Vulnerability DatabaseCVE-2023-39777

CVE-2023-39777:
VBulletin vulnerability analysis and mitigation

Overview

A cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability was discovered in vBulletin versions 5.7.5 and 6.0.0, specifically affecting the Admin Control Panel. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023-39777, was disclosed on September 15, 2023. The vulnerability allows attackers to execute arbitrary web scripts or HTML through the /login.php?do=login url parameter (NVD, MITRE).

Technical details

The vulnerability exists due to inadequate input sanitization in the Admin Control Panel's login functionality. When an authenticated user accesses the '/admincp' path, the system fails to properly sanitize user input in the 'url' parameter, allowing injection of malicious JavaScript code. The vulnerability has been assigned a CVSS v3.1 Base Score of 5.4 (Medium) with the vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N (NVD).

Impact

The exploitation of this vulnerability could allow attackers to gain unauthorized access to the Admin Control Panel and potentially compromise sensitive site data. Successful exploitation could lead to the theft of administrator credentials, modification of site content, and execution of other malicious actions using administrator privileges (Security Online).

Mitigation and workarounds

As of the initial disclosure, no official patch was available. Security researchers recommend implementing proper input validation and output encoding to prevent XSS attacks in the Admin Control Panel, conducting comprehensive security reviews to identify and address potential security flaws, and ensuring the vBulletin software is updated to the latest version when patches become available (Security Online).