CVE-2014-1942 in eSIS Enterprise Student Information System
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in aal/loginverification.aspx in Pearson eSIS Enterprise Student Information System allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via unspecified vectors.
Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/09/2026
The CVE-2014-1942 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site scripting flaw within the Pearson eSIS Enterprise Student Information System's authentication module. This vulnerability specifically affects the aal/loginverification.aspx page, which serves as a crucial component in the system's login verification process. The flaw enables remote attackers to execute malicious web scripts or HTML code within the context of authenticated user sessions, potentially compromising the entire student information system infrastructure. The vulnerability's severity is amplified by its location within the login verification mechanism, which typically operates with elevated privileges and sensitive user data access.
The technical implementation of this XSS vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and output encoding within the login verification page. Attackers can exploit unspecified vectors to inject malicious payloads that persist in the application's response or are executed within the victim's browser context. This allows for unauthorized access to user sessions, data exfiltration, and potential privilege escalation within the system. The vulnerability manifests when user-supplied input is directly incorporated into web page responses without proper sanitization or encoding, creating an attack surface that enables persistent or reflected XSS payloads to execute in the victim's browser.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple script injection, as it can lead to complete system compromise when combined with other attack vectors. An attacker who successfully exploits this vulnerability can hijack user sessions, gain access to sensitive student information, modify system configurations, or even escalate privileges to administrative levels. The Pearson eSIS system, being a comprehensive student information platform, would contain highly sensitive educational data including personal student records, academic transcripts, and institutional information that could be compromised. This vulnerability directly violates security principles outlined in the OWASP Top Ten, specifically addressing injection flaws and session management weaknesses.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2014-1942 should focus on implementing comprehensive input validation and output encoding mechanisms throughout the application. The primary defense involves sanitizing all user inputs before processing and ensuring proper HTML encoding of dynamic content in web responses. Security measures should include implementing Content Security Policy headers, using secure session management practices, and conducting regular security code reviews. Organizations should also establish robust web application firewall rules to detect and prevent XSS attack patterns. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-79 which categorizes cross-site scripting as a fundamental web application security weakness, and maps to ATT&CK technique T1059.007 for scripting languages and T1566 for credential access through phishing. The remediation process requires immediate patching of the affected login verification component and comprehensive security testing to ensure all similar vulnerabilities are identified and addressed.