CVE-2017-13678 in Advanced Secure Gateway
Summary
by MITRE
Stored XSS vulnerability in the Symantec Advanced Secure Gateway (ASG) and ProxySG management consoles. A malicious appliance administrator can inject arbitrary JavaScript code in the management console web client application.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/09/2021
The CVE-2017-13678 vulnerability represents a critical stored cross-site scripting flaw discovered in Symantec's Advanced Secure Gateway and ProxySG management consoles. This vulnerability specifically affects the web-based administrative interfaces of these security appliances, creating a significant risk for organizations that rely on Symantec's security infrastructure. The flaw exists within the management console's handling of user input, allowing an attacker with administrative privileges to inject malicious JavaScript code that persists in the application's storage. The vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and output encoding mechanisms within the web application's data processing pipeline, where user-supplied data is not properly sanitized before being rendered back to users in the management interface.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability requires an attacker to possess administrative credentials for the affected Symantec appliances, making it a privilege escalation issue rather than a direct remote attack vector. However, the impact remains severe as the malicious JavaScript code executes within the context of the victim administrator's browser session, potentially enabling full administrative control over the appliance. The stored nature of the vulnerability means that once the malicious payload is injected, it will persist and execute every time affected users access the management console, creating a long-term threat vector. This flaw aligns with CWE-79, which classifies cross-site scripting vulnerabilities as weaknesses in web applications that fail to properly validate or encode user-provided data before incorporating it into dynamically generated content. The vulnerability's presence in the management console interface specifically targets the administrative functions that control the security appliance's configuration and operation.
From an operational standpoint, this vulnerability poses significant risks to enterprise security infrastructure, as it allows attackers to manipulate the core configuration and monitoring capabilities of the security appliances. The malicious code could potentially exfiltrate sensitive configuration data, modify security policies, or establish persistent backdoors within the network security infrastructure. Attackers could leverage this vulnerability to gain unauthorized access to the appliance's administrative functions, potentially compromising the entire security ecosystem that relies on these devices for protection. The impact extends beyond immediate administrative control as the compromised management console could be used to monitor network traffic, alter security rules, or redirect traffic through malicious proxies, effectively undermining the security posture of the entire organization. This vulnerability directly maps to ATT&CK technique T1078 which covers valid accounts and privilege escalation, as the attacker leverages legitimate administrative access to establish persistent malicious presence.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including strict access controls, regular credential rotation, and comprehensive monitoring of administrative activities within the management console. The most effective defense involves ensuring that administrative accounts are properly secured with multi-factor authentication and that least privilege principles are enforced. Network segmentation and monitoring of administrative access patterns can help detect unauthorized access attempts or malicious activities within the management console. Additionally, organizations should regularly update their Symantec appliances with the latest security patches and consider implementing web application firewalls to detect and block malicious script injection attempts. The vulnerability highlights the importance of secure coding practices in administrative interfaces and underscores the need for regular security assessments of management console applications. Organizations should also maintain detailed audit logs of all administrative activities and establish incident response procedures specifically tailored to address compromised administrative access to critical security infrastructure components.