CVE-2023-42428 in CubeCart
Summary
by MITRE • 11/17/2023
Directory traversal vulnerability in CubeCart prior to 6.5.3 allows a remote authenticated attacker with an administrative privilege to delete directories and files in the system.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/14/2023
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2023-42428 represents a critical directory traversal flaw within CubeCart e-commerce platform versions prior to 6.5.3. This security weakness specifically targets the administrative interface and exploits insufficient input validation mechanisms that fail to properly sanitize user-supplied paths. The vulnerability enables authenticated attackers who have already gained administrative privileges to execute unauthorized file system operations including directory deletion and file removal. The flaw stems from inadequate path validation within the platform's file management functions, allowing malicious input to bypass intended security boundaries and access arbitrary file system locations. This type of vulnerability falls under the CWE-22 category known as "Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')", which is classified as a high-severity weakness in the Common Weakness Enumeration catalog. The attack vector requires an attacker to already possess administrative credentials, but the impact extends beyond simple privilege escalation to include potential system compromise through unauthorized file manipulation.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond immediate file deletion capabilities and can lead to severe system degradation or complete service disruption. An attacker with administrative access could leverage this flaw to remove critical system files, delete configuration data, or eliminate essential application components that would require complete system reinstallation to restore. The vulnerability's exploitation potential increases significantly when considering that CubeCart installations often contain sensitive customer data, payment information, and business-critical configuration files within their file system hierarchy. The compromised administrative account represents a critical escalation point since it provides access to the full range of administrative functions including user management, database access, and file system operations. This vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1078.004 which covers "Valid Accounts: Cloud Accounts" but in this context represents a local privilege escalation scenario where administrative credentials are already compromised. The attack could potentially be used to establish persistence mechanisms or to cover tracks by removing audit logs and system artifacts.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2023-42428 primarily focus on immediate patching of affected CubeCart installations to version 6.5.3 or later, which includes proper input validation and path sanitization measures. Organizations should implement comprehensive access control policies ensuring that administrative privileges are strictly limited to authorized personnel and that principle of least privilege is enforced. Network segmentation and monitoring of administrative access patterns can help detect anomalous file system activity that might indicate exploitation attempts. The implementation of web application firewalls with content filtering capabilities can provide additional protection layers by detecting and blocking suspicious path traversal patterns in file system requests. Regular security assessments and vulnerability scanning should be conducted to identify similar issues in other components of the system architecture. System administrators should also establish robust backup procedures and access logging to ensure that any unauthorized file deletions can be detected and recovered from. The vulnerability serves as a reminder of the critical importance of input validation in web applications and demonstrates how seemingly small flaws in path handling can result in significant operational impact when combined with existing administrative access. Organizations should also consider implementing automated patch management systems to ensure timely deployment of security updates across all platform components.