CVE-2012-1564 in YVS Image Gallery
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in administration/create_album.php in YVS Image Gallery allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via unspecified vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/05/2018
The CVE-2012-1564 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site scripting flaw within the YVS Image Gallery administrative component, specifically in the administration/create_album.php script. This vulnerability classifies under CWE-79 which defines improper neutralization of input during web page generation, making it a fundamental web application security weakness that enables attackers to execute malicious scripts in the context of victim users. The vulnerability exists in the administrative interface of the image gallery system, indicating that it targets privileged users who have access to create albums, thereby potentially compromising the entire administrative functionality of the application.
The technical exploitation of this XSS vulnerability occurs through unspecified vectors that allow remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML code into the create_album.php page. This injection point represents a classic reflected XSS vulnerability where malicious input is processed by the server and subsequently reflected back to users without proper sanitization or encoding. The vulnerability's impact is amplified because it resides in the administrative section of the application, potentially allowing attackers to gain elevated privileges, manipulate gallery content, or redirect users to malicious sites. Attackers can craft specially crafted payloads that when processed by the vulnerable script will execute in the browser context of legitimate users who visit affected pages.
The operational impact of CVE-2012-1564 extends beyond simple script injection, as it can enable attackers to perform various malicious activities including session hijacking, credential theft, and data exfiltration. When an administrator or authorized user accesses the vulnerable create_album.php page, any malicious script injected through the XSS vector will execute within their browser session, potentially compromising their authentication tokens and administrative privileges. The vulnerability also aligns with ATT&CK technique T1059.007 which covers scripting through web shells, and T1566 which addresses social engineering via malicious links. This makes the vulnerability particularly dangerous in environments where administrative users frequently access the application and are susceptible to phishing attacks or malicious link delivery.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability should focus on implementing comprehensive input validation and output encoding mechanisms throughout the application. The primary defense involves sanitizing all user inputs before processing them in the create_album.php script, utilizing proper HTML encoding techniques such as htmlspecialchars() or equivalent functions to prevent script execution. Additionally, implementing Content Security Policy (CSP) headers can provide an additional layer of protection by restricting the sources from which scripts can be loaded. The application should also enforce strict input validation on all parameters passed to the administrative interface, ensuring that no malicious code can be injected through the unspecified vectors. Regular security audits and code reviews should be conducted to identify similar vulnerabilities in other administrative components, as this flaw demonstrates the importance of securing all user input handling mechanisms within web applications. Organizations should also implement proper access controls and monitoring to detect unauthorized access attempts to administrative functions, as this vulnerability could serve as an initial foothold for more extensive attacks against the system.