CVE-2018-9283 in CremeCRM
Summary
by MITRE
An XSS issue was discovered in CremeCRM 1.6.12. It is affected by 10 stored Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities in 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 in the contact creation and modification page. The payload is stored within the application database and allows the execution of JavaScript code each time a client visit an infected page.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/21/2020
The vulnerability CVE-2018-9283 represents a critical stored cross-site scripting flaw in CremeCRM version 1.6.12 that fundamentally compromises the application's security posture. This issue affects multiple contact management parameters including firstname, lastname, and various address fields, creating a wide attack surface that enables persistent malicious code execution. The vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and output encoding mechanisms within the CRM's contact creation and modification interfaces, allowing attackers to inject malicious JavaScript payloads that are subsequently stored in the database. The stored nature of this vulnerability means that once an attacker successfully injects malicious code, it persists and executes automatically whenever any user accesses the affected contact records, making it particularly dangerous for enterprise environments where multiple users interact with the same data.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability follows a classic stored XSS attack pattern where malicious input bypasses the application's sanitization controls and gets rendered in subsequent page requests. When users view contact information containing the stored payload, the JavaScript code executes within their browser context, potentially leading to session hijacking, credential theft, or redirection to malicious sites. The vulnerability affects specific address parameters including 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, indicating a systemic issue in the application's data handling logic rather than isolated field validation. This widespread impact across multiple fields suggests that the underlying input sanitization mechanism fails to properly validate or escape user-supplied data before storage, creating a fundamental security gap in the application's data persistence layer.
The operational impact of CVE-2018-9283 extends beyond simple data corruption or unauthorized access, as it enables persistent malicious activities within the target environment. Attackers can leverage this vulnerability to establish long-term presence within the CRM system, potentially accessing sensitive customer data, modifying contact information, or even escalating privileges if the application lacks proper access controls. The stored nature of the vulnerability means that malicious payloads can affect multiple users over extended periods, making detection and remediation more challenging. Organizations using CremeCRM 1.6.12 face significant risk of data breaches, as the vulnerability allows attackers to execute arbitrary JavaScript code in the context of authenticated users, potentially leading to complete compromise of the CRM system and associated customer information. This vulnerability directly maps to CWE-79 which describes improper neutralization of input during web page generation, and aligns with ATT&CK technique T1566 for initial access through malicious input.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2018-9283 require immediate implementation of comprehensive input validation and output encoding measures throughout the application's data handling pipeline. Organizations should implement strict sanitization of all user-supplied data before storage, utilizing established libraries and frameworks designed to prevent XSS attacks. The recommended approach includes implementing Content Security Policy headers, proper HTML encoding of output data, and thorough input validation that rejects or sanitizes potentially malicious content. Additionally, the application should implement proper access controls and audit logging to detect unauthorized modifications to contact records. Organizations must also consider upgrading to a patched version of CremeCRM or implementing web application firewalls as temporary measures while planning for proper system updates. The vulnerability highlights the critical importance of input validation in web applications and demonstrates how seemingly minor flaws in data handling can lead to severe security consequences. Regular security testing and code reviews should be implemented to identify similar vulnerabilities in other application components, as the systemic nature of this flaw suggests potential issues in related data handling functions.