 2010 web application. This vulnerability resides in the application's handling of user input through the PATH_INFO parameter, which is a server variable containing additional path information beyond the script name. The flaw affects seven distinct PHP endpoints including signup.php, lostpass.php, login.php, index.php, help_tos.php, help_contact.php, and help.php, indicating a systemic issue in the application's input validation and output sanitization mechanisms.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs when remote attackers manipulate the PATH_INFO parameter to inject malicious script code into the web application's response. This injection typically targets the application's user interface elements where user-provided data is displayed without proper sanitization or encoding. The vulnerability classifies under CWE-79, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Scripting flaws, where the application fails to properly validate or encode user-controllable data before incorporating it into dynamically generated HTML content. The PATH_INFO parameter manipulation allows attackers to bypass standard input validation mechanisms that typically protect against such attacks by directly injecting malicious payloads into the server's path information.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data theft or defacement. Attackers can leverage these XSS flaws to establish persistent malicious sessions, steal user authentication tokens, redirect victims to malicious websites, or perform actions on behalf of authenticated users. The widespread nature of the vulnerability across multiple application endpoints increases the attack surface significantly, as users can be compromised regardless of which page they interact with during their session. This vulnerability directly aligns with ATT&CK technique T1059.007 for Command and Scripting Interpreter: JavaScript, where adversaries exploit web application vulnerabilities to execute malicious JavaScript code in the victim's browser context. The persistence of these vulnerabilities in a social networking application clone creates a particularly dangerous scenario where attackers can compromise user accounts and potentially spread malicious payloads to other users within the social network.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require comprehensive input validation and output encoding practices throughout the application. The most effective immediate solution involves implementing proper HTML entity encoding for all user-controllable data before rendering it in web pages, particularly when handling PATH_INFO parameters. Applications should employ a whitelist-based input validation approach that strictly defines acceptable characters and formats for all incoming data, rather than relying on blacklisting techniques that can be easily bypassed. Additionally, developers should implement Content Security Policy headers to limit the sources from which scripts can be executed, providing an additional layer of protection against XSS attacks. The application should also utilize secure session management practices and implement proper error handling that does not expose internal application details to end users. Regular security code reviews and automated scanning should be conducted to identify similar vulnerabilities in other application components, as this vulnerability demonstrates a pattern of insufficient input sanitization that may exist elsewhere in the codebase.