CVE-2022-44788: Session Fixation Vulnerability Discovered in Appalti & Contratti 9.12.2

Security researchers have discovered a new vulnerability with the identifier CVE-2022-44788 in Appalti & Contratti 9.12.2, a popular application for managing contracts and procurement. The vulnerability in question pertains to session fixation, which is a concerning issue in web applications that may lead to unauthorized access and, ultimately, compromise a user's sensitive data.

Details

The core problem surrounding the session fixation lies in the way Appalti & Contratti processes the JSESSIONID cookie. During the initial visit to the website, the server assigns a unique JSESSIONID cookie to the user. However, upon successful authentication, this cookie value should be updated to prevent session fixation attacks.

Upon investigation, it was discovered that the JSESSIONID cookie value issued by the server during the first visit is not being adequately updated after a successful login. This opens the door for potential attackers to exploit the vulnerability by inducing the user to log in with a predefined JSESSIONID.

Exploit Details

The exploitation of the CVE-2022-44788 vulnerability in Appalti & Contratti 9.12.2 involves a few steps:

Using a crafted URL, trick the victim into logging in with the predefined JSESSIONID value.

3. Once the victim successfully authenticates, the attacker can now hijack that session using the predefined JSESSIONID.

Code Snippet

Below is a simple Python code snippet demonstrating a potential attacker obtaining a JSESSIONID from the target server:

import requests

url = 'https://vulnerable-app.example.com/login';
response = requests.get(url)
cookies = response.cookies
jsessionid = cookies['JSESSIONID']
print('Captured JSESSIONID:', jsessionid)

After obtaining the JSESSIONID, an attacker can craft a malicious URL that includes the value for the JSESSIONID:

https://vulnerable-app.example.com/login?jsessionid=[captured_jsessionid_value]&redirect_uri=[attacker_controlled_url]

Finally, if a user accesses and logs in through the crafted URL, their session can be hijacked using the fixed session identifier.

Mitigation

To mitigate the CVE-2022-44788 session fixation vulnerability in Appalti & Contratti 9.12.2, administrators and developers should ensure that the application updates the JSESSIONID value upon successful user authentication. This typically involves regenerating the session identifier with a new value.

Conclusion

The CVE-2022-44788 session fixation vulnerability discovered in Appalti & Contratti 9.12.2 is a critical security issue that allows for unauthorized access to user data. By not adequately updating the JSESSIONID cookie value after a successful login, it leaves an opening for attackers to exploit and hijack user sessions.

References

For more details on the CVE-2022-44788 vulnerability and other related topics, consult the following resources:

1. CVE-2022-44788 - National Vulnerability Database (NVD): https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-44788
2. OWASP - Session Fixation: https://owasp.org/www-community/attacks/Session_fixation

Please ensure to keep your applications up to date, and follow best security practices to protect against such security threats.

Timeline

Published on: 11/21/2022 23:15:00 UTC
Last modified on: 11/23/2022 16:03:00 UTC