CVE-2012-4497 in Elegant Theme
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the "3 slide gallery" in the Elegant Theme module 7.x-1.x before 7.x-1.0 for Drupal allows remote authenticated users with the "administer themes" permission to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via a slide URL.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/05/2018
The CVE-2012-4497 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site scripting flaw within the Elegant Theme module for Drupal 7.x-1.x versions prior to 7.x-1.0. This vulnerability specifically affects the "3 slide gallery" component of the theme module and demonstrates how seemingly innocuous administrative features can become vectors for sophisticated attacks. The flaw arises from inadequate input validation and sanitization of user-supplied data within the slide URL parameter, creating an exploitable condition that can be leveraged by malicious actors with specific privileges.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from the module's failure to properly sanitize user input when processing slide URLs within the gallery component. When an authenticated user with the "administer themes" permission submits a malicious URL containing script code or HTML content, the system fails to validate or escape the input before rendering it in the web page context. This allows attackers to inject arbitrary web scripts or HTML code that executes in the browsers of other users who view the affected gallery. The vulnerability operates as a reflected XSS attack, where the malicious payload is stored and then executed when the gallery is rendered to end users. This flaw directly maps to CWE-79, which defines Cross-Site Scripting as a weakness where untrusted data is sent to a web browser without proper validation or escaping.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is significant for Drupal installations using the affected Elegant Theme module. Attackers with minimal privileges can leverage this flaw to compromise the security of entire websites by executing malicious scripts in the context of other users' browsers. This could enable session hijacking, credential theft, defacement of website content, or redirection to malicious sites. The vulnerability is particularly concerning because it requires only the "administer themes" permission, which is often granted to trusted site administrators, making it accessible to users who should normally be considered legitimate. Once exploited, the attack can potentially escalate to broader system compromise, especially if the compromised user has elevated privileges within the Drupal environment.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability should prioritize immediate patching of the affected Elegant Theme module to version 7.x-1.0 or later, which contains the necessary input validation fixes. Organizations should also implement proper input sanitization measures and output encoding for all user-supplied content within theme components. Security monitoring should be enhanced to detect suspicious administrative activities, and access controls should be carefully reviewed to ensure that only necessary users have the "administer themes" permission. Additionally, implementing content security policies can provide additional defense-in-depth measures against XSS attacks. This vulnerability highlights the importance of validating all user inputs and adhering to secure coding practices as outlined in the OWASP Top Ten and NIST cybersecurity guidelines, particularly addressing the ATT&CK technique T1059.007 for command and scripting interpreter execution through web-based interfaces.