CVE-2013-0195 in Piwik
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site Scripting (XSS) in Piwik before 1.10.1 allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via unspecified vectors. NOTE: This is a different vulnerability than CVE-2013-0193 and CVE-2013-0194.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/21/2019
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2013-0195 represents a cross-site scripting flaw discovered in the Piwik web analytics platform prior to version 1.10.1. This vulnerability classifies under CWE-79 which specifically addresses Cross-Site Scripting conditions where an application fails to properly validate or escape user-supplied input before incorporating it into dynamically generated web pages. The flaw enables remote attackers to execute arbitrary web scripts or HTML code within the context of a victim's browser session, potentially leading to unauthorized access to sensitive data or account compromise.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability occurs through unspecified vectors within the Piwik application's input handling mechanisms. Attackers can exploit this weakness by crafting malicious payloads that get processed and rendered by the web application without proper sanitization or encoding. The unspecified nature of the attack vectors suggests that multiple entry points within the platform could be compromised, including but not limited to user profile fields, tracking parameters, or administrative input forms. This broad attack surface increases the likelihood of successful exploitation across various operational scenarios.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability poses significant risks to organizations relying on Piwik for web analytics and user behavior tracking. The remote code execution capability allows attackers to establish persistent access to user sessions, potentially enabling session hijacking, data exfiltration, or malicious redirection. The vulnerability's presence in the analytics platform creates a particularly concerning threat vector since Piwik typically processes large volumes of user data and may contain sensitive operational information. Organizations using affected versions face potential exposure of their web traffic patterns, user demographics, and other analytical data that could be leveraged for further attacks or competitive intelligence gathering.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2013-0195 should prioritize immediate patch deployment to Piwik version 1.10.1 or later, which contains the necessary fixes for the XSS vulnerability. Organizations should also implement additional defensive measures including input validation and output encoding for all user-supplied data, regular security scanning of web applications, and monitoring for suspicious activity in web analytics data. The remediation process should follow established security practices such as the OWASP Top Ten guidelines for preventing XSS attacks, which recommend implementing Content Security Policy headers, proper HTML encoding of dynamic content, and comprehensive input sanitization. Security teams should also consider implementing network-level protections including web application firewalls and intrusion detection systems to monitor for exploitation attempts. The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of maintaining current software versions and implementing robust security controls around web applications that process user input.