Vulnerabilities > CVE-2009-3618 - Cross-site Scripting vulnerability in Viewvc

047910
CVSS 0.0 - NONE
Attack vector
UNKNOWN
Attack complexity
UNKNOWN
Privileges required
UNKNOWN
Confidentiality impact
UNKNOWN
Integrity impact
UNKNOWN
Availability impact
UNKNOWN
viewvc
CWE-79
nessus
NVD
Published: 2009-11-10
Updated: 2023-11-07

Summary

Cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in viewvc.py in ViewVC 1.0 before 1.0.9 and 1.1 before 1.1.2 allows remote attackers to inject arbitrary web script or HTML via the view parameter. NOTE: some of these details are obtained from third party information.

Vulnerable Configurations

Part Description Count
Application
Viewvc
10

Common Weakness Enumeration (CWE)

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)

  • Cross Site Scripting through Log Files
    An attacker may leverage a system weakness where logs are susceptible to log injection to insert scripts into the system's logs. If these logs are later viewed by an administrator through a thin administrative interface and the log data is not properly HTML encoded before being written to the page, the attackers' scripts stored in the log will be executed in the administrative interface with potentially serious consequences. This attack pattern is really a combination of two other attack patterns: log injection and stored cross site scripting.
  • Embedding Scripts in Non-Script Elements
    This attack is a form of Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) where malicious scripts are embedded in elements that are not expected to host scripts such as image tags (<img>), comments in XML documents (< !-CDATA->), etc. These tags may not be subject to the same input validation, output validation, and other content filtering and checking routines, so this can create an opportunity for an attacker to tunnel through the application's elements and launch a XSS attack through other elements. As with all remote attacks, it is important to differentiate the ability to launch an attack (such as probing an internal network for unpatched servers) and the ability of the remote attacker to collect and interpret the output of said attack.
  • Embedding Scripts within Scripts
    An attack of this type exploits a programs' vulnerabilities that are brought on by allowing remote hosts to execute scripts. The attacker leverages this capability to execute scripts to execute his/her own script by embedding it within other scripts that the target software is likely to execute. The attacker must have the ability to inject script into script that is likely to be executed. If this is done, then the attacker can potentially launch a variety of probes and attacks against the web server's local environment, in many cases the so-called DMZ, back end resources the web server can communicate with, and other hosts. With the proliferation of intermediaries, such as Web App Firewalls, network devices, and even printers having JVMs and Web servers, there are many locales where an attacker can inject malicious scripts. Since this attack pattern defines scripts within scripts, there are likely privileges to execute said attack on the host. Of course, these attacks are not solely limited to the server side, client side scripts like Ajax and client side JavaScript can contain malicious scripts as well. In general all that is required is for there to be sufficient privileges to execute a script, but not protected against writing.
  • Cross-Site Scripting in Error Pages
    An attacker distributes a link (or possibly some other query structure) with a request to a third party web server that is malformed and also contains a block of exploit code in order to have the exploit become live code in the resulting error page. When the third party web server receives the crafted request and notes the error it then creates an error message that echoes the malformed message, including the exploit. Doing this converts the exploit portion of the message into to valid language elements that are executed by the viewing browser. When a victim executes the query provided by the attacker the infected error message error message is returned including the exploit code which then runs in the victim's browser. XSS can result in execution of code as well as data leakage (e.g. session cookies can be sent to the attacker). This type of attack is especially dangerous since the exploit appears to come from the third party web server, who the victim may trust and hence be more vulnerable to deception.
  • Cross-Site Scripting Using Alternate Syntax
    The attacker uses alternate forms of keywords or commands that result in the same action as the primary form but which may not be caught by filters. For example, many keywords are processed in a case insensitive manner. If the site's web filtering algorithm does not convert all tags into a consistent case before the comparison with forbidden keywords it is possible to bypass filters (e.g., incomplete black lists) by using an alternate case structure. For example, the "script" tag using the alternate forms of "Script" or "ScRiPt" may bypass filters where "script" is the only form tested. Other variants using different syntax representations are also possible as well as using pollution meta-characters or entities that are eventually ignored by the rendering engine. The attack can result in the execution of otherwise prohibited functionality.

Nessus

  • NASL familySuSE Local Security Checks
    NASL idSUSE_VIEWVC-6578.NASL
    descriptionUpdate of viewvc to version 1.0.9 fixes a cross-site scripting (XSS) problem and enhances filtering of illegal characters when displaying error messages (CVE-2009-3618, CVE-2009-3619).
    last seen2020-06-01
    modified2020-06-02
    plugin id42328
    published2009-10-30
    reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2009-2019 Tenable Network Security, Inc.
    sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/42328
    titleopenSUSE 10 Security Update : viewvc (viewvc-6578)
    code
    #%NASL_MIN_LEVEL 80502
#
# (C) Tenable Network Security, Inc.
#
# The descriptive text and package checks in this plugin were
# extracted from openSUSE Security Update viewvc-6578.
#
# The text description of this plugin is (C) SUSE LLC.
#

include("compat.inc");

if (description)
{
  script_id(42328);
  script_version ("1.8");
  script_cvs_date("Date: 2019/10/25 13:36:37");

  script_cve_id("CVE-2009-3618", "CVE-2009-3619");

  script_name(english:"openSUSE 10 Security Update : viewvc (viewvc-6578)");
  script_summary(english:"Check for the viewvc-6578 patch");

  script_set_attribute(
    attribute:"synopsis", 
    value:"The remote openSUSE host is missing a security update."
  );
  script_set_attribute(
    attribute:"description", 
    value:
"Update of viewvc to version 1.0.9 fixes a cross-site scripting (XSS)
problem and enhances filtering of illegal characters when displaying
error messages (CVE-2009-3618, CVE-2009-3619)."
  );
  script_set_attribute(
    attribute:"solution", 
    value:"Update the affected viewvc package."
  );
  script_set_cvss_base_vector("CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N");
  script_cwe_id(79);

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_type", value:"local");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"p-cpe:/a:novell:opensuse:viewvc");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:novell:opensuse:10.3");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"patch_publication_date", value:"2009/10/20");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_publication_date", value:"2009/10/30");
  script_end_attributes();

  script_category(ACT_GATHER_INFO);
  script_copyright(english:"This script is Copyright (C) 2009-2019 Tenable Network Security, Inc.");
  script_family(english:"SuSE Local Security Checks");

  script_dependencies("ssh_get_info.nasl");
  script_require_keys("Host/local_checks_enabled", "Host/SuSE/release", "Host/SuSE/rpm-list", "Host/cpu");

  exit(0);
}


include("audit.inc");
include("global_settings.inc");
include("rpm.inc");

if (!get_kb_item("Host/local_checks_enabled")) audit(AUDIT_LOCAL_CHECKS_NOT_ENABLED);
release = get_kb_item("Host/SuSE/release");
if (isnull(release) || release =~ "^(SLED|SLES)") audit(AUDIT_OS_NOT, "openSUSE");
if (release !~ "^(SUSE10\.3)$") audit(AUDIT_OS_RELEASE_NOT, "openSUSE", "10.3", release);
if (!get_kb_item("Host/SuSE/rpm-list")) audit(AUDIT_PACKAGE_LIST_MISSING);

ourarch = get_kb_item("Host/cpu");
if (!ourarch) audit(AUDIT_UNKNOWN_ARCH);
if (ourarch !~ "^(i586|i686|x86_64)$") audit(AUDIT_ARCH_NOT, "i586 / i686 / x86_64", ourarch);

flag = 0;

if ( rpm_check(release:"SUSE10.3", reference:"viewvc-1.0.9-0.1") ) flag++;

if (flag)
{
  if (report_verbosity > 0) security_warning(port:0, extra:rpm_report_get());
  else security_warning(0);
  exit(0);
}
else
{
  tested = pkg_tests_get();
  if (tested) audit(AUDIT_PACKAGE_NOT_AFFECTED, tested);
  else audit(AUDIT_PACKAGE_NOT_INSTALLED, "viewvc");
}
  • NASL familyFedora Local Security Checks
    NASL idFEDORA_2009-8501.NASL
    descriptionCHANGES in 1.0.9: - security fix: validate the
    last seen2020-06-01
    modified2020-06-02
    plugin id40581
    published2009-08-13
    reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2009-2019 Tenable Network Security, Inc.
    sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/40581
    titleFedora 10 : viewvc-1.0.9-1.fc10 (2009-8501)
    code
    #%NASL_MIN_LEVEL 80502
#
# (C) Tenable Network Security, Inc.
#
# The descriptive text and package checks in this plugin were  
# extracted from Fedora Security Advisory 2009-8501.
#

include("compat.inc");

if (description)
{
  script_id(40581);
  script_version ("1.10");
  script_cvs_date("Date: 2019/08/02 13:32:30");

  script_cve_id("CVE-2009-3618", "CVE-2009-3619");
  script_xref(name:"FEDORA", value:"2009-8501");

  script_name(english:"Fedora 10 : viewvc-1.0.9-1.fc10 (2009-8501)");
  script_summary(english:"Checks rpm output for the updated package.");

  script_set_attribute(
    attribute:"synopsis", 
    value:"The remote Fedora host is missing a security update."
  );
  script_set_attribute(
    attribute:"description", 
    value:
"CHANGES in 1.0.9: - security fix: validate the 'view' parameter to
avoid XSS attack - security fix: avoid printing illegal parameter
names and values Also includes: Patch by Patrick Monnerat to make
allow_tar work on F-10.

Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding
description block directly from the Fedora security advisory. Tenable
has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible
without introducing additional issues."
  );
  script_set_attribute(
    attribute:"see_also",
    value:"https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=513006"
  );
  # https://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2009-August/027827.html
  script_set_attribute(
    attribute:"see_also",
    value:"http://www.nessus.org/u?19255a65"
  );
  script_set_attribute(
    attribute:"solution", 
    value:"Update the affected viewvc package."
  );
  script_set_cvss_base_vector("CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N");
  script_cwe_id(79);

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_type", value:"local");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"p-cpe:/a:fedoraproject:fedora:viewvc");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:fedoraproject:fedora:10");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"patch_publication_date", value:"2009/08/12");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_publication_date", value:"2009/08/13");
  script_end_attributes();

  script_category(ACT_GATHER_INFO);
  script_copyright(english:"This script is Copyright (C) 2009-2019 Tenable Network Security, Inc.");
  script_family(english:"Fedora Local Security Checks");

  script_dependencies("ssh_get_info.nasl");
  script_require_keys("Host/local_checks_enabled", "Host/RedHat/release", "Host/RedHat/rpm-list");

  exit(0);
}


include("audit.inc");
include("global_settings.inc");
include("rpm.inc");

if (!get_kb_item("Host/local_checks_enabled")) audit(AUDIT_LOCAL_CHECKS_NOT_ENABLED);
release = get_kb_item("Host/RedHat/release");
if (isnull(release) || "Fedora" >!< release) audit(AUDIT_OS_NOT, "Fedora");
os_ver = eregmatch(pattern: "Fedora.*release ([0-9]+)", string:release);
if (isnull(os_ver)) audit(AUDIT_UNKNOWN_APP_VER, "Fedora");
os_ver = os_ver[1];
if (! ereg(pattern:"^10([^0-9]|$)", string:os_ver)) audit(AUDIT_OS_NOT, "Fedora 10.x", "Fedora " + os_ver);

if (!get_kb_item("Host/RedHat/rpm-list")) audit(AUDIT_PACKAGE_LIST_MISSING);

cpu = get_kb_item("Host/cpu");
if (isnull(cpu)) audit(AUDIT_UNKNOWN_ARCH);
if ("x86_64" >!< cpu && cpu !~ "^i[3-6]86$") audit(AUDIT_LOCAL_CHECKS_NOT_IMPLEMENTED, "Fedora", cpu);

flag = 0;
if (rpm_check(release:"FC10", reference:"viewvc-1.0.9-1.fc10")) flag++;


if (flag)
{
  if (report_verbosity > 0) security_warning(port:0, extra:rpm_report_get());
  else security_warning(0);
  exit(0);
}
else
{
  tested = pkg_tests_get();
  if (tested) audit(AUDIT_PACKAGE_NOT_AFFECTED, tested);
  else audit(AUDIT_PACKAGE_NOT_INSTALLED, "viewvc");
}
  • NASL familySuSE Local Security Checks
    NASL idSUSE_11_0_VIEWVC-091021.NASL
    descriptionUpdate of viewvc to version 1.0.9 fixes a cross-site scripting (XSS) problem and enhances filtering of illegal characters when displaying error messages (CVE-2009-3618, CVE-2009-3619).
    last seen2020-06-01
    modified2020-06-02
    plugin id42246
    published2009-10-26
    reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2009-2019 Tenable Network Security, Inc.
    sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/42246
    titleopenSUSE Security Update : viewvc (viewvc-1420)
    code
    #%NASL_MIN_LEVEL 80502
#
# (C) Tenable Network Security, Inc.
#
# The descriptive text and package checks in this plugin were
# extracted from openSUSE Security Update viewvc-1420.
#
# The text description of this plugin is (C) SUSE LLC.
#

include("compat.inc");

if (description)
{
  script_id(42246);
  script_version("1.9");
  script_cvs_date("Date: 2019/10/25 13:36:34");

  script_cve_id("CVE-2009-3618", "CVE-2009-3619");

  script_name(english:"openSUSE Security Update : viewvc (viewvc-1420)");
  script_summary(english:"Check for the viewvc-1420 patch");

  script_set_attribute(
    attribute:"synopsis", 
    value:"The remote openSUSE host is missing a security update."
  );
  script_set_attribute(
    attribute:"description", 
    value:
"Update of viewvc to version 1.0.9 fixes a cross-site scripting (XSS)
problem and enhances filtering of illegal characters when displaying
error messages (CVE-2009-3618, CVE-2009-3619)."
  );
  script_set_attribute(
    attribute:"see_also",
    value:"https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=537154"
  );
  script_set_attribute(
    attribute:"solution", 
    value:"Update the affected viewvc package."
  );
  script_set_cvss_base_vector("CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N");
  script_cwe_id(79);

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_type", value:"local");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"p-cpe:/a:novell:opensuse:viewvc");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:novell:opensuse:11.0");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"patch_publication_date", value:"2009/10/21");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_publication_date", value:"2009/10/26");
  script_end_attributes();

  script_category(ACT_GATHER_INFO);
  script_copyright(english:"This script is Copyright (C) 2009-2019 Tenable Network Security, Inc.");
  script_family(english:"SuSE Local Security Checks");

  script_dependencies("ssh_get_info.nasl");
  script_require_keys("Host/local_checks_enabled", "Host/SuSE/release", "Host/SuSE/rpm-list", "Host/cpu");

  exit(0);
}


include("audit.inc");
include("global_settings.inc");
include("rpm.inc");

if (!get_kb_item("Host/local_checks_enabled")) audit(AUDIT_LOCAL_CHECKS_NOT_ENABLED);
release = get_kb_item("Host/SuSE/release");
if (isnull(release) || release =~ "^(SLED|SLES)") audit(AUDIT_OS_NOT, "openSUSE");
if (release !~ "^(SUSE11\.0)$") audit(AUDIT_OS_RELEASE_NOT, "openSUSE", "11.0", release);
if (!get_kb_item("Host/SuSE/rpm-list")) audit(AUDIT_PACKAGE_LIST_MISSING);

ourarch = get_kb_item("Host/cpu");
if (!ourarch) audit(AUDIT_UNKNOWN_ARCH);
if (ourarch !~ "^(i586|i686|x86_64)$") audit(AUDIT_ARCH_NOT, "i586 / i686 / x86_64", ourarch);

flag = 0;

if ( rpm_check(release:"SUSE11.0", reference:"viewvc-1.0.9-0.1") ) flag++;

if (flag)
{
  if (report_verbosity > 0) security_warning(port:0, extra:rpm_report_get());
  else security_warning(0);
  exit(0);
}
else
{
  tested = pkg_tests_get();
  if (tested) audit(AUDIT_PACKAGE_NOT_AFFECTED, tested);
  else audit(AUDIT_PACKAGE_NOT_INSTALLED, "viewvc");
}
  • NASL familyFedora Local Security Checks
    NASL idFEDORA_2009-8507.NASL
    descriptionCHANGES in 1.1.2: - security fix: validate the
    last seen2020-06-01
    modified2020-06-02
    plugin id40582
    published2009-08-13
    reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2009-2019 Tenable Network Security, Inc.
    sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/40582
    titleFedora 11 : viewvc-1.1.2-2.fc11 (2009-8507)
    code
    #%NASL_MIN_LEVEL 80502
#
# (C) Tenable Network Security, Inc.
#
# The descriptive text and package checks in this plugin were  
# extracted from Fedora Security Advisory 2009-8507.
#

include("compat.inc");

if (description)
{
  script_id(40582);
  script_version ("1.10");
  script_cvs_date("Date: 2019/08/02 13:32:30");

  script_cve_id("CVE-2009-3618", "CVE-2009-3619");
  script_xref(name:"FEDORA", value:"2009-8507");

  script_name(english:"Fedora 11 : viewvc-1.1.2-2.fc11 (2009-8507)");
  script_summary(english:"Checks rpm output for the updated package.");

  script_set_attribute(
    attribute:"synopsis", 
    value:"The remote Fedora host is missing a security update."
  );
  script_set_attribute(
    attribute:"description", 
    value:
"CHANGES in 1.1.2: - security fix: validate the 'view' parameter to
avoid XSS attack - security fix: avoid printing illegal parameter
names and values - add optional support for character encoding
detection (issue #400) - fix username case handling in svnauthz module
(issue #419) - fix cvsdbadmin/svnadmin rebuild error on missing repos
(issue #420) - don't drop leading blank lines from colorized file
contents (issue #422) - add file.ezt template logic for optionally
hiding binary file contents Also includes: Install and populate
mimetypes.conf. This should hopefully help when colouring syntax using
pygments. Install and populate mimetypes.conf.

Note that Tenable Network Security has extracted the preceding
description block directly from the Fedora security advisory. Tenable
has attempted to automatically clean and format it as much as possible
without introducing additional issues."
  );
  script_set_attribute(
    attribute:"see_also",
    value:"https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=514773"
  );
  script_set_attribute(
    attribute:"see_also",
    value:"https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=514909"
  );
  script_set_attribute(
    attribute:"see_also",
    value:"https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=516958"
  );
  # https://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/package-announce/2009-August/027836.html
  script_set_attribute(
    attribute:"see_also",
    value:"http://www.nessus.org/u?e7b4e9f2"
  );
  script_set_attribute(
    attribute:"solution", 
    value:"Update the affected viewvc package."
  );
  script_set_cvss_base_vector("CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N");
  script_cwe_id(79);

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_type", value:"local");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"p-cpe:/a:fedoraproject:fedora:viewvc");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"cpe", value:"cpe:/o:fedoraproject:fedora:11");

  script_set_attribute(attribute:"patch_publication_date", value:"2009/08/12");
  script_set_attribute(attribute:"plugin_publication_date", value:"2009/08/13");
  script_end_attributes();

  script_category(ACT_GATHER_INFO);
  script_copyright(english:"This script is Copyright (C) 2009-2019 Tenable Network Security, Inc.");
  script_family(english:"Fedora Local Security Checks");

  script_dependencies("ssh_get_info.nasl");
  script_require_keys("Host/local_checks_enabled", "Host/RedHat/release", "Host/RedHat/rpm-list");

  exit(0);
}


include("audit.inc");
include("global_settings.inc");
include("rpm.inc");

if (!get_kb_item("Host/local_checks_enabled")) audit(AUDIT_LOCAL_CHECKS_NOT_ENABLED);
release = get_kb_item("Host/RedHat/release");
if (isnull(release) || "Fedora" >!< release) audit(AUDIT_OS_NOT, "Fedora");
os_ver = eregmatch(pattern: "Fedora.*release ([0-9]+)", string:release);
if (isnull(os_ver)) audit(AUDIT_UNKNOWN_APP_VER, "Fedora");
os_ver = os_ver[1];
if (! ereg(pattern:"^11([^0-9]|$)", string:os_ver)) audit(AUDIT_OS_NOT, "Fedora 11.x", "Fedora " + os_ver);

if (!get_kb_item("Host/RedHat/rpm-list")) audit(AUDIT_PACKAGE_LIST_MISSING);

cpu = get_kb_item("Host/cpu");
if (isnull(cpu)) audit(AUDIT_UNKNOWN_ARCH);
if ("x86_64" >!< cpu && cpu !~ "^i[3-6]86$") audit(AUDIT_LOCAL_CHECKS_NOT_IMPLEMENTED, "Fedora", cpu);

flag = 0;
if (rpm_check(release:"FC11", reference:"viewvc-1.1.2-2.fc11")) flag++;


if (flag)
{
  if (report_verbosity > 0) security_warning(port:0, extra:rpm_report_get());
  else security_warning(0);
  exit(0);
}
else
{
  tested = pkg_tests_get();
  if (tested) audit(AUDIT_PACKAGE_NOT_AFFECTED, tested);
  else audit(AUDIT_PACKAGE_NOT_INSTALLED, "viewvc");
}
  • NASL familySuSE Local Security Checks
    NASL idSUSE_11_1_VIEWVC-091020.NASL
    descriptionUpdate of viewvc to version 1.0.9 fixes a cross-site scripting (XSS) problem and enhances filtering of illegal characters when displaying error messages (CVE-2009-3618, CVE-2009-3619).
    last seen2020-06-01
    modified2020-06-02
    plugin id42249
    published2009-10-26
    reporterThis script is Copyright (C) 2009-2019 Tenable Network Security, Inc.
    sourcehttps://www.tenable.com/plugins/nessus/42249
    titleopenSUSE Security Update : viewvc (viewvc-1420)

References