CVE-2012-2041 in ColdFusion
Summary
by MITRE
CRLF injection vulnerability in the Component Browser in Adobe ColdFusion 8.0 through 9.0.1 allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary HTTP headers and conduct HTTP response splitting attacks via unspecified vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/02/2025
The CVE-2012-2041 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site scripting and response splitting flaw within Adobe ColdFusion's Component Browser functionality. This vulnerability affects versions 8.0 through 9.0.1 of the ColdFusion application server, which is widely deployed in enterprise environments for web application development and deployment. The Component Browser serves as an administrative interface that allows developers to manage and inspect ColdFusion components, making it a prime target for attackers seeking to exploit server-side vulnerabilities. The flaw specifically resides in how the Component Browser processes user input without proper sanitization, creating opportunities for malicious actors to inject carriage return line feed sequences that can manipulate HTTP headers.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and sanitization within the ColdFusion server's HTTP response handling mechanisms. When user-supplied data is processed through the Component Browser interface, the application fails to properly escape or filter special characters including carriage return and line feed sequences. Attackers can exploit this weakness by crafting malicious input that includes CRLF sequences, typically encoded as %0D%0A or \r\n, which are then interpreted by the HTTP response parser. This injection allows threat actors to insert arbitrary HTTP headers into the server's response, effectively enabling HTTP response splitting attacks where multiple HTTP responses can be concatenated into a single response.
The operational impact of CVE-2012-2041 extends far beyond simple data manipulation, presenting attackers with significant opportunities for advanced persistent threats and session hijacking. Successful exploitation can enable attackers to perform session fixation attacks, manipulate cookies, redirect users to malicious sites, or inject malicious content into web responses. The vulnerability particularly affects applications that rely on ColdFusion's built-in security features and authentication mechanisms, as attackers can bypass certain security controls by manipulating HTTP headers. Organizations running affected ColdFusion versions face risks of data exfiltration, privilege escalation, and complete server compromise, especially when the Component Browser is accessible to unauthenticated users or when it's used in conjunction with other vulnerabilities.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including applying the latest security patches from Adobe, which address the input validation issues in the Component Browser. Network segmentation and access controls should be enforced to limit access to the Component Browser interface to authorized administrative users only. Additionally, implementing web application firewalls and HTTP header sanitization rules can help detect and prevent CRLF injection attempts. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-113, which specifically addresses improper neutralization of CRLF sequences in HTTP headers, and maps to ATT&CK technique T1190 for exploiting vulnerabilities in web applications. Regular security assessments and input validation testing should be conducted to ensure that similar vulnerabilities are not present in other components of the ColdFusion application stack, as this type of injection vulnerability often indicates broader issues with the application's security architecture and input handling mechanisms.