CVE-2016-0243 in WebSphere Portal
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in IBM WebSphere Portal 6.1.0.x through 6.1.0.6 CF27, 6.1.5.x through 6.1.5.3 CF27, 7.x through 7.0.0.2 CF29, 8.0.x before 8.0.0.1 CF20, and 8.5.x before 8.5.0.0 CF09 allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via a crafted URL, a different vulnerability than CVE-2016-0244.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/01/2019
The cross-site scripting vulnerability identified as CVE-2016-0243 affects IBM WebSphere Portal versions across multiple release streams including 6.1.0.x through 6.1.0.6 CF27, 6.1.5.x through 6.1.5.3 CF27, 7.x through 7.0.0.2 CF29, 8.0.x before 8.0.0.1 CF20, and 8.5.x before 8.5.0.0 CF09. This vulnerability represents a critical security flaw that enables remote attackers to execute malicious web scripts or HTML code within the context of authenticated users' browsers. The flaw specifically manifests when the portal application fails to properly sanitize or validate user-supplied input within URL parameters, creating an opening for malicious actors to inject harmful code that can be executed by other users who access the affected web pages.
This vulnerability operates under the Common Weakness Enumeration CWE-79 category, which classifies it as a Cross-Site Scripting weakness where web applications fail to properly validate or escape user-controllable data before incorporating it into dynamically generated web pages. The technical implementation flaw occurs within the URL parameter handling mechanism of the WebSphere Portal application, where input validation is insufficient to prevent malicious payloads from being processed and rendered in the browser context. Attackers can craft specially formatted URLs containing malicious script code that gets executed when legitimate users navigate to these pages, potentially leading to session hijacking, credential theft, or unauthorized actions performed on behalf of authenticated users.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple script injection, as it can enable sophisticated attack vectors that leverage the portal's authentication context to perform unauthorized operations. When exploited, the vulnerability allows attackers to manipulate the portal's behavior by injecting malicious code that can redirect users to phishing sites, steal session cookies, or even modify portal content. The attack surface is particularly concerning given that WebSphere Portal serves as a central enterprise portal platform where users typically maintain elevated privileges and access to sensitive organizational data. The vulnerability's persistence across multiple versions indicates a fundamental flaw in the input validation mechanisms that required patching across several major releases, suggesting that the underlying code structure was susceptible to this class of attack.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should implement immediate mitigations including applying the relevant IBM security patches and hotfixes released for each affected version stream. Network-level protections such as web application firewalls should be configured to detect and block suspicious URL patterns, while application-level defenses should include comprehensive input validation, output encoding, and proper content security policy implementations. Security teams should also conduct thorough vulnerability assessments of portal applications to identify potential additional attack vectors, as this vulnerability may have been accompanied by related issues such as those referenced in CVE-2016-0244. The remediation process must include comprehensive testing to ensure that patch implementations do not introduce regressions in portal functionality while maintaining the security posture against similar scripting vulnerabilities.