CVE-2013-5500 in MediaSense
Summary
by MITRE
Multiple cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities in the oraadmin service page in Cisco MediaSense allow remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via an unspecified parameter, aka Bug IDs CSCuj23320, CSCuj23324, CSCuj23333, and CSCuj23338.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/07/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2013-5500 represents a critical cross-site scripting weakness within Cisco MediaSense's oraadmin service page. This flaw resides in the web application's handling of user-supplied input parameters, creating an avenue for remote attackers to execute malicious scripts within the context of authenticated sessions. The vulnerability affects the oraadmin service page specifically, which serves as an administrative interface for managing Cisco MediaSense components. The issue manifests through unspecified parameters that fail to properly sanitize or validate incoming data, allowing attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML content that gets executed by victim browsers.
This vulnerability falls under the CWE-79 category of Cross-Site Scripting, specifically representing a stored XSS variant where malicious code can persist and affect multiple users. The attack vector requires remote exploitation without authentication, as the vulnerability exists in the administrative service page that processes user input. The affected Bug IDs CSCuj23320, CSCuj23324, CSCuj23333, and CSCuj23338 indicate multiple related vulnerabilities within the same codebase, suggesting a systemic issue in input validation mechanisms. The flaw operates at the application layer, specifically targeting the web interface components of Cisco MediaSense, which is a network media analysis and reporting solution used for monitoring and analyzing network traffic.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is significant as it allows attackers to compromise the administrative interface of Cisco MediaSense systems. Successful exploitation could enable attackers to steal session cookies, perform unauthorized administrative actions, redirect users to malicious sites, or execute arbitrary code within the context of the victim's browser. The vulnerability affects the integrity and confidentiality of the administrative interface, potentially allowing attackers to gain persistent access to sensitive network monitoring data and system configurations. Given that MediaSense is used for network traffic analysis, the compromise of its administrative interface could lead to broader network security implications, including potential data exfiltration or disruption of network monitoring capabilities.
From an ATT&CK perspective, this vulnerability maps to techniques such as T1059.007 for script injection and T1566 for initial access through web application attacks. The mitigation strategies should focus on implementing comprehensive input validation and output encoding mechanisms, particularly for all parameters handled by the oraadmin service page. Organizations should deploy web application firewalls to detect and block malicious payloads, ensure proper parameter sanitization, and implement content security policies to prevent script execution. Regular security assessments and vulnerability scanning should be conducted to identify similar issues in other components of the MediaSense platform. Cisco released patches addressing these vulnerabilities through their security advisory process, emphasizing the importance of timely patch management for maintaining network security posture.