CVE-2015-3618 in Business Process Intelligence
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Nagios Business Process Intelligence (BPI) before 2.3.4 allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via vectors involving index.php.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/02/2020
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2015-3618 represents a critical cross-site scripting flaw within Nagios Business Process Intelligence version 2.3.3 and earlier releases. This security weakness exists in the index.php component of the BPI application, which serves as a primary interface for business process monitoring and management. The affected system operates within enterprise environments where business process intelligence tools are deployed to monitor critical infrastructure and business operations, making this vulnerability particularly dangerous as it can be exploited by remote attackers without requiring authentication or privileged access.
The technical implementation of this XSS vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and output encoding mechanisms within the index.php file. Attackers can craft malicious payloads that, when processed by the web application, get executed within the context of other users' browsers. This occurs because the application fails to properly sanitize user-supplied input parameters before rendering them in web pages, allowing malicious scripts to be injected and subsequently executed. The vulnerability specifically affects how the application handles certain request parameters that are passed to the index.php endpoint, creating an injection point where attacker-controlled data can be interpreted as executable code rather than benign input.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data theft or session hijacking, as it enables attackers to perform a wide range of malicious activities within the compromised environment. Remote attackers can leverage this vulnerability to steal sensitive business intelligence data, manipulate monitoring dashboards, redirect users to malicious sites, or even establish persistent backdoors within the network. Given that Nagios BPI is typically deployed in critical infrastructure monitoring scenarios, successful exploitation could lead to significant business disruption, data compromise, and potential escalation to other systems within the network. The vulnerability's remote exploitability means that attackers can target the system from anywhere on the internet without requiring physical access or network proximity.
Organizations utilizing Nagios BPI should immediately implement mitigations including updating to version 2.3.4 or later, which contains the necessary patches to address the XSS vulnerability. Additional defensive measures include implementing proper input validation at all entry points, deploying web application firewalls to detect and block malicious payloads, and conducting regular security assessments of web applications. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-79 which specifically addresses cross-site scripting flaws, and maps to ATT&CK technique T1566.001 for initial access through malicious web content. Organizations should also consider implementing content security policies to prevent execution of unauthorized scripts and establish monitoring procedures to detect potential exploitation attempts. The remediation process should include comprehensive testing to ensure that the patch does not introduce compatibility issues with existing business processes and monitoring configurations.