CVE-2021-41791 in alfresco-content-services
Summary
by MITRE • 10/21/2021
An issue was discovered in Hyland org.alfresco:share through 7.0.0.2 and org.alfresco:community-share through 7.0. An evasion of the XSS filter for HTML input validation in the Alfresco Share User Interface leads to stored XSS that could be exploited by an attacker (given that he has privileges on the content collaboration features).
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/28/2021
The vulnerability CVE-2021-41791 represents a critical security flaw in the Alfresco Share platform that affects versions up to 7.0.0.2 for the enterprise edition and 7.0 for the community edition. This issue resides within the HTML input validation mechanisms of the Alfresco Share User Interface, specifically targeting the cross-site scripting protection controls. The flaw allows attackers to bypass existing security measures designed to prevent malicious script execution, creating a pathway for persistent cross-site scripting attacks that can compromise user sessions and data integrity.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from an insufficient validation process that fails to properly sanitize user input before rendering it within the web interface. When users interact with content collaboration features, the system should validate and escape HTML characters to prevent script injection. However, the flawed validation logic in the affected versions permits certain encoded or obfuscated payloads to pass through undetected, ultimately allowing malicious scripts to be stored within the application's content repository. This stored XSS vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it persists across user sessions and can affect multiple users who view the compromised content.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability creates significant risk for organizations utilizing Alfresco Share for content management and collaboration. Attackers with minimal privileges on content collaboration features can leverage this flaw to execute malicious scripts in the context of other users' browsers, potentially leading to session hijacking, credential theft, or data exfiltration. The impact extends beyond individual user compromise to potentially affect entire organizational data repositories, especially when considering that Alfresco Share is commonly used for document management, collaboration, and enterprise content sharing. The stored nature of the vulnerability means that once exploited, the malicious payload remains active until manually removed from the system, creating ongoing security exposure.
Organizations should prioritize immediate remediation by upgrading to patched versions of the Alfresco Share platform, as the vulnerability affects widely deployed enterprise content management systems. Security teams should also implement network-level monitoring to detect potential exploitation attempts and consider temporary mitigation strategies such as enhanced input validation at the network perimeter. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-79, which specifically addresses cross-site scripting flaws, and represents a clear violation of the principle of least privilege as outlined in the ATT&CK framework's privilege escalation techniques. Additionally, this issue highlights the importance of proper input sanitization and the potential for bypass vulnerabilities in web application security controls, emphasizing the need for comprehensive security testing and validation of security mechanisms.