CVE Vulnerabilities

CVE-2023-20218

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

Published: Aug 03, 2023 | Modified: Nov 21, 2024
CVSS 3.x
6.1
MEDIUM
Source:
NVD
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
CVSS 2.x
RedHat/V2
RedHat/V3
Ubuntu

A vulnerability in web-based management interface of Cisco SPA500 Series Analog Telephone Adapters (ATAs) could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to to modify a web page in the context of a users browser. This vulnerability is due to insufficient validation of user-supplied input by the web-based management interface of the affected software. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by persuading a user to click a crafted link. 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. Cisco will not release software updates that address this vulnerability.
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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
Spa500ds_firmware 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