CVE-2018-6545 in MoveIt
Summary
by MITRE
Ipswitch MoveIt v8.1 is vulnerable to a Stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability, as demonstrated by human.aspx. Attackers can leverage this vulnerability to send malicious messages to other users in order to steal session cookies and launch client-side attacks.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/02/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2018-6545 affects Ipswitch MoveIt version 8.1 and represents a critical stored cross-site scripting flaw that resides within the human.aspx page component of the application. This vulnerability falls under the CWE-79 category of Cross-Site Scripting and operates as a server-side injection attack that allows malicious actors to inject persistent malicious scripts into web applications. The flaw enables attackers to manipulate the application's input handling mechanisms to store malicious code within the application's database or storage systems, which then gets executed whenever other users access the affected page. The specific exploitation vector involves the human.aspx endpoint which likely processes user input without proper sanitization or validation, creating an environment where attacker-controlled scripts can be permanently embedded within the application's data stores.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple script execution as it provides attackers with a sophisticated means of session hijacking and client-side attack deployment. When legitimate users interact with the compromised application page, their browsers execute the stored malicious scripts, which can capture session cookies, redirect users to malicious sites, or perform actions on behalf of authenticated users. This vulnerability directly enables session management attacks that align with ATT&CK technique T1548.001 for Abuse of Functionality and T1566.001 for Phishing. The stored nature of the XSS attack means that the malicious payload remains persistent and can affect multiple users over time, making it particularly dangerous for collaborative environments where users frequently access shared application components. The vulnerability essentially transforms the application into a vector for delivering malware, conducting credential theft, or performing unauthorized operations within the application's context.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2018-6545 require immediate implementation of input validation and output encoding measures across all user-supplied data processing points within the MoveIt application. Organizations should implement proper sanitization of all input parameters before storage and ensure that output encoding is applied when rendering user data within the application's web interface. The recommended approach includes deploying Content Security Policy headers to limit script execution sources, implementing proper HTML escaping for all dynamic content, and establishing robust input validation routines that reject or sanitize potentially malicious payloads. Additionally, security patches should be applied immediately from Ipswitch to address the root cause of the vulnerability. Network segmentation and monitoring solutions should be enhanced to detect anomalous script execution patterns, while user education programs should emphasize the risks of interacting with suspicious application content. The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of maintaining up-to-date security practices and implementing defense-in-depth strategies that protect against both server-side and client-side attack vectors, particularly in enterprise collaboration platforms where user interaction with shared resources creates multiple potential attack surfaces.