Cross-site scripting in Xapian xapian-core

1) Cross-site scripting

EUVDB-ID: #VU13797

Risk: Low

CVSSv3.1: 5.3 [CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N/E:U/RL:O/RC:C]

CVE-ID: CVE-2018-0499

CWE-ID: CWE-79 - Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting')

Exploit availability: No

Description

The disclosed vulnerability allows a remote attacker to perform cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks.

The vulnerability exists due to insufficient HTML escaping by the Xapian::MSet::snippet() function, as defined in the queryparser/termgenerator_internal.cc code. A remote attacker can trick the victim to follow a specially crafted link and execute arbitrary HTML and script code in user's browser in context of vulnerable website.

Successful exploitation of this vulnerability may allow a remote attacker to steal potentially sensitive information, change appearance of the web page, perform phishing and drive-by-download attacks.

Mitigation

Update to version 1.4.6.

Vulnerable software versions

xapian-core: 1.2.3 - 1.4.2

External links

http://trac.xapian.org/wiki/SecurityFixes/2018-07-02#CVE-2018-0499IncompleteHTMLescapingbyXapian::M...

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

Yes. This vulnerability can be exploited by a remote non-authenticated attacker via the Internet.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.