CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2021-1420

Improper Neutralization of Script-Related HTML Tags in a Web Page (Basic XSS)

Published: Apr 08, 2021 | Modified: Nov 07, 2023
CVSS 3.x
4.7
MEDIUM
Source:
NVD
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:N
CVSS 2.x
4.3 MEDIUM
AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N
RedHat/V2
RedHat/V3
Ubuntu

A vulnerability in certain web pages of Cisco Webex Meetings could allow an unauthenticated, remote attacker to modify a web page in the context of a users browser. The vulnerability is due to improper checks on parameter values in affected pages. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by persuading a user to follow a crafted link that is designed to pass HTML code into an affected parameter. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to alter the contents of a web page to redirect the user to potentially malicious websites, or the attacker could use this vulnerability to conduct further client-side attacks.

Weakness

The product receives input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special characters such as “<”, “>”, and “&” that could be interpreted as web-scripting elements when they are sent to a downstream component that processes web pages.

Affected Software

Name Vendor Start Version End Version
Webex_meetings Cisco - (including) - (including)

Potential Mitigations

  • Use and specify an output encoding that can be handled by the downstream component that is reading the output. Common encodings include ISO-8859-1, UTF-7, and UTF-8. When an encoding is not specified, a downstream component may choose a different encoding, either by assuming a default encoding or automatically inferring which encoding is being used, which can be erroneous. When the encodings are inconsistent, the downstream component might treat some character or byte sequences as special, even if they are not special in the original encoding. Attackers might then be able to exploit this discrepancy and conduct injection attacks; they even might be able to bypass protection mechanisms that assume the original encoding is also being used by the downstream component.
  • The problem of inconsistent output encodings often arises in web pages. If an encoding is not specified in an HTTP header, web browsers often guess about which encoding is being used. This can open up the browser to subtle XSS attacks.

References