[waraxe-2012-SA#087] - Reflected XSS in Joomla 1.5.26 "ja_purity" template

Author: Janek Vind "waraxe"
Date: 03. May 2012
Location: Estonia, Tartu
Web: http://www.waraxe.us/advisory-87.html
CVE: http://cve.mitre.org/cgi-bin/cvename.cgi?name=CVE-2012-2413

Description of vulnerable software:

Joomla is one of the world's most popular open source CMS (content management
system). With millions of websites running on Joomla, the software is used by
individuals, small & medium-sized businesses, and large organizations worldwide
to easily create & build a variety of websites & web-enabled applications. 


Vulnerable versions

Affected is Joomla version 1.5.26, older versions may be vulnerable as well.

###############################################################################

1. Reflected XSS in Joomla 1.5.26 "ja_purity" template
   ###############################################################################

CVE Information:

The Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) project has assigned the
name CVE-2012-2413 to this issue. This is a candidate for inclusion in
the CVE list (http://cve.mitre.org/), which standardizes names for
security problems.

Vulnerability Details:

Reason: outputting html data without proper encoding
Attack vector: user-provided cookie parameter
Preconditions:
1. "ja_purity" template must be in use
Result: XSS attack possibilities

Source code snippet from "templates/ja_purity/html/modules.php":
-----------------[ source code start ]---------------------------------
function modChrome_jarounded($module, &$params, &$attribs)
{
?>
<div class="jamod module<?php echo $params->get('moduleclass_sfx'); ?>" id="Mod<?php echo $module->id; ?>">
<div>
<div>
<div>
<?php if ($module->showtitle != 0) : ?>
<?php
if(isset($_COOKIE['Mod'.$module->id])) $modhide = $_COOKIE['Mod'.$module->id];
else $modhide = 'show';
?>
<h3 class="<?php echo $modhide; ?>"><span><?php echo $module->title; ?></span></h3>
-----------------[ source code end ]-----------------------------------

As seen above, user-provided cookie parameter is used for outputting html.
No data sanitization, which indicates Reflected XSS vulnerability issue.

Disclosure Timeline:

20.04.2012 Developers contacted via email, no response
24.04.2012 CVE identifier request
25.04.2012 Got CVE identifier
26.04.2012 Second attempt contacting developers via email, no response
03.05.2012 Advisory published


Contact:

[email protected]
Janek Vind "waraxe"

Waraxe forum: http://www.waraxe.us/forums.html
Personal homepage: http://www.janekvind.com/
Random project: http://albumnow.com/
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