CVE-2018-10737 Scanner

The scanner focuses on Nagios XI, a popular monitoring software used by system administrators and IT professionals to monitor IT infrastructure, including networks, systems, and applications. Nagios XI provides comprehensive IT monitoring capabilities, allowing for tracking performance metrics, setting up automated alerts, and reporting. It is especially favored in larger enterprise environments for its customizable dashboards and extensive plugin architecture. Nagios XI is instrumental in ensuring system uptime and detecting failures, thereby reducing downtime and improving system reliability. Its widespread adoption is due to both its adaptability to various monitoring needs and its strong community support. Therefore, ensuring its security against vulnerabilities like SQL injection is crucial to maintaining IT infrastructure integrity.

SQL Injection (SQLi) is a prominent web application vulnerability that allows attackers to interfere with the queries that an application makes to its database. This vulnerability can lead to unauthorized access to sensitive data, including database content, allowing attackers to perform administrative operations via crafted SQL instructions. The vulnerability in Nagios XI versions up to 5.4.12 allows execution of arbitrary commands on the database through the 'txtSearch' parameter in logbook.php. This can compromise data integrity and allow malicious actors to exploit the system further. The risk posed by SQLi ultimately depends on the robustness of the underlying database and how well the application manages executed commands. Addressing this vulnerability helps prevent potential data loss, unauthorized access, and other security breaches.

The Nagios XI vulnerability lies specifically in handling the 'txtSearch' parameter in the logbook.php file, where improper sanitization allows for SQL Injection. Attackers exploiting this vulnerability can craft requests that execute arbitrary database commands, revealing sensitive data or altering it. The weakness emerges as the application fails to properly escape certain SQL syntax components, allowing query manipulation. This vulnerability is particularly severe as it can be exploited remotely, without needing direct access to the host system. The execution occurs at a high privilege level, potentially compromising broader security of the IT monitoring environment. Given the function of Nagios XI as a network and system monitoring tool, such a vulnerability could lead to extended data breaches.

If exploited, the SQL Injection vulnerability in Nagios XI can have severe consequences. An attacker might gain unauthorized access to the database, retrieve sensitive information, or even escalate privileges within the system. This could lead to a breach of data confidentiality, integrity, and availability, potentially affecting all monitored systems. Moreover, the attacker could manipulate monitoring data, disable alerts, or even inject malware into the system, potentially causing widespread disruptions. Organizations relying heavily on Nagios XI for their IT operations may face significant operational risk, legal repercussions, and reputational damage if this vulnerability is not addressed promptly.

REFERENCES

• https://vulners.com/seebug/SSV:97267
• https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-10737