CVE-2013-6911 in Garoon
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the bulletin-board component in Cybozu Garoon before 3.7.2, when Internet Explorer or Firefox is used, allows remote authenticated users to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via unspecified vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/02/2019
The CVE-2013-6911 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site scripting flaw discovered in Cybozu Garoon's bulletin-board component prior to version 3.7.2. This vulnerability specifically affects users operating within Internet Explorer or Firefox browsers, creating a significant security risk for organizations relying on this collaboration platform. The flaw enables authenticated attackers to inject malicious web scripts or HTML code into the application's interface, potentially compromising user sessions and data integrity. The vulnerability's exploitation requires the attacker to already possess valid credentials, making it an authenticated XSS attack that leverages the trust relationship between legitimate users and the application.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and output encoding within the bulletin-board component's handling of user-supplied data. When users submit content through the bulletin board functionality, the application fails to properly sanitize or escape special characters that could be interpreted as HTML or JavaScript code. This insufficient sanitization creates injection points where malicious payloads can be executed within the context of other users' browsers. The vulnerability's impact is particularly concerning because it affects both Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers, broadening the potential attack surface and making it more challenging to defend against. The unspecified vectors suggest that the flaw exists across multiple input points within the bulletin-board functionality, potentially including message titles, content fields, or other user-editable components.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability poses severe risks to organizations using Cybozu Garoon as their primary collaboration platform. An authenticated attacker could exploit this flaw to steal session cookies, redirect users to malicious websites, or inject persistent XSS payloads that would affect all users who view the compromised bulletin board entries. The authenticated nature of the attack means that attackers must first obtain valid user credentials, but once achieved, they can leverage this vulnerability to conduct more sophisticated attacks such as credential theft, data exfiltration, or privilege escalation within the application. The impact extends beyond individual user compromise to potentially affect entire organizational communication channels and collaborative workflows that depend on the bulletin-board functionality.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigation strategies to address this vulnerability, beginning with the urgent deployment of Cybozu Garoon version 3.7.2 or later, which contains the necessary patches to resolve the XSS flaw. Security teams should also consider implementing additional protective measures such as content security policies that restrict script execution within the application interface, enhanced input validation at multiple layers, and regular security assessments of the bulletin-board component. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-79, which specifically addresses cross-site scripting flaws in software applications, and demonstrates characteristics consistent with ATT&CK technique T1059.007 for script-based attacks. Organizations should also conduct comprehensive security training for administrators and users to recognize potential signs of XSS exploitation and establish incident response procedures that account for authenticated attack scenarios. Regular monitoring of application logs for suspicious activity and implementing web application firewalls can provide additional defense-in-depth measures to protect against exploitation attempts.