CVE-2015-0521 in RSA Certificate Manager
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in EMC RSA Certificate Manager (RCM) before 6.9 build 558 and RSA Registration Manager (RRM) before 6.9 build 558 allows remote authenticated users to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via vectors related to the CMP shared secret parameter.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/01/2022
The CVE-2015-0521 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site scripting flaw affecting EMC RSA Certificate Manager and RSA Registration Manager versions prior to 6.9 build 558. This vulnerability resides in the CMP (Certificate Management Protocol) shared secret parameter handling mechanism, which serves as a crucial component in the certificate provisioning and management processes within enterprise security infrastructures. The flaw enables remote authenticated attackers to execute malicious web scripts or HTML code within the context of legitimate user sessions, potentially compromising the integrity and confidentiality of sensitive certificate management operations.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and output encoding within the CMP shared secret parameter processing logic. When authenticated users interact with the certificate management interfaces, the system fails to properly sanitize user-supplied input before incorporating it into dynamically generated web content. This inadequate sanitization creates an opening for attackers to inject malicious scripts that can execute in the browsers of other authenticated users who subsequently access affected pages. The vulnerability specifically targets the parameter handling within the CMP protocol implementation, which is fundamental to certificate issuance and management workflows in RSA security solutions.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple script injection, as it can enable attackers to perform session hijacking, steal sensitive certificate data, and potentially escalate privileges within the certificate management environment. Successful exploitation could allow threat actors to access certificate private keys, manipulate certificate issuance processes, and compromise the entire certificate authority infrastructure. Given that these applications typically manage sensitive cryptographic credentials and security certificates for enterprise networks, the potential damage from such an attack could be catastrophic for organizational security posture. The vulnerability affects not only individual user sessions but also the overall trust model of the certificate management system.
Organizations should immediately apply the vendor patches released for RSA Certificate Manager and RSA Registration Manager versions 6.9 build 558 and later, which address the input validation deficiencies in the CMP shared secret parameter handling. Network segmentation and monitoring of CMP protocol traffic should be implemented to detect anomalous parameter values. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-79, which specifically addresses cross-site scripting flaws in web applications, and represents a typical example of how authentication bypasses can lead to privilege escalation through web-based attacks. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to T1059.007 for script execution and T1566 for credential access, as attackers can leverage the XSS to obtain and manipulate security credentials within the certificate management environment. Security teams should also implement strict input validation policies and output encoding mechanisms throughout their certificate management workflows to prevent similar vulnerabilities from emerging in other components of their security infrastructure.