CVE-2019-20526

Vulnerability

Overview

Ignite Realtime Openfire 4.4.1 is vulnerable to reflected Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) in the setup wizard component. The attack occurs in setup/setup-datasource-standard.jsp through the password POST parameter, which is insufficiently sanitized before being reflected back to the user. This allows an attacker to inject arbitrary HTML and JavaScript code. [1][2]

Exploitation

Prerequisites

This vulnerability requires no authentication, as the setup wizard is typically accessible before the application is fully configured. An attacker can craft a malicious URL or form submission containing the XSS payload in the password field. For exploitation to succeed, the victim must be tricked into clicking the link or submitting the form, making this a user-interaction-dependent attack. The attack vector is network-based with low complexity. [2]

Impact

Successful exploitation enables an attacker to execute arbitrary script in the victim's browser within the context of the Openfire domain. According to the advisory, this can lead to session theft, credential exfiltration, or other actions performed on behalf of the victim. The CVSSv3 score is 6.1 (Medium) with the scope changed, indicating that the impact may extend beyond the vulnerable component. [2]

Mitigation

The vendor released a fix for this vulnerability on September 25, 2019, prior to the advisory publication on October 11, 2019. Administrators should update to Openfire version 4.4.2 or later. If updating is not immediately possible, restricting access to the setup wizard through network controls is advised. [2]