#VU165 Cross-site scripting in Django in Django - CVE-2016-6186

Vulnerability identifier: #VU165

Vulnerability risk: High

CVSSv4.0: 5.5 [CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:N/SC:L/SI:L/SA:N/E:P/U:Amber]

CVE-ID: CVE-2016-6186

CWE-ID: CWE-79

Exploitation vector: Network

Exploit availability: Yes

Vulnerable software:
Django
Web applications / CMS

Vendor: Django Software Foundation

Description
The vulnerability allows a remote attacker to perform cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks.

The vulnerability exists due to improper filtering HTML code from user-supplied input. A remote user can cause arbitrary scripting code execution by the target administrative user's browser. The code will originate from the site running the Django software. As a result, the code will be able to access the target user's cookies, associated with the site, access data recently submitted by the target user via web form to the site, or take actions on the site acting as the target user.

Successful exploitation of this vulnerability may allow a remote attacker to steal potentially sensitive information, change appearance of the web page, perform phishing and drive-by-download attacks.

Mitigation
The vendor has issued a fix (1.9.8, and 1.8.14, 1.9.8).

Vulnerable software versions

Django: 1.8.13 - 1.9.7

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External links
https://www.djangoproject.com/weblog/2016/jul/18/security-releases/

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Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

Yes. This vulnerability can be exploited by a remote non-authenticated attacker via the Internet.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability. However, proof of concept for this vulnerability is available.