CVE-2015-2702 in TRITON AP-EMAIL
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the Message Log in the Email Security Gateway in Websense TRITON AP-EMAIL before 8.0.0 and V-Series 7.7 appliances allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via the sender address in an email.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/01/2022
The CVE-2015-2702 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site scripting flaw discovered in the Email Security Gateway component of Websense TRITON AP-EMAIL systems. This vulnerability specifically affects the Message Log functionality within the email security infrastructure, creating a significant security risk for organizations relying on Websense's email protection solutions. The flaw exists in both the AP-EMAIL appliances running versions prior to 8.0.0 and V-Series appliances running version 7.7, indicating a widespread impact across multiple product lines within the Websense TRITON platform. The vulnerability's presence in the Message Log component suggests that it could potentially compromise the integrity of email security monitoring and reporting functions, which are fundamental to email security operations.
The technical nature of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and output sanitization within the email security gateway's message logging mechanism. Attackers can exploit this weakness by crafting malicious email messages with specifically formatted sender addresses that contain embedded script code or HTML content. When the email security gateway processes these messages and displays them in the Message Log interface, the malicious content executes within the context of the victim's browser session, bypassing normal security boundaries. This particular attack vector targets the sender address field, which is a common location for user input in email systems and represents a logical point of entry for XSS attacks. The vulnerability's classification aligns with CWE-79, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Scripting flaws in web applications and systems.
The operational impact of CVE-2015-2702 extends beyond simple script execution, potentially enabling attackers to perform session hijacking, steal user credentials, or redirect victims to malicious websites. Given that the vulnerability affects the Message Log functionality, an attacker could compromise the email security monitoring system itself, potentially leading to undetected malicious activities or complete bypass of email security controls. The attack requires remote execution without authentication, making it particularly dangerous as it can be exploited from anywhere on the internet. Organizations using affected Websense TRITON appliances may experience unauthorized access to their email security monitoring data, which could expose sensitive information about email traffic patterns, security incidents, and potentially compromise the integrity of their email security posture. This vulnerability directly impacts the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of email security infrastructure, creating cascading security risks throughout the organization's email ecosystem.
The exploitation of this vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1059.007, which covers Scripting through web shells and command execution via web interfaces. Organizations should implement immediate mitigation strategies including applying the vendor-provided security patches for Websense TRITON AP-EMAIL appliances, implementing network segmentation to limit access to email security gateways, and enhancing web application firewalls to detect and block malicious input patterns. Additionally, security teams should conduct comprehensive vulnerability assessments of their email infrastructure to identify potential similar flaws in other components of the Websense platform or related systems. The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of input validation in security-critical applications and highlights the need for robust output encoding mechanisms in web-based security monitoring interfaces. Organizations should also consider implementing additional monitoring for unusual activity patterns in their email security logs and establish incident response procedures specifically addressing XSS vulnerabilities in security infrastructure components.