This article is a part of our Vulnerability Database (back to index)
Path Traversal occurrences in Wireless Lan Controller Software
A vulnerability in the CLI of Cisco Wireless LAN Controller (WLC) Software could allow an authenticated, local attacker to view system files that should be restricted. This vulnerability is due to improper sanitization of user-supplied input in command-line parameters that describe filenames. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by using directory traversal techniques to submit a path to a desired file location. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to view system files that may contain sensitive information. (2019-10-16, CVE-2019-15266)
A vulnerability in the web-based interface of Cisco Wireless LAN Controller Software could allow an authenticated, remote attacker to view sensitive information. The issue is due to improper sanitization of user-supplied input in HTTP request parameters that describe filenames and pathnames. An attacker could exploit this vulnerability by using directory traversal techniques to submit a path to a desired file location. A successful exploit could allow the attacker to view system files on the targeted device, which may contain sensitive information. (2018-10-17, CVE-2018-0420)
Why Path Traversal can be dangerous
Relative Path Confusion means that your web server is configured to serve responses to ambiguous URLs. This configuration can possibly cause confusion about the correct relative path for the URL. It is also an issue of resources, such as images, styles etc., which are specified in the response using relative path, not the absolute URL.
If the web browser permits to parse "cross-content" response, the attacker may be able to fool the web browser into interpreting HTML into other content types, which can then lead to a cross site scripting attack (link do XSS).