CVE-2017-7992 in Payment Systems Payment Gateway PHP SDK hps
Summary
by MITRE
Heartland Payment Systems Payment Gateway PHP SDK hps/heartland-php v2.8.17 is vulnerable to a reflected XSS in examples/consumer-authentication/cruise.php via the URI, as demonstrated by the cavv parameter.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/01/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2017-7992 affects the Heartland Payment Systems Payment Gateway PHP SDK version 2.8.17, specifically within the cruise.php example file located in the examples/consumer-authentication directory. This represents a critical security flaw that exposes the payment processing system to potential cross-site scripting attacks. The vulnerability manifests through the cavv parameter in the URI, making it susceptible to reflected XSS exploitation where malicious input can be injected into the application's response.
The technical implementation flaw stems from inadequate input validation and output sanitization within the cruise.php script. When the cavv parameter is passed through the URI without proper filtering or encoding, the application directly incorporates this user-supplied data into its HTML response without sufficient sanitization measures. This creates an environment where an attacker can craft malicious URLs containing XSS payloads that will execute in the context of a victim's browser when the page is loaded. The reflected nature of this vulnerability means that the malicious script is reflected back from the server to the user agent, making it particularly dangerous for web applications that process user input through URL parameters.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data theft, as it can enable attackers to perform session hijacking, deface web pages, redirect users to malicious sites, or steal sensitive information from authenticated sessions. Payment gateway applications handling consumer authentication data are particularly at risk since they process sensitive financial information and authentication tokens. The vulnerability affects the consumer authentication flow within the payment processing system, potentially compromising the integrity of the entire payment transaction chain. Attackers could exploit this to capture authentication tokens, manipulate payment flows, or gain unauthorized access to consumer payment data, directly impacting the security posture of payment processing systems.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2017-7992 should include immediate implementation of input validation and output encoding mechanisms to prevent XSS injection attacks. The recommended approach involves sanitizing all user-supplied input parameters before incorporating them into HTML output, utilizing proper HTML entity encoding for dynamic content, and implementing Content Security Policy headers to limit script execution. Organizations should also conduct comprehensive input validation to ensure that URI parameters like cavv contain only expected data types and formats. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-79 which specifically addresses cross-site scripting flaws, and the attack vector corresponds to techniques documented in the ATT&CK framework under T1059.001 for command and scripting interpreter. Patching the affected SDK version to a secure release and implementing web application firewalls with XSS detection capabilities would provide additional protective layers against exploitation attempts.