Title:

Blackboard Mobile Learn v3.0 - Persistent Web Vulnerability

Date:

2012-05-29

References:

http://www.blackboard.com/Platforms/Learn/Overview.aspx

VL-ID:

580

Common Vulnerability Scoring System:

3.5

Introduction:

Blackboard Learn technology helps you make learning more effective in and beyond the traditional walls. Breathing life into
educational content. Bringing efficiency to day-to-day tasks. Empowering instructors with tools to engage every learner.
Motivating them on the devices they rely on. Promoting collaboration and streamlining processes.
You’ll have the right toolkit
—one that is proven and constantly evolves to meet your needs. It will be flexible and easy to use—from managing content,
engaging learners to assessing outcomes. And we’ll help you manage change and increase adoption.

Blackboard Mobile Learn
    Features
    U.S. Higher Ed / Professional Ed Clients
    K-12 Clients
    Global Clients
Blackboard Mobile Central

Share This Page
Blackboard Mobile™ Learn
All your learning resources at their fingertips.

The Blackboard Mobile™ Learn platform takes interactive teaching and learning mobile, giving students and educators access to
their courses, content and organizations on a variety of devices including iOS®, Android™, BlackBerry®, and webOS® smartphones.

Abstract:

The Vulnerability Laboratory Research Team discovered Persistent cross site scripting in Blackboard Learn v9.

Report-Timeline:

2012-05-29: Public or Non-Public Disclosure

Status:

Published

Exploitation-Technique:

Remote

Severity:

Medium

Details:

Multiple persistent input validation vulnerabilities are detected in the Blackboard Learn v9 mobile application.
The bugs allow remote attackers to implement/inject malicious script code on the application side (persistent).
The persistent vulnerability is located in the Question answer module with the bound vulnerable smart text parameter.
Successful exploitation of the vulnerability can lead to persistent session hijacking (manager/admin) or stable
(persistent) context manipulation. Exploitation requires low user inter action & privileged user account.

Vulnerable Module(s):
[+] Question answer

Vulnerable Parameters(s):
[+] smart text - input

Proof of Concept:

The persistent vulnerability can be exploited by remote attacker with low required user inter action. For demonstration or reproduce …

If there is a survey that is created by the administrator of the Blackboard and in that survey, there are some questions that you
answer them, you can inject a malicious code as the answer of such a question. note: it is working when the input type of the
answer is Smart Text, HTML, but not tested on TEXT as input. More details in image attached

Solution:

There should be a validation on the input of the answer to survey questions. Also parse the section were the script is getting executed.
Moreover, it should be filtering or exception for some suspicious words i.e., iframe, script, tags etc.

Risk:

The security risk of the persistent input validation vulnerabilities are estimated as medium(+).

Credits:

Vulnerability Laboratory [Research Team] - Ibrahim El-Sayed (the_storm) [[email protected]] [iel-sayed.blogspot.com]

Disclaimer:

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either expressed or implied, including the warranties of merchantability and capability for a particular purpose. Vulnerability-
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may not apply.

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