CVE-2018-15455 in Identity Services Engine
Summary
by MITRE
A vulnerability in the logging component of Cisco Identity Services Engine could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to conduct cross-site scripting attacks. The vulnerability is due to the improper validation of requests stored in the system's logging database. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by sending malicious requests to the targeted system. An exploit could allow the attacker to conduct cross-site scripting attacks when an administrator views the logs in the Admin Portal.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/03/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2018-15455 resides within the logging component of Cisco Identity Services Engine software, representing a critical security flaw that enables unauthenticated remote attackers to execute cross-site scripting attacks. This issue specifically affects the system's handling of request validation within its logging database, creating a persistent security weakness that can be exploited by malicious actors without requiring any authentication credentials. The vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation mechanisms that fail to properly sanitize or filter user-supplied data before storing it in the system's logging infrastructure.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs when an attacker crafts and submits malicious requests to the targeted Cisco Identity Services Engine system. These requests contain specially formatted payloads designed to inject malicious scripts into the logging database. When system administrators subsequently access the administrative portal to review system logs, the stored malicious content is executed within the browser context of the logged-in user. This creates a classic cross-site scripting scenario where the attacker's malicious code runs in the victim's browser, potentially enabling session hijacking, credential theft, or other malicious activities. The flaw manifests as a failure to properly escape or encode user input during the logging process, allowing attackers to inject HTML or JavaScript code that executes when logs are displayed.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple script execution, as it compromises the integrity of the administrative interface and potentially exposes sensitive system information. Administrators who regularly monitor logs for security events become unwitting participants in the attack chain, as their browser sessions become compromised when viewing malicious entries. This vulnerability undermines the trust model of the administrative portal and could enable attackers to escalate privileges, access restricted system functions, or extract confidential information from the environment. The persistent nature of the vulnerability means that once an attacker successfully injects malicious content, it remains active until manually removed from the logs, providing ongoing attack surface for potential exploitation.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability should focus on implementing comprehensive input validation and output encoding mechanisms within the logging component of the Cisco Identity Services Engine. Organizations must ensure that all user-supplied data is properly sanitized before storage in the logging database, with special attention to characters and sequences that could enable script execution. The implementation of Content Security Policy headers and proper HTML encoding of log entries can significantly reduce the attack surface. Cisco has released patches and updates to address this vulnerability, and organizations should immediately apply these security updates to protect their systems. Additionally, network segmentation and monitoring of administrative access can help detect and prevent exploitation attempts, while regular log reviews should include checks for suspicious entries that might indicate attempted exploitation.
This vulnerability aligns with CWE-79 which describes cross-site scripting flaws, and maps to ATT&CK technique T1059.007 for scripting and T1566 for social engineering, as the attack requires administrative interaction to be fully effective. The weakness demonstrates poor input validation practices that violate security best practices outlined in the OWASP Top Ten and NIST Cybersecurity Framework, particularly in the areas of input validation and secure coding practices. Organizations should implement comprehensive security testing procedures including dynamic application security testing and manual code reviews to identify similar vulnerabilities in their systems and prevent exploitation of similar weaknesses in other components.