New York Times nytimes.com Page Design XSS Vulnerability (Almost all Article Pages Before 2013 are Affected)

The New York Times  Old Articles Can Be Exploited by XSS Attacks (Almost all Article Pages Before 2013 Are Affected)

Domain:

http://www.nytimes.com/



"The New York Times (NYT) is an American daily newspaper, founded and continuously published in New York City since September 18, 1851, by the New York Times Company. It has won 114 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other news organization. The paper's print version has the largest circulation of any metropolitan newspaper in the United States, and the second-largest circulation overall, behind The Wall Street Journal. It is ranked 39th in the world by circulation. Following industry trends, its weekday circulation has fallen to fewer than one million daily since 1990. Nicknamed for years as "The Gray Lady", The New York Times is long regarded within the industry as a national "newspaper of record". It is owned by The New York Times Company. Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr., (whose family (Ochs-Sulzberger) has controlled the paper for five generations, since 1896), is both the paper's publisher and the company's chairman. Its international version, formerly the International Herald Tribune, is now called the International New York Times. The paper's motto, "All the News That's Fit to Print", appears in the upper left-hand corner of the front page." (Wikipedia)

(1) Vulnerability Description:

The New York Times has a computer cyber security problem. Hacker can exploit its users by XSS bugs. 

The code program flaw occurs at New York Times’s URLs. Nytimes (short for New York Times) uses part of the URLs to construct its pages. However, it seems that Nytimes does not filter the content used for the construction at all before 2013.

Based on Nytimes’s Design, Almost all URLs before 2013 are affected (All pages of articles). In fact, all article pages that contain “PRINT” button, “SINGLE PAGE” button, “Page *” button, “NEXT PAGE” button are affected.

Nytimes changed this mechanism since 2013. It decodes the URLs sent to its server. This makes the mechanism much safer now.

However, all URLs before 2013 are still using the old mechanism. This means almost all article pages before 2013 are still vulnerable to XSS attacks. I guess the reason Nytimes does not filter URLs before is cost. It costs too much (money & human capital) to change the database of all posted articles before.

Living POCs Codes:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/sunday-review/big-datas-impact-in-the-world.html//' "><img src=x onerror=prompt(/justqdjing/)>
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/travel/09where-to-go.html//' "><img src=x onerror=prompt(/justqdjing/)>?pagewanted=all&_r=0
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/07/opinion/07brooks.html//' "><img src=x onerror=prompt(/justqdjing/)>
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/06/technology/06stats.html//' "><img src=x onerror=prompt(/justqdjing/)>
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/09/dining/091crex.html//' "><img src=x onerror=prompt(/justqdjing/)>
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/14/opinion/lweb14brain.html//' "><img src=x onerror=prompt(/justqdjing/)>

POC Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RekCK5tjXWQ


Blog Details:
http://tetraph.blogspot.com/2014/10/new-york-times-nytimescom-page-design.html

(2) Vulnerability Analysis:

Take the following link as an example,

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/sunday-review/big-datas-impact-in-the-world.html/“><vulnerabletoattack

It can see that for the page reflected, it contains the following codes. All of them are vulnerable.

<li class=”print”>

<a href=”/2012/02/12/sunday-review/big-datas-impact-in-the-world.html/”><vulnerabletoattack?pagewanted=print”>Print</testtesttest?pagewanted=print”></a>

</li>

<li class=”singlePage”>

<a href=”/2012/02/12/sunday-review/big-datas-impact-in-the-world.html/”><testtesttest?pagewanted=all”> Single Page</vulnerabletoattack?pagewanted=all”></a>

 </li>

<li> <a onclick=”s_code_linktrack(‘Article-MultiPagePageNum2′);” title=”Page 2″ href=”/2012/02/12/sunday-review/big-datas-impact-in-the-world.html/”><vulnerabletoattack?pagewanted=2″>2</testtesttest?pagewanted=2″></a> 
</li>

<li> <a onclick=”s_code_linktrack(‘Article-MultiPagePageNum3′);” title=”Page 3″ href=”/2012/02/12/sunday-review/big-datas-impact-in-the-world.html/”><vulnerabletoattack?pagewanted=3″>3</testtesttest?pagewanted=3″></a> 
</li>

<a class=”next” onclick=”s_code_linktrack(‘Article-MultiPage-Next’);” title=”Next Page” href=”/2012/02/12/sunday-review/big-datas-impact-in-the-world.html/”><vulnerabletoattack?pagewanted=2″>Next Page »</testtesttest?pagewanted=2″></a>






(3) What is XSS?
Cross-site scripting (XSS) is a type of computer security vulnerability typically found in Web applications. XSS enables attackers to inject client-side script into Web pages viewed by other users. A cross-site scripting vulnerability may be used by attackers to bypass access controls such as the same origin policy.


"Hackers are constantly experimenting with a wide repertoire of hacking techniques to compromise websites and web applications and make off with a treasure trove of sensitive data including credit card numbers, social security numbers and even medical records. Cross-site Scripting (also known as XSS or CSS) is generally believed to be one of the most common application layer hacking techniques Cross-site Scripting allows an attacker to embed malicious JavaScript, VBScript, ActiveX, HTML, or Flash into a vulnerable dynamic page to fool the user, executing the script on his machine in order to gather data. The use of XSS might compromise private information, manipulate or steal cookies, create requests that can be mistaken for those of a valid user, or execute malicious code on the end-user systems. The data is usually formatted as a hyperlink containing malicious content and which is distributed over any possible means on the internet." (Acunetix)

The vulnerability can be attacked without user login. Tests were performed on Firefox (34.0) in Ubuntu (14.04) and IE (9.0.15) in Windows 8.

Discover and Reporter:

Jing Wang, Division of Mathematical Sciences (MAS), School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (SPMS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. (@justqdjing)

http://www.tetraph.com/wangjing

More Details:

http://lists.openwall.net/full-disclosure/2014/10/16/2
http://www.tetraph.com/blog/xss-vulnerability/new-york-times-xss
http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.security.fulldisclosure/1102
http://webcabinet.tumblr.com/post/121907302752/new-york-times-xss
http://www.inzeed.com/kaleidoscope/xss-vulnerability/new-york-times-xss
https://progressive-comp.com/?l=full-disclosure&m=141343993908563&w=1
http://webtech.lofter.com/post/1cd3e0d3_6f57c56
http://tetraph.blog.163.com/blog/static/2346030512014101270479/
https://vulnerabilitypost.wordpress.com/2014/11/01/new-york-times-xss
http://lifegrey.tumblr.com/post/121912534859/tous-les-liens-vers-les-articles
http://securityrelated.blogspot.com/2014/10/new-york-times-design.html
https://mathfas.wordpress.com/2014/11/01/new-york-times-xss
http://computerobsess.blogspot.com/2014/10/new-york-times-design.html
http://whitehatview.tumblr.com/post/103788276286/urls-to-articles-xss
http://diebiyi.com/articles/security/xss-vulnerability/new-york-times-xss

CVE-2014-8753 Cit-e-Net Multiple XSS (Cross-Site Scripting) Web Security Vulnerabilities

CVE-2014-8753  Cit-e-Net Multiple XSS (Cross-Site Scripting) Web Security Vulnerabilities

Exploit Title: Cit-e-Net Multiple XSS (Cross-Site Scripting) Web Security Vulnerabilities

Product: Cit-e-Access

Vendor: Cit-e-Net

Vulnerable Versions: Version 6

Tested Version: Version 6

Advisory Publication: February 12, 2015

Latest Update: June 01, 2015

Vulnerability Type: Cross-Site Scripting [CWE-79]

CVE Reference: CVE-2014-8753

Impact CVSS Severity (version 2.0):
CVSS v2 Base Score: 4.3 (MEDIUM) (AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:N/I:P/A:N) (legend)
Impact Subscore: 2.9
Exploitability Subscore: 8.6
CVSS Version 2 Metrics:
Access Vector: Network exploitable; Victim must voluntarily interact with attack mechanism
Access Complexity: Medium
Authentication: Not required to exploit
Impact Type: Allows unauthorized modification

Discover and Author: Jing Wang [School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (SPMS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore] (@justqdjing)

Instruction Details:

(1) Vendor & Product Description:

Vendor:

Cit-e-Net

Product & Version: 

Cit-e-Access

Version 6

Vendor URL & Download: 

Cit-e-Net can be downloaded from here,

https://www.cit-e.net/citeadmin/help/cntrainingmanualhowto.pdf

http://demo.cit-e.net/

http://www.cit-e.net/demorequest.cfm

http://demo.cit-e.net/Cit-e-Access/ServReq/?TID=1&TPID=17

Product Introduction:

"We are a premier provider of Internet-based solutions encompassing web site development and modular interactive e-government applications which bring local government, residents and community businesses together.

Cit-e-Net provides a suite of on-line interactive services to counties, municipalities, and other government agencies, that they in turn can offer to their constituents. The municipal government achieves a greater degree of efficiency and timeliness in conducting the daily operations of government, while residents receive improved and easier access to city hall through the on-line access to government services.

Our web-based applications can help your municipality to acheive its e-government goals. Type & click website content-management empowers the municipality to manage the website quickly and easily. Web page styles & formats are customizable by the municipality, and because the foundation is a database application, user security can be set for individual personnel and module applications. Our application modules can either be integrated into your existing municipal web site or implemented as a complete web site solution. It's your choice! Please contact us at info@cit-e.net to view a demonstration of our municipal web site solution if you are an elected official or member of municipal management and your municipality is looking for a cost efficient method for enhancing & improving municipal services. 

Interactive Applications
Online Service Requests
Online Tax Payments by ACH electronic-check or credit card.
Online Utility Payments by  ACH electronic-check or credit card.
Online General-Payments by ACH electronic-check or credit card.
Submit Volunteer Resume's Online for the municipality to match your skills with available openings."

(2) Vulnerability Details:

Cit-e-Access web application has a security bug problem. It can be exploited by XSS attacks. This may allow a remote attacker to create a specially crafted request that would execute arbitrary script code in a user's browser session within the trust relationship between their browser and the server.

Several similar products 0Day vulnerabilities have been found by some other bug hunter researchers before. Cit-i-Access has patched some of them. Open Sourced Vulnerability Database (OSVDB) is an independent and open-sourced database. The goal of the project is to provide accurate, detailed, current, and unbiased technical information on security vulnerabilities. The project promotes greater, open collaboration between companies and individuals. It has published suggestions, advisories, solutions details related to important vulnerabilities and cyber intelligence.

(2.1) The first programming code flaw occurs at "/eventscalendar/index.cfm?" page with "&DID" parameter in HTTP GET.

(2.2) The second programming code flaw occurs at "/search/index.cfm?" page with "&keyword" parameter in HTTP POST.

(2.3) The third programming code flaw occurs at "/news/index.cfm" page with "&jump2" "&DID" parameter in HTTP GET.

(2.4) The fourth programming code flaw occurs at "eventscalendar?" page with "&TPID" parameter in HTTP GET.

(2.5) The fifth programming code flaw occurs at "/meetings/index.cfm?" page with "&DID" parameter in HTTP GET.

(3) Solutions:

Leave message to vendor. No response.

http://www.cit-e.net/contact.cfm

References:
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2015/Feb/48
http://lists.openwall.net/full-disclosure/2015/02/13/2
http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.security.fulldisclosure/1587

https://www.mail-archive.com/fulldisclosure%40seclists.org/msg01683.html

https://computerpitch.wordpress.com/2015/06/07/cve-2014-8753/

http://webtechhut.blogspot.com/2015/06/cve-2014-8753.html

https://www.facebook.com/websecuritiesnews/posts/804176613035844

https://twitter.com/tetraphibious/status/607381197077946368

http://biboying.lofter.com/post/1cc9f4f5_7356826

http://shellmantis.tumblr.com/post/120903342496/securitypost-cve-2014-8753

http://itprompt.blogspot.com/2015/06/cve-2014-8753.html

http://whitehatpost.blog.163.com/blog/static/24223205420155710559404/

https://plus.google.com/u/0/113115469311022848114/posts/FomMK9BGGx2

https://www.facebook.com/pcwebsecurities/posts/702290949916825

http://securitypost.tumblr.com/post/120903225352/cve-2014-8753-cit-e-net

http://webtech.lofter.com/post/1cd3e0d3_7355910

http://www.inzeed.com/kaleidoscope/cves/cve-2014-8753/
http://diebiyi.com/articles/security/cve-2014-8753/

CNN Travel.cnn.com XSS and Ads.cnn.com Open Redirect Web Security Vulnerabilities

CNN Travel.cnn.com XSS and Ads.cnn.com Open Redirect Web Security Vulnerabilities

Domain:

http://cnn.com

"The Cable News Network (CNN) is an American basic cable and satellite television channel that is owned by the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner. The 24-hour cable news channel was founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first television channel to provide 24-hour news coverage, and was the first all-news television channel in the United States. While the news channel has numerous affiliates, CNN primarily broadcasts from the Time Warner Center in New York City, and studios in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles, its headquarters at the CNN Center in Atlanta is only used for weekend programming. CNN is sometimes referred to as CNN/U.S. to distinguish the American channel from its international sister network, CNN International. As of August 2010, CNN is available in over 100 million U.S. households. Broadcast coverage of the U.S. channel extends to over 890,000 American hotel rooms, as well as carriage on cable and satellite providers throughout Canada. Globally, CNN programming airs through CNN International, which can be seen by viewers in over 212 countries and territories. As of February 2015, CNN is available to approximately 96,289,000 cable, satellite and, telco television households (82.7% of households with at least one television set) in the United States." (Wikipedia)

Discovered and Reported by:

Jing Wang, Division of Mathematical Sciences (MAS), School of Physical and Mathematical Sciences (SPMS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore.  (@justqdjing)

http://www.tetraph.com/wangjing/

Vulnerability Description:

CNN has a cyber security bug problem. It cab be exploited by XSS (Cross Site Scripting) and Open Redirect (Unvalidated Redirects and Forwards) attacks.

Based on news published, CNN users were hacked based on both Open Redirect and XSS vulnerabilities.

According to E Hacker News on June 06, 2013, (@BreakTheSec) came across a diet spam campaign that leverages the open redirect vulnerability in one of the top News organization CNN.

After the attack, CNN takes measures to detect Open Redirect vulnerabilities. The measure is quite good during the tests. Almost no links are vulnerable to Open Redirect attack on CNN's website, now. It takes long time to find a new Open Redirect vulnerability that is un-patched on its website.

CNN.com was hacked by Open Redirect in 2013. While the XSS attacks happened in 2007.

<1> "The tweet apparently shows cyber criminals managed to leverage the open redirect security flaw in the CNN to redirect twitter users to the Diet spam websites."

Figure from ehackingnews.com

At the same time, the cybercriminals have also leveraged a similar vulnerability in a Yahoo domain to trick users into thinking that the links point to a trusted website.

Yahoo Open Redirects Vulnerabilities:

http://securityrelated.blogspot.com/2014/12/yahoo-yahoocom-yahoocojp-open-redirect.html

<2> CNN.com XSS hacked

http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2007/Aug/216

Several other similar products 0-day vulnerabilities have been found by some other bug hunter researchers before. CNN has patched some of them. BugTraq is a full disclosure moderated mailing list for the *detailed* discussion and announcement of computer security vulnerabilities: what they are, how to exploit them, and how to fix them. The below things be posted to the Bugtraq list: (a) Information on computer or network related security vulnerabilities (UNIX, Windows NT, or any other). (b) Exploit programs, scripts or detailed processes about the above. (c) Patches, workarounds, fixes. (d) Announcements, advisories or warnings. (e) Ideas, future plans or current works dealing with computer/network security. (f) Information material regarding vendor contacts and procedures. (g) Individual experiences in dealing with above vendors or security organizations. (h) Incident advisories or informational reporting. (i) New or updated security tools. A large number of the fllowing web securities have been published here, Buffer overflow, HTTP Response Splitting (CRLF), CMD Injection, SQL injection, Phishing, Cross-site scripting, CSRF, Cyber-attack, Unvalidated Redirects and Forwards, Information Leakage, Denial of Service, File Inclusion, Weak Encryption, Privilege Escalation, Directory Traversal, HTML Injection, Spam. It also publishes suggestions, advisories, solutions details related to XSS and URL Redirection vulnerabilities and cyber intelligence recommendations.

(1) CNN (cnn.com) Travel-City Related Links XSS (cross site scripting) Web Security Bugs

Domain:

travel.cnn.com/

Vulnerability Description:

The programming bug flaws occur at "/city/all" pages. All links under this URL are vulnerable to XSS attacks, e.g

http://travel.cnn.com/city/all/all/washington?page=0%2C1

http://travel.cnn.com/city/all/all/tokyo/all?page=0%2C1

XSS may allow a remote attacker to create a specially crafted request that would execute arbitrary script code in a user's browser session within the trust relationship between their browser and the server. Base on Acunetix, exploited XSS is commonly used to achieve the following malicious results

• Identity theft
• Accessing sensitive or restricted information
• Gaining free access to otherwise paid for content
• Spying on user’s web browsing habits
• Altering browser functionality
• Public defamation of an individual or corporation
• Web application defacement
• Denial of Service attacks

The code programming flaw can be exploited without user login. Tests were performed on Firefox (34.0) in Ubuntu (14.04) and IE (9.0.15) in Windows 7.

PoC:

http://travel.cnn.com/city/all/all/tokyo/all' /"><img src=x onerror=prompt(/justqdjing/)>

http://travel.cnn.com/city/all/all/bangkok/all' /"><img src=x onerror=prompt(/justqdjing/)>

(1.1) Poc Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu47XiDV38M&feature=youtu.be

Blog Details:

http://securityrelated.blogspot.com/2014/12/cnn-cnncom-travel-city-related-links.html

(2) CNN cnn.com ADS Open Redirect Web Security Bug

Domain:

ads.cnn.com

Vulnerability Description:

The programming code flaw occurs at "event.ng" page with "&Redirect" parameter, i.e.

http://ads.cnn.com/event.ng/Type=click&FlightID=92160&AdID=125504&TargetID=1346&RawValues=&Redirect=http:%2f%2fgoogle.com

From OWASP, an open redirect is an application that takes a parameter and redirects a user to the parameter value without any validation. This vulnerability is used in phishing attacks to get users to visit malicious sites without realizing it. This could allow a user to create a specially crafted URL, that if clicked, would redirect a victim from the intended legitimate web site to an arbitrary web site of the attacker's choosing. Such attacks are useful as the crafted URL initially appear to be a web page of a trusted site. This could be leveraged to direct an unsuspecting user to a web page containing attacks that target client side software such as a web browser or document rendering programs.

The vulnerabilities can be attacked without user login. Tests were performed on Microsoft IE (10.0.9200.16750) of Windows 8, Mozilla Firefox (34.0) & Google Chromium 39.0.2171.65-0 ubuntu0.14.04.1.1064 (64-bit) of Ubuntu (14.04)，Apple Safari 6.1.6 of Mac OS X Lion 10.7. 

(2.1) Use the following tests to illustrate the scenario painted above.

The redirected webpage address is "http://webcabinet.tumblr.com/". Suppose that this webpage is malicious.

Vulnerable URL:

http://ads.cnn.com/event.ng/Type=click&FlightID=92160&AdID=125504&TargetID=1346&RawValues=&Redirect=http:%2f%2fcnn.com

POC:

http://ads.cnn.com/event.ng/Type=click&FlightID=92160&AdID=125504&TargetID=1346&RawValues=&Redirect=http:%2f%2fwebcabinet.tumblr.com

Since CNN is well-known worldwide, this vulnerability can be used to do "Covert Redirect" attacks to other websites.

(2.1) Poc Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE8lhDvKGN0&feature=youtu.be

Blog Detail:

http://securityrelated.blogspot.com/2014/12/cnn-cnncom-ads-open-redirect-security.html

Those vulnerabilities were reported to CNN in early July by Contact from Here. But they are still not been patched yet.
http://edition.cnn.com/feedback/#cnn_FBKCNN_com

More Details:
http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2014/Dec/128
http://lists.openwall.net/full-disclosure/2014/12/29/6
http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.comp.security.fulldisclosure/1395
http://static-173-79-223-25.washdc.fios.verizon.net/?l=full-disclosure
http://securitypost.tumblr.com/post/107868680057/ithut-cnn-cnn-com-travel
http://ittechnology.lofter.com/post/1cfbf60d_5500df0
http://ithut.tumblr.com/post/120833062743/cnn-xss-url-redirection-bug

http://www.tetraph.com/blog/it-news/cnn-xss-url-redirect-bug/

http://tetraph.blogspot.com/2015/06/cnn-xss-redirect-bug.html

https://biyiniao.wordpress.com/2015/01/08/cnn-xss-open-redirect-bug/

http://whitehatpost.blog.163.com/blog/static/24223205420155613753998/

https://plus.google.com/u/0/+wangfeiblackcookie/posts/bFkukxiUfXK

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=674936469318135

http://diebiyi.com/articles/news/cnn-xss-url-redirect-bug/

https://twitter.com/yangziyou/status/607060937309159425

https://redysnowfox.wordpress.com/2014/12/31/cnn-xss-url-redirect-bug/

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1043534509019886

http://whitehatpost.lofter.com/post/1cc773c8_7338196

http://securityrelated.blogspot.com/2014/12/cnn-cnncom-travel-xss-and