In the world of cybersecurity, vulnerability management is a high priority. One such vulnerability recently surfaced in FUEL CMS 1.5.2, a Content Management System (CMS) often used for building and managing websites. This vulnerability, identified as CVE-2024-25369, is a reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) flaw that can be exploited by attackers. In this post, we'll take a closer look at what this vulnerability entails, how it can be exploited, and how it can be patched to prevent potential attacks.
Vulnerability Description
CVE-2024-25369 is a Reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability found in FUEL CMS 1.5.2. XSS vulnerabilities occur when an application includes untrusted data in a new web page without proper validation or escaping, allowing an attacker to execute arbitrary scripts in the context of the user's browser. This particular vulnerability affects the 'group_id' parameter of the FUEL CMS, enabling attackers to inject malicious code via crafted strings.
Exploit Details
The CVE-2024-25369 vulnerability can be exploited by an attacker crafting a malicious URL containing a payload targeting the 'group_id' parameter of the FUEL CMS. Here's a code snippet that demonstrates how the crafted string could look like:
https://example.com/fuelcms/permissions/edit/?group_id=%22%3E%3Cscript%3Ealert(1)%3C/script%3E
In this example, %22%3E%3C is the URL-encoded representation of ">, which allows the attacker's script to break out of the attribute context in which the 'group_id' parameter is used. The alert(1) JavaScript code is used to display a pop-up alert, but this could easily be replaced with any malicious script.
Once the victim clicks on the malicious URL, the injected code in the 'group_id' parameter is executed, potentially leading to unauthorized access, data manipulation, session hijacking, and more.
For more details on this vulnerability, you can refer to the following sources
1. CVE-2024-25369 - National Vulnerability Database (NVD)
2. FUEL CMS 1.5.2 - Reflected XSS - Exploit-DB
Mitigation and Patching
To protect yourself against CVE-2024-25369, you need to patch your FUEL CMS instance. Developers of the FUEL CMS have released a security patch in version 1.5.3, which can be obtained from the official FUEL CMS repository. To update your FUEL CMS to the latest version, follow the steps outlined in the FUEL CMS upgrade guide.
Additionally, you should always observe best practices in web application security, such as input validation, output encoding, and following the principle of least privilege.
Conclusion
CVE-2024-25369 is a reflected XSS vulnerability in FUEL CMS 1.5.2, which allows attackers to run arbitrary code via a crafted string targeting the 'group_id' parameter. It is crucial for web administrators and developers to stay informed about vulnerabilities like these and take immediate action to patch and secure their web applications. By updating to the latest version of FUEL CMS and following security best practices, you can minimize the risk of falling victim to attacks exploiting this vulnerability.
Timeline
Published on: 02/22/2024 20:15:56 UTC
Last modified on: 02/23/2024 02:42:54 UTC