^{CVE-2020-19282:}Reflected XSS vulnerability in Jeesns 1.4.2 allows attackers to execute arbitrary web scripts via system error messages.

Overview

Jeesns 1.4.2 contains a reflected XSS vulnerability (CWE-79) in the system error message functionality. The application fails to properly sanitize user input in the error message text field, allowing attackers to inject malicious JavaScript code. When this code is reflected back to users in the browser, it executes with the privileges of the user viewing the page. This vulnerability can be exploited to perform various attacks including cookie theft, session hijacking, credential harvesting, or defacement of the web interface. The attack requires user interaction, typically by tricking victims into clicking a specially crafted URL that contains the XSS payload.

Remediation

To address this vulnerability, system administrators and developers should:

1. Update to the latest version of Jeesns if a patched version is available.
2. If an update is not available, implement proper input validation and output encoding:
   • Validate all user inputs before processing
   • Implement context-appropriate output encoding when displaying user-supplied data
   • Consider implementing Content Security Policy (CSP) headers
   • Apply HTML sanitization to error messages before displaying them
3. Consider using security frameworks that automatically escape output to prevent XSS attacks.
4. Perform regular security testing, including penetration testing and code reviews, to identify and address similar vulnerabilities.

References

1. GitHub Issue: https://github.com/zchuanzhao/jeesns/issues/11
2. Seebug Vulnerability Database: https://www.seebug.org/vuldb/ssvid-97940
3. CWE-79: Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting'): https://cwe.mitre.org/data/definitions/79.html
4. OWASP XSS Prevention Cheat Sheet: https://cheatsheetseries.owasp.org/cheatsheets/Cross_Site_Scripting_Prevention_Cheat_Sheet.html