CVE-2017-5604 in Mcabber
Summary
by MITRE
An incorrect implementation of "XEP-0280: Message Carbons" in multiple XMPP clients allows a remote attacker to impersonate any user, including contacts, in the vulnerable application's display. This allows for various kinds of social engineering attacks. This CVE is for mcabber 1.0.0 - 1.0.4.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/10/2017
The vulnerability described in CVE-2017-5604 represents a critical flaw in the implementation of XEP-0280 Message Carbons within XMPP clients, specifically affecting mcabber versions 1.0.0 through 1.0.4. Message Carbons are designed to provide users with a complete view of their chat conversations by delivering copies of messages to all connected resources, ensuring no messages are missed across devices. However, the improper implementation creates a security weakness that allows remote attackers to manipulate the display of messages within vulnerable applications, effectively enabling them to impersonate any user within the chat system.
The technical flaw stems from the incorrect handling of message carbon delivery mechanisms, where the vulnerable implementation fails to properly validate the source of carbon-copied messages. This validation failure enables attackers to inject malicious messages that appear to originate from legitimate users, including contacts within the victim's roster. The vulnerability specifically impacts the display layer of the XMPP client rather than the underlying communication protocols, making it particularly insidious as it operates at the user interface level where trust is implicitly placed in the message presentation.
This flaw has significant operational impact as it enables sophisticated social engineering attacks that can deceive users into believing they are communicating with legitimate contacts while actually being manipulated by an attacker. The vulnerability undermines the fundamental trust model of instant messaging systems where users rely on message authenticity to make informed decisions about their communications. Attackers can exploit this weakness to spread misinformation, conduct phishing attacks, or manipulate user behavior by presenting false message sequences that appear genuine to the end users.
The security implications extend beyond simple impersonation, as this vulnerability can be leveraged to create convincing attack scenarios that bypass traditional security measures. The attack surface is particularly concerning given that XMPP clients are widely used for both personal and professional communications, making the potential for exploitation significant. From a cybersecurity perspective, this vulnerability aligns with CWE-284 Access Control Issues and can be categorized under ATT&CK technique T1566 Phishing within the social engineering framework, as it enables attackers to craft convincing deceptive communications that exploit user trust in their contact list.
Mitigation strategies should focus on updating to patched versions of mcabber and other affected XMPP clients, implementing additional message validation mechanisms, and educating users about the potential for such display manipulation attacks. Organizations should also consider network-level monitoring to detect anomalous message patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability highlights the importance of proper security implementation in messaging protocols and serves as a reminder that even seemingly benign features can introduce critical security weaknesses when not properly validated and implemented according to established security standards and best practices.