CVE-2018-18325
Published: 03 July 2019
Summary
CVE-2018-18325 is a high-severity Inadequate Encryption Strength (CWE-326) vulnerability in Dnnsoftware Dotnetnuke. Its CVSS base score is 7.5 (High).
Operationally, ranked in the top 0.2% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; CISA has added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 SC-13 (Cryptographic Protection) and SC-8 (Transmission Confidentiality and Integrity).
Deeper analysis
DNN (also known as DotNetNuke) versions 9.2 through 9.2.2 contain a vulnerability in which a weak encryption algorithm is used to protect input parameters. The flaw is categorized under CWE-326 and exists because of an incomplete fix for the related CVE-2018-15811. It received a CVSS 3.1 score of 7.5 reflecting network attack vector, low complexity, and no required privileges or user interaction, with high impact to confidentiality.
An unauthenticated attacker with network access can exploit the weak encryption to read protected input parameters. Public references link the issue to cookie-handling code paths that have been shown to enable deserialization attacks, potentially allowing further compromise of the application.
Official mitigation information is available in the DNN Platform release notes on GitHub and the DNN security center, which address this and prior related encryption weaknesses through updated builds.
A proof-of-concept exploit for DotNetNuke cookie deserialization remote code execution has been published on PacketStorm Security, confirming that working attack code targeting the affected versions is publicly available.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2019-0595
Vulnerability details
DNN (aka DotNetNuke) 9.2 through 9.2.2 uses a weak encryption algorithm to protect input parameters. NOTE: this issue exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2018-15811.
- CWE(s)
- KEV Date Added
- 03 November 2021
Related Threats
No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly requires cryptographic protection of information confidentiality, which this CVE violates by using a weak encryption algorithm on input parameters.
Requires cryptographic mechanisms to protect confidentiality of data in transit, mitigating exposure of weakly-encrypted DNN input parameters over the network.
Mandates timely remediation of known flaws such as the incomplete encryption fix for CVE-2018-15811 that left DNN 9.2-9.2.2 vulnerable.