CVE-2015-5282 in Foreman
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Foreman 1.7.0 and after.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/30/2022
The CVE-2015-5282 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site scripting flaw discovered in the Foreman systems management platform version 1.7.0 and subsequent releases. This vulnerability resides within the web application interface of Foreman, which is widely utilized for managing and provisioning large-scale IT infrastructure environments. The flaw allows malicious actors to inject arbitrary JavaScript code into the application's user interface, potentially compromising the security of administrators and users who interact with the platform. Foreman serves as a central management hub for provisioning, monitoring, and configuring various system components including virtual machines, physical servers, and network devices, making it an attractive target for attackers seeking to gain unauthorized access to enterprise environments.
The technical implementation of this XSS vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and output encoding mechanisms within Foreman's web interface. Specifically, user-supplied data that is not properly sanitized before being rendered in web pages creates opportunities for attackers to inject malicious scripts. The vulnerability manifests when the application fails to adequately escape special characters and HTML tags in user-controllable parameters, particularly within URL parameters, form fields, or API responses that are subsequently displayed to authenticated users. Attackers can exploit this weakness by crafting malicious payloads that, when executed in a victim's browser, can steal session cookies, perform unauthorized actions on behalf of users, or redirect victims to malicious websites. The vulnerability is classified under CWE-79 as "Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')", which is a fundamental web application security weakness that has been consistently identified as one of the most prevalent threats in web applications.
The operational impact of CVE-2015-5282 extends beyond simple script injection, as it can enable attackers to escalate privileges and compromise entire management infrastructures. When administrators interact with compromised Foreman interfaces, their sessions become vulnerable to hijacking, allowing attackers to assume administrative privileges and execute privileged operations such as creating new users, modifying system configurations, deploying malicious software, or accessing sensitive configuration data. The vulnerability affects both authenticated and unauthenticated attack scenarios, though the most dangerous exploitation occurs when attackers can leverage compromised administrator sessions to gain persistent access to the management platform. This risk is particularly severe in enterprise environments where Foreman is used to manage critical infrastructure components, as the compromise of a single management interface can potentially lead to widespread system compromise. The vulnerability aligns with several ATT&CK techniques including T1059.001 for command and scripting interpreter and T1566.001 for spearphishing with a link, as attackers can use the XSS to deliver malicious payloads that exploit other attack vectors.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2015-5282 require immediate remediation through official patches provided by the Foreman development team, as well as implementation of defensive measures to reduce the attack surface. Organizations should prioritize updating to patched versions of Foreman that address the input validation issues and implement proper output encoding for all user-controllable data. Network segmentation and access controls should be strengthened to limit exposure of Foreman interfaces to untrusted networks, while implementing Content Security Policies (CSP) to prevent execution of unauthorized scripts in the browser context. Regular security assessments and input validation testing should be conducted to identify similar vulnerabilities in other web applications within the organization's infrastructure. The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of maintaining up-to-date security practices and the necessity of implementing robust input sanitization and output encoding mechanisms as core security controls in web application development. Additionally, organizations should implement comprehensive monitoring and logging of Foreman activities to detect potential exploitation attempts and establish incident response procedures specifically tailored to address web application vulnerabilities that could compromise system management interfaces.