CVE-2022-0637 in PollBot
Summary
by MITRE • 02/17/2023
There was an open redirection vulnerability pollbot, which was used in https://pollbot.services.mozilla.com/ and https://pollbot.stage.mozaws.net/ An attacker could have redirected anyone to malicious sites.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/18/2026
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2022-0637 represents a critical open redirection flaw discovered within the pollbot service infrastructure operated by Mozilla. This vulnerability affected the production environment at https://pollbot.services.mozilla.com/ and the staging environment at https://pollbot.stage.mozaws.net/. The flaw allowed malicious actors to manipulate the redirection mechanisms within the pollbot application, potentially enabling them to route users to arbitrary malicious websites without their knowledge or consent. Such vulnerabilities fall under the category of CWE-601 Open Redirect, which is classified as a security weakness where applications redirect users to external sites without proper validation of the target URL. The attack vector exploited by this vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1566.001 Phishing, as it could be leveraged to craft deceptive redirection campaigns that appear legitimate to end users.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stemmed from insufficient validation of redirect URLs within the pollbot service's codebase. When users interacted with the pollbot application, particularly during authentication flows or when clicking on links that should trigger redirects, the system failed to properly sanitize or validate the destination URLs. This lack of input validation created an opportunity for attackers to inject malicious URLs that would be accepted and executed by the application's redirect functionality. The vulnerability was particularly concerning because it affected production and staging environments simultaneously, indicating a systemic issue in the application's security controls rather than an isolated incident. The flaw likely existed in the URL parsing or redirect handling logic where the application accepted user-supplied URLs without adequate verification against a whitelist of approved domains or proper URL validation mechanisms.
The operational impact of CVE-2022-0637 extends beyond simple redirection attacks, as it created a potential gateway for more sophisticated social engineering campaigns and phishing operations. Attackers could have leveraged this vulnerability to direct users to fake login pages, malicious file download sites, or other harmful destinations that would appear to be legitimate extensions of the pollbot service. This type of vulnerability undermines user trust in the application and could have resulted in data exfiltration, credential theft, or malware distribution. The exposure of both production and staging environments simultaneously suggests that the security controls were not properly implemented across the entire application lifecycle, potentially indicating broader security gaps in the development and deployment processes. Organizations relying on the pollbot service for user engagement and data collection would have faced reputational damage and potential regulatory compliance issues if this vulnerability had been exploited in the wild.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2022-0637 should focus on implementing robust URL validation and sanitization controls within the pollbot application. The most effective approach involves establishing a strict whitelist of approved redirect destinations and ensuring that all redirect URLs undergo thorough validation before execution. Security teams should implement proper input sanitization techniques that reject any URLs containing suspicious patterns or external domain references that are not explicitly authorized. The fix should include comprehensive testing of all redirect functionality to ensure that only legitimate internal or pre-approved external destinations are accepted. Organizations should also consider implementing additional security controls such as HTTP headers that prevent unauthorized redirection and logging mechanisms to detect suspicious redirect attempts. This vulnerability highlights the importance of following secure coding practices and implementing defense-in-depth strategies that protect against common web application vulnerabilities like those classified under CWE-601. Regular security assessments and penetration testing should be conducted to identify similar weaknesses in other applications and services within the organization's infrastructure.