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Cross-site Scripting occurrences in Unified Customer Voice Portal
A vulnerability in the web-based management interface of Cisco Unified Customer Voice Portal (CVP) could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to perform a cross-site scripting (XSS) attack against a user. This vulnerability is due to insufficient input validation of a parameter that is used by the web-based management interface. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by persuading a user to click a malicious link. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to execute arbitrary code in the context of the interface, access sensitive, browser-based information, or cause an affected device to reboot under certain conditions. (2021-07-22, CVE-2021-1599)
Why Cross-site Scripting can be dangerous
Cross site scripting is an attack where a web page executes code that is injected by an adversary. It usually appears, when users input is presented. This attack can be used to impersonate a user, take over control of the session, or even steal API keys.
The attack can be executed e.g. when you application injects the request parameter directly into the HTML code of the page returned to the user:
https://server.com/confirmation?message=Transaction+Complete
what results in:
<span>Confirmation: Transaction Complete</span>
In that case the message can be modified to become a valid Javascript code, e.g.:
https://server.com/confirmation?message=<script>dangerous javascript code here</script>
and it will be executed locally by the user's browser with full access to the user's personal application/browser data:
<span>Confirmation: <script>dangerous javascript code here</script></span>