CVE-2018-14396 in Creme
Summary
by MITRE
An issue was discovered in Creme CRM 1.6.12. The salesman creation page is affected by 10 stored cross-site scripting vulnerabilities involving the firstname, lastname, billing_address-address, billing_address-zipcode, billing_address-city, billing_address-department, shipping_address-address, shipping_address-zipcode, shipping_address-city, and shipping_address-department parameters.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/21/2020
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2018-14396 represents a critical stored cross-site scripting flaw within Creme CRM version 1.6.12 that affects the salesman creation functionality. This issue stems from inadequate input validation and sanitization mechanisms within the web application's data processing pipeline, allowing malicious actors to inject persistent malicious scripts into the system through specifically targeted parameters. The vulnerability impacts multiple address-related fields including both billing and shipping address components, creating multiple attack vectors that can be exploited to compromise user sessions and execute unauthorized actions within the application context.
The technical nature of this vulnerability aligns with CWE-79 which defines cross-site scripting as a code injection attack that occurs when an application includes untrusted data in a web page without proper validation or encoding. The flaw manifests as stored XSS because the malicious payloads are permanently saved within the application's database and subsequently served to other users who access the affected salesman records. This persistent nature makes the vulnerability particularly dangerous as it can affect multiple users over extended periods without requiring repeated exploitation attempts.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability creates significant risk for organizations using Creme CRM as it enables attackers to potentially steal session cookies, perform unauthorized actions on behalf of legitimate users, and access sensitive customer data. The attack surface is expanded through the multiple vulnerable parameters, each representing a potential entry point for malicious script injection. When an authenticated user views a salesman record containing malicious payloads, the scripts execute within their browser context, potentially leading to complete account compromise and unauthorized data manipulation within the CRM system.
The impact of this vulnerability extends beyond immediate data theft to include potential lateral movement within the organization's network infrastructure, as compromised CRM accounts often provide access to additional corporate resources. Security practitioners should consider this vulnerability in relation to ATT&CK framework techniques such as T1059 for command and scripting interpreter usage and T1531 for tampering with application execution. Organizations should prioritize immediate remediation through input validation and output encoding mechanisms, implementing proper sanitization of all user-supplied data before storage and rendering. The vulnerability underscores the critical importance of comprehensive security testing including dynamic application security testing and manual penetration testing to identify and remediate similar stored XSS vulnerabilities in web applications.