CVE-2018-5687 in NewsBee
Summary
by MITRE
NewsBee allows XSS via the Company Name field in the Settings under admin/admin.php.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/23/2019
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2018-5687 represents a cross-site scripting flaw within the NewsBee application that specifically targets the administrative interface. This issue manifests when administrators interact with the Company Name field located within the Settings section of the admin panel at admin/admin.php. The flaw enables malicious actors to inject arbitrary JavaScript code into the web application through this seemingly benign input field, creating a persistent security risk that can be exploited across multiple user sessions.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and output encoding mechanisms within the NewsBee application's administrative components. When administrators enter data into the Company Name field, the application fails to properly sanitize or escape special characters that could be interpreted as executable script code by web browsers. This weakness directly aligns with CWE-79, which categorizes cross-site scripting vulnerabilities as a result of insufficient input validation and output encoding. The vulnerability exists in the context of a web application's administrative interface, making it particularly dangerous as it can be exploited by authenticated users with administrative privileges or potentially by attackers who gain access to valid administrative credentials.
The operational impact of CVE-2018-5687 extends beyond simple data corruption or display issues, as it provides attackers with the capability to execute malicious scripts within the context of other users' browser sessions. This could enable session hijacking, credential theft, or redirection to malicious websites, particularly when administrators interact with the vulnerable application. The vulnerability's exploitation requires minimal prerequisites, as it only necessitates access to the administrative interface and the ability to modify the Company Name field, making it an attractive target for attackers seeking to compromise administrative accounts. The persistent nature of the vulnerability means that once exploited, the malicious scripts can affect all users who view the affected pages, creating a widespread impact across the application's user base.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability should focus on implementing robust input validation and output encoding mechanisms throughout the application's administrative interface. The primary remediation involves sanitizing all user inputs, particularly those displayed in administrative contexts, through proper HTML entity encoding before rendering them in web pages. Organizations should also implement Content Security Policy headers to limit the execution of unauthorized scripts and ensure that the application follows secure coding practices as outlined in the OWASP Top Ten and NIST Cybersecurity Framework guidelines. Additionally, regular security assessments and penetration testing should be conducted to identify similar vulnerabilities in other input fields and administrative components, as this issue represents a broader class of security flaws that could exist elsewhere in the application's codebase. The vulnerability also aligns with ATT&CK technique T1059.007 for scripting languages and T1566.001 for phishing campaigns, as attackers could leverage this weakness to deliver malicious payloads to unsuspecting administrators.