CVE-2010-0684: Apache ActiveMQ Persistent Cross-Site Scripting (XSS)
Vulnerability

Security Advisory 03.30.2010

I. BACKGROUND

Apache ActiveMQ is the most popular and powerful open source
messaging and Integration Patterns provider.

http://activemq.apache.org/

II. DESCRIPTION

Remote unauthenticated exploitation of an input validation
vulnerability in Apache Software Foundation's ActiveMQ server could
allow an attacker to perform a
stored or persistent cross-site scripting (XSS) attack. The code
responsible for parsing HTTP requests is vulnerable to an XSS
vulnerability. When parsing the JMSDestination parameter from a GET
request to /createDestination.action page, the value of this variable
is directly inserted into the HTML code that can be accessed by using
URLs such as /queues.jsp. This allows an attacker to run arbitrary
JavaScript in the context of the affected domain of the ActiveMQ
administration console.

III. ANALYSIS

Successful exploitation of this vulnerability allows an attacker to
conduct an XSS attack on a user. This could allow an attacker to steal
cookies, inject content into pages, or submit requests using the
user's credentials. To exploit this vulnerability, an attacker must
send malicious request to the vulnerable Active MQ server such as the
following request:
http://www.example.com/createDestination.action?JMSDestination=[XSS_PAYLOAD]
Once this request is sent, anyone accessing the ActiveMQ queues would
have the XSS payload executed in the context of the browser session
being used to browse using a URL such as:
http://www.example.com/queues.jsp

IV. DETECTION

The author and Apache Software Foundation's ActiveMQ group has
confirmed this vulnerability.

V. WORKAROUND

The author is currently unaware of any workaround for this issue but
fix has been released by the vendor.

VI. VENDOR RESPONSE

The Apache Software Foundation ActiveMQ team has addressed this
vulnerability by releasing version 5.3.1 of ActiveMQ.
More information can be found at the following URL.
http://issues.apache.org/activemq/browse/AMQ-2613

VII. CVE INFORMATION

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) project has assigned
the name CVE-2010-0684 to this issue. This is a candidate for
inclusion in the CVE list (http://cve.mitre.org/), which standardizes
names for security problems.

VIII. DISCLOSURE TIMELINE

02/17/2010 Initial vendor notification
02/17/2010 Initial vendor response
02/23/2010 Vendor Fix committed to SVN
03/24/2010 ActiveMQ 5.3.1 publicly released to fix the issue
03/30/2010 Coordinated public disclosure

IX. CREDIT

This vulnerability was reported by Rajat Swarup (http://www.rajatswarup.com).

X. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The author wishes to thank Rob Davies and Dejan Bosanac of Apache
ActiveMQ team for fixing the issues on a high priority.