CVE-2015-7316 in Plone
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in Plone 3.3.0 through 3.3.6, 4.0.0 through 4.0.10, 4.1.0 through 4.1.6, 4.2.0 through 4.2.7, 4.3.x before 4.3.7, and 5.0rc1.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/30/2022
The CVE-2015-7316 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site scripting flaw that affected multiple versions of the Plone content management system, spanning from version 3.3.0 through 3.3.6 up to the 5.0rc1 release. This vulnerability falls under the CWE-79 category of Cross-Site Scripting, which is a fundamental web application security weakness that allows attackers to inject malicious scripts into web pages viewed by other users. The affected versions of Plone were particularly concerning as they represented widely deployed enterprise content management solutions used by organizations across various sectors including government, finance, and healthcare.
The technical flaw in Plone's implementation stems from inadequate input validation and output encoding mechanisms within its web application framework. Specifically, the vulnerability occurs when user-provided data is not properly sanitized before being rendered in web pages, allowing malicious actors to inject script code through various input vectors such as form fields, URL parameters, or content management interfaces. The vulnerability affects multiple release lines of Plone, indicating a systemic issue in the application's data handling and sanitization processes that persisted across several major versions. Attackers could exploit this weakness by crafting malicious payloads that would execute in the context of other users' browsers, potentially leading to session hijacking, credential theft, or unauthorized actions within the application.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple script injection, as it represents a severe threat to the integrity and security of Plone-based web applications. Organizations utilizing affected Plone versions faced significant risk of unauthorized access and data compromise, particularly in environments where users could submit content or interact with web forms. The vulnerability could be exploited through various attack vectors including reflected XSS in URLs, stored XSS in content management interfaces, and DOM-based XSS in dynamic page elements. This broad attack surface meant that even organizations with relatively secure network perimeters could be compromised if users interacted with maliciously crafted content or links. The attack patterns align with ATT&CK technique T1566.001 for Phishing and T1566.002 for Spearphishing via Service, as attackers could craft malicious web pages designed to exploit this vulnerability.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2015-7316 required immediate action from affected organizations, including upgrading to patched versions of Plone 4.3.7 or later, which contained the necessary input validation and output encoding fixes. Organizations should have implemented comprehensive input sanitization measures, including proper HTML escaping of user-supplied content and validation of all input parameters. The remediation process needed to address not only the immediate vulnerability but also required organizations to conduct thorough security assessments of their Plone applications, including code reviews of custom modules and third-party add-ons that might have introduced additional attack vectors. Additionally, implementing proper content security policies and security headers would have provided additional defense-in-depth measures. Organizations should have also established monitoring procedures to detect potential exploitation attempts and implemented user education programs to reduce the risk of social engineering attacks that could leverage this vulnerability. The vulnerability highlighted the importance of maintaining up-to-date security patches and following secure coding practices as outlined in OWASP Top 10 and other industry security standards.