CVE-2019-16173

Score / Severity

5.4

Medium

CVE Descriptions

LimeSurvey before v3.17.14 allows reflected XSS for escalating privileges from a low-privileged account to, for example, SuperAdmin. This occurs in application/core/Survey_Common_Action.php,

CVE Informations

Related Weaknesses

CWE-ID	Weakness Name	Source
CWE-79	Improper Neutralization of Input During Web Page Generation ('Cross-site Scripting') The product does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes user-controllable input before it is placed in output that is used as a web page that is served to other users.

Metrics

Metrics	Score	Severity	CVSS Vector	Source
V3.1	5.4	MEDIUM	CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N More informations Base: Exploitabilty Metrics The Exploitability metrics reflect the characteristics of the thing that is vulnerable, which we refer to formally as the vulnerable component. Attack Vector This metric reflects the context by which vulnerability exploitation is possible. Network The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed below, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed “remotely exploitable” and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers). Attack Complexity This metric describes the conditions beyond the attacker’s control that must exist in order to exploit the vulnerability. Low Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success when attacking the vulnerable component. Privileges Required This metric describes the level of privileges an attacker must possess before successfully exploiting the vulnerability. Low The attacker requires privileges that provide basic user capabilities that could normally affect only settings and files owned by a user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges has the ability to access only non-sensitive resources. User Interaction This metric captures the requirement for a human user, other than the attacker, to participate in the successful compromise of the vulnerable component. Required Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires a user to take some action before the vulnerability can be exploited. For example, a successful exploit may only be possible during the installation of an application by a system administrator. Base: Scope Metrics The Scope metric captures whether a vulnerability in one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope. Scope Formally, a security authority is a mechanism (e.g., an application, an operating system, firmware, a sandbox environment) that defines and enforces access control in terms of how certain subjects/actors (e.g., human users, processes) can access certain restricted objects/resources (e.g., files, CPU, memory) in a controlled manner. All the subjects and objects under the jurisdiction of a single security authority are considered to be under one security scope. If a vulnerability in a vulnerable component can affect a component which is in a different security scope than the vulnerable component, a Scope change occurs. Intuitively, whenever the impact of a vulnerability breaches a security/trust boundary and impacts components outside the security scope in which vulnerable component resides, a Scope change occurs. Changed An exploited vulnerability can affect resources beyond the security scope managed by the security authority of the vulnerable component. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are different and managed by different security authorities. Base: Impact Metrics The Impact metrics capture the effects of a successfully exploited vulnerability on the component that suffers the worst outcome that is most directly and predictably associated with the attack. Analysts should constrain impacts to a reasonable, final outcome which they are confident an attacker is able to achieve. Confidentiality Impact This metric measures the impact to the confidentiality of the information resources managed by a software component due to a successfully exploited vulnerability. Low There is some loss of confidentiality. Access to some restricted information is obtained, but the attacker does not have control over what information is obtained, or the amount or kind of loss is limited. The information disclosure does not cause a direct, serious loss to the impacted component. Integrity Impact This metric measures the impact to integrity of a successfully exploited vulnerability. Integrity refers to the trustworthiness and veracity of information. Low Modification of data is possible, but the attacker does not have control over the consequence of a modification, or the amount of modification is limited. The data modification does not have a direct, serious impact on the impacted component. Availability Impact This metric measures the impact to the availability of the impacted component resulting from a successfully exploited vulnerability. None There is no impact to availability within the impacted component. Temporal Metrics The Temporal metrics measure the current state of exploit techniques or code availability, the existence of any patches or workarounds, or the confidence in the description of a vulnerability. Environmental Metrics These metrics enable the analyst to customize the CVSS score depending on the importance of the affected IT asset to a user’s organization, measured in terms of Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability.	nvd@nist.gov
V2	3.5		AV:N/AC:M/Au:S/C:N/I:P/A:N	nvd@nist.gov

EPSS

EPSS is a scoring model that predicts the likelihood of a vulnerability being exploited.

EPSS Score

The EPSS model produces a probability score between 0 and 1 (0 and 100%). The higher the score, the greater the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited.

Date	EPSS V0	EPSS V1	EPSS V2 (> 2022-02-04)	EPSS V3 (> 2025-03-07)	EPSS V4 (> 2025-03-17)
2021-04-18	5.36%	–	–	–	–
2021-09-05	–	5.36%	–	–	–
2021-10-17	–	5.36%	–	–	–
2022-01-09	–	5.36%	–	–	–
2022-02-06	–	–	3.87%	–	–
2022-02-13	–	–	3.87%	–	–
2022-04-03	–	–	0.95%	–	–
2022-06-19	–	–	0.95%	–	–
2022-09-04	–	–	0.95%	–	–
2022-12-18	–	–	0.95%	–	–
2023-03-12	–	–	–	0.33%	–
2023-04-02	–	–	–	0.33%	–
2023-05-28	–	–	–	0.43%	–
2023-10-22	–	–	–	0.43%	–
2023-12-03	–	–	–	0.43%	–
2023-12-10	–	–	–	0.43%	–
2024-02-11	–	–	–	0.43%	–
2024-03-24	–	–	–	0.61%	–
2024-04-07	–	–	–	0.86%	–
2024-06-02	–	–	–	0.86%	–
2024-08-11	–	–	–	0.86%	–
2024-09-08	–	–	–	0.67%	–
2024-12-22	–	–	–	0.5%	–
2025-02-02	–	–	–	0.58%	–
2025-02-23	–	–	–	0.81%	–
2025-01-19	–	–	–	0.5%	–
2025-02-02	–	–	–	0.58%	–
2025-02-23	–	–	–	0.81%	–
2025-03-18	–	–	–	–	0.56%
2025-03-30	–	–	–	–	0.59%
2025-04-15	–	–	–	–	0.59%
2025-04-15	–	–	–	–	0.59,%

EPSS Percentile

The percentile is used to rank CVE according to their EPSS score. For example, a CVE in the 95th percentile according to its EPSS score is more likely to be exploited than 95% of other CVE. Thus, the percentile is used to compare the EPSS score of a CVE with that of other CVE.

EPSS First.org

Date	Percentile
2021-04-18	–
2021-09-05	88%
2021-10-17	89%
2022-01-09	8%
2022-02-06	67%
2022-02-13	68%
2022-04-03	29%
2022-06-19	3%
2022-09-04	31%
2022-12-18	32%
2023-03-12	66%
2023-04-02	67%
2023-05-28	71%
2023-10-22	72%
2023-12-03	71%
2023-12-10	72%
2024-02-11	74%
2024-03-24	78%
2024-04-07	82%
2024-06-02	82%
2024-08-11	83%
2024-09-08	8%
2024-12-22	76%
2025-02-02	78%
2025-02-23	82%
2025-01-19	76%
2025-02-02	78%
2025-02-23	82%
2025-03-18	66%
2025-03-30	67%
2025-04-15	68%
2025-04-15	68%

Exploit information

Exploit Database EDB-ID : 47386

Publication date : 2019-09-12 22h00 +00:00
Author : SEC Consult
EDB Verified : Yes

SEC Consult Vulnerability Lab Security Advisory < 20190912-0 > ======================================================================= title: Stored and reflected XSS vulnerabilities product: LimeSurvey vulnerable version: <= 3.17.13 fixed version: =>3.17.14 CVE number: CVE-2019-16172, CVE-2019-16173 impact: medium homepage: https://www.limesurvey.org/ found: 2019-08-23 by: Andreas Kolbeck (Office Munich) David Haintz (Office Vienna) SEC Consult Vulnerability Lab An integrated part of SEC Consult Europe | Asia | North America https://www.sec-consult.com ======================================================================= Vendor description: ------------------- "LimeSurvey is the tool to use for your online surveys. Whether you are conducting simple questionnaires with just a couple of questions or advanced assessments with conditionals and quota management, LimeSurvey has got you covered. LimeSurvey is 100% open source and will always be transparently developed. We can help you reach your goals." Source: https://www.limesurvey.org/ Business recommendation: ------------------------ LimeSurvey suffered from a vulnerability due to improper input and output validation. By exploiting this vulnerability an attacker could: 1. Attack other users of the web application with JavaScript code, browser exploits or Trojan horses, or 2. perform unauthorized actions in the name of another logged-in user. The vendor provides a patch which should be installed immediately. Furthermore, a thorough security analysis is highly recommended as only a short spot check has been performed and additional issues are to be expected. Vulnerability overview/description: ----------------------------------- 1) Stored and reflected XSS vulnerabilities LimeSurvey suffers from a stored and reflected cross-site scripting vulnerability, which allows an attacker to execute JavaScript code with the permissions of the victim. In this way it is possible to escalate privileges from a low-privileged account e.g. to "SuperAdmin". Proof of concept: ----------------- 1) Stored and reflected XSS vulnerabilities Example 1 - Stored XSS (CVE-2019-16172): The attacker needs the appropriate permissions in order to create new survey groups. Then create a survey group with a JavaScript payload in the title, for example: test<svg/onload=alert(document.cookie)> When the survey group is being deleted, e.g. by an administrative user, the JavaScript code will be executed as part of the "success" message. Example 2 - Reflected XSS (CVE-2019-16173): The following proof of concept prints the current CSRF token cookie which contains the CSRF token. The parameter "surveyid" is not filtered properly: http://$host/index.php/admin/survey?mandatory=1&sid=xxx&surveyid=xxx%22%3E%3Cimg%20 src=x%20onerror=%22alert(document.cookie)%22%3E&sa=listquestions&sort=question If the URL schema is configured differently the following payload works: http://$host/index.php?r=admin/survey&mandatory=1&sid=xxx&surveyid= xxx"><img%20src=x%20onerror="alert(document.cookie)">&sa=listquestions&sort=question Vulnerable / tested versions: ----------------------------- The vulnerabilities have been verified to exist in version 3.17.9 and the latest version 3.17.13. It is assumed that older versions are affected as well. Vendor contact timeline: ------------------------ 2019-08-29: Contacting vendor through https://bugs.limesurvey.org/view.php?id=15204 2019-09-02: Fixes available: https://github.com/LimeSurvey/LimeSurvey/commit/32d6a5224327b246ee3a2a08500544e4f80f9a9a https://github.com/LimeSurvey/LimeSurvey/commit/f1c1ad2d24eb262363511fcca2e96ce737064006 2019-09-02: Release of LimeSurvey v3.17.14 which fixes the security issues 2019-09-03: Release of LimeSurvey v3.17.15 bug fix 2019-09-12: Coordinated release of security advisory Solution: --------- Update to version 3.17.15 or higher: https://www.limesurvey.org/stable-release The vendor provides a detailed list of changes here: https://www.limesurvey.org/limesurvey-updates/2188-limesurvey-3-17-14-build-190902-released Workaround: ----------- No workaround available. Advisory URL: ------------- https://www.sec-consult.com/en/vulnerability-lab/advisories/index.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SEC Consult Vulnerability Lab SEC Consult Europe | Asia | North America About SEC Consult Vulnerability Lab The SEC Consult Vulnerability Lab is an integrated part of SEC Consult. It ensures the continued knowledge gain of SEC Consult in the field of network and application security to stay ahead of the attacker. The SEC Consult Vulnerability Lab supports high-quality penetration testing and the evaluation of new offensive and defensive technologies for our customers. Hence our customers obtain the most current information about vulnerabilities and valid recommendation about the risk profile of new technologies. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Interested to work with the experts of SEC Consult? Send us your application https://www.sec-consult.com/en/career/index.html Interested in improving your cyber security with the experts of SEC Consult? Contact our local offices https://www.sec-consult.com/en/contact/index.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mail: research at sec-consult dot com Web: https://www.sec-consult.com Blog: http://blog.sec-consult.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/sec_consult EOF A. Kolbeck / @2019