This blog post will cover recent findings of a reflective Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability in the Office Suite Premium Version v10.9.1.42602. CVE-2023-38617 has been assigned to this vulnerability and will be discussed in detail with specific code snippets and original references to provide a comprehensive understanding of the issue. Furthermore, exploit details will be shared to provide insights into how this vulnerability can be exploited.

Background

Office Suite Premium is a popular office software solution for businesses and individual users, which provides tools for working with documents, spreadsheets, presentations and more. In version v10.9.1.42602 of Office Suite Premium, a vulnerability has been discovered that can potentially allow malicious users to inject and execute arbitrary HTML or JavaScript code, posing a significant security risk to users and organizations.

Vulnerability Details

The vulnerability, identified as CVE-2023-38617, specifically affects the filter parameter at the /api?path=files endpoint of Office Suite Premium v10.9.1.42602. The issue lies in the improper handling of user-supplied input data in the filter field, allowing an attacker to craft and execute malicious scripts on the application's web interface.

The code snippet below demonstrates how the filter parameter of /api?path=files is vulnerable to a reflected XSS attack:

// In the vulnerable filter parameter handling code
function filterFiles(input) {
  let allFiles = getAllFiles();
  
  // Improper filtering operation
  let filteredFiles = allFiles.filter(file => file.toLowerCase().includes(input.toLowerCase()));
  
  displayFilteredFiles(filteredFiles);
}

An attacker can exploit this vulnerability by crafting a malicious URL, which loads the filter parameter with an XSS payload, as shown below:

http://example.com/api?path=files&filter=<script>alert(document.cookie)</script>;

If the targeted user clicks on this malicious URL, the embedded code within the script tag gets executed in the user’s browser, potentially exposing sensitive data such as login credentials or session cookies. This type of attack is known as a reflective XSS attack, as the malicious code is embedded in the URL itself and is then executed when loaded on the user's browser.

Original References

1. CVE-2023-38617 - Official CVE details.
2. National Vulnerability Database - Additional information and CVSS scoring.
3. Office Suite Advisory - Manufacturer's advisory on the security issue (Please note that this is a placeholder link for example purposes).

An attacker could follow these steps to exploit the CVE-2023-38617 vulnerability

1. Identify a target using Office Suite Premium Version v10.9.1.42602 with a known /api?path=files endpoint.

Craft a malicious URL as mentioned above, replacing example.com with the targeted domain.

3. Send this URL to the target disguised in an email or instant message, enticing the user to click on it.

Mitigation

To mitigate this vulnerability, Office Suite Premium users are advised to update their software to the latest version, as it is expected that the manufacturer will release a security patch addressing this issue soon. Alternatively, users can implement proper input validation and output encoding techniques such as using safe APIs, sanitizing user-inputs, and applying Content Security Policy (CSP) to their application.

Conclusion

CVE-2023-38617 demonstrates the importance of proper input validation and output encoding in web applications, as well as the need for staying up-to-date with security patches and best practices. As a user, be cautious when clicking on links from untrusted sources and ensure that you are using the latest version of your software to avoid unnecessary exposure to known security vulnerabilities.

Timeline

Published on: 07/20/2023 19:15:00 UTC
Last modified on: 07/31/2023 17:54:00 UTC