ExLibris Aleph and Metalib Cross Site Scripting Attack

ExLibris Aleph and Metalib Cross Site Scripting Attack

Matthew Cook
Date 16/07/2007
http://escarpment.net/
http://escarpment.net/exlibris.txt

Attack:

Multiple versions of the ExLibris (http://www.exlibrisgroup.com/) Aleph
and Metalib products are vulnerable to simple XSS (Cross Site Scripting
attacks). The vulnerability allows an attacker to run commands on the
local computer if the attacker convinces the user to view a malicious URL.

Due to the collaborative nature of these products, passing URLs between
colleagues is common place and therefore the simple attack poses a greater
risk. These products are used worldwide in many: Libraries, Universities,
Colleges and Schools.

In Aleph, searching for keywords using very simple javascript code will
provide you with the basic URL, into which the malicious code can be
injected. Depending on the search location, padding may be required to get
the attack to work.

In Metalab the same attack can be achieved if a valid resource id is
known. This attack therefore needs to be rather more site specific, a
simple search is required to discover a valid resource id.

Timeline:

13/07/2007 Vulnerability was logged in ExLibris Customer Relationship
Management System
16/07/2007 Incident closed by ExLibris

Response from ExLibris:

"Hi - Several fixes relating to this have been made in MetaLib v4, and
only critical fixes are being made for v3.13. The problem can only be
replicated with IE, and FireFox is not officially supported for 3.13."

Remaining issues:

• The problem can be replicated with Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox,
  Safari, etc and evidence has been provided to ExLibris. We are encouraging
  ExLibris to recognise at least Firefox as a commonly used browser for
  accessing their products.
• We are actively encouraging ExLibris to classify this as a critical fix
  for version 3.13.

Regards

Matt

Matt Cook - Senior IT Security Specialist
[Security & Compliance : Computing Services : Loughborough University]
[W] http://escarpment.net/