CVE-2022-24948 in JSPWiki
Summary
by MITRE • 02/25/2022
A carefully crafted user preferences for submission could trigger an XSS vulnerability on Apache JSPWiki, related to the user preferences screen, which could allow the attacker to execute javascript in the victim's browser and get some sensitive information about the victim. Apache JSPWiki users should upgrade to 2.11.2 or later.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/28/2022
The vulnerability CVE-2022-24948 represents a cross-site scripting weakness in Apache JSPWiki that stems from improper handling of user preferences during submission processes. This flaw exists within the user preferences screen functionality where the application fails to adequately sanitize or escape user input before rendering it back to the browser. The vulnerability manifests when an attacker crafts malicious input within user preferences that, when processed by the wiki application, gets executed as javascript code in the context of a victim's browser session. This represents a classic XSS vulnerability that falls under CWE-79 which categorizes improper neutralization of input during web page generation, specifically addressing the failure to sanitize data that flows from user input to web output.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability occurs when a malicious user submits specially crafted preferences data that contains javascript payloads. When the wiki application processes these preferences and displays them back to users, the malicious script executes in the victim's browser context with the privileges and session cookies of the logged-in user. This creates a significant risk for privilege escalation and data exfiltration attacks, as the malicious javascript can access session tokens, cookies, and other sensitive information that the victim's browser has access to. The vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it leverages the legitimate user preferences functionality, making it more difficult to detect and block through standard security measures.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability poses a serious threat to Apache JSPWiki deployments where users have the ability to modify their preferences. Attackers can use this weakness to steal session information, redirect users to malicious sites, inject malicious content into wiki pages, or perform actions on behalf of victims. The attack vector is particularly insidious because it requires minimal privileges to exploit, as users typically need only access to the user preferences screen to craft the malicious payload. This vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1531 which involves techniques for establishing persistence and privilege escalation through web application vulnerabilities, and T1071.004 which covers application layer protocol manipulation through web interfaces.
Organizations running Apache JSPWiki must prioritize upgrading to version 2.11.2 or later to remediate this vulnerability, as the patch addresses the root cause by implementing proper input sanitization and output escaping mechanisms for user preferences data. The mitigation strategy should also include implementing content security policies to limit the execution of inline javascript, regular security scanning of user input fields, and monitoring for unusual preference modification patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts. Additionally, administrators should consider implementing web application firewalls to detect and block known XSS attack patterns, and conduct regular security training for users to recognize potential social engineering attempts that might leverage this vulnerability. The fix demonstrates proper input validation practices that align with secure coding guidelines and industry best practices for preventing XSS vulnerabilities in web applications.