DocuShare flaws could lead to data leakage unless you install these patches

Xerox has moved to fix two flaws in its DocuShare enterprise document-management platform that could enable hackers to steal data from users. The remedy comes after Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a security bulletin.

CISA urged users and administrators to apply a patch that fixes two bugs in recently released versions (6.6.1, 7.0, and 7.5) of Xerox’s DocuShare. The vulnerability is rated “Important.”

According to Xerox’s advisory, the bugs, tracked as CVE-2020-27177, expose users to a server-side request forgery (SSRF) attack and an unauthenticated external XML entity injection attack (XXE). Xerox didn’t share any details on the bugs or explain how an attacker could take advantage of the flaws. The document did, however, provide links to updated versions on Linux, Windows, and Solaris.

A server-side request forgery (SSRF) attack is where an attacker abuses functionality on the server to read or update internal resources. 

“The attacker can supply or modify a URL which the code running on the server will read or submit data to, and by carefully selecting the URLs, the attacker may be able to read server configuration such as AWS metadata, connect to internal services like HTTP enabled databases or perform post requests towards internal services which are not intended to be exposed,” according to OWASP Foundation.

An XML External Entity (XXE) is a type of attack against an application that parses XML input. This attack may lead to confidential data disclosure, denial of service, server-side request forgery, port scanning from the machine’s perspective where the parser is located, and other system impacts.

Jamie Akhtar, CEO and co-founder of CyberSmart, told ITPro that organizations can often protect themselves from the vast majority of cyber attacks by merely adhering to a basic set of cyber hygiene standards. Chief among these is staying aware of the vulnerabilities that exist, then swiftly updating and patching devices. 

“Xerox has already made available patches to the security flaws in their exposed systems. It is now down to organizations to implement these. Those who delay this will no doubt attract the attention of cybercriminals, who see these businesses as an easy target,” Akhtar said.

“Unfortunately, software providers may not always have a ‘hotfix’ available for all software. In this case, the Solaris version of DocuShare 7.5 is not yet available. In these situations, organizations should implement temporary mitigation procedures until a permanent solution is offered.”