Roundcube Flaws Expose Emails and Passwords to Hackers
Security Vulnerabilities in Roundcube Webmail
Cybersecurity researchers have recently uncovered significant security flaws in Roundcube webmail software. These vulnerabilities can be exploited to execute malicious JavaScript in a victim's web browser, potentially allowing attackers to steal sensitive information, such as emails, contacts, and email passwords. Additionally, attackers could send emails from the victim's account.
How the Attack Works
When a victim views a malicious email in Roundcube, attackers can execute arbitrary JavaScript in the victim's browser. This malicious script can then steal emails, contacts, and even the victim's email password. Moreover, attackers can send emails from the victim's account.
Details of the Vulnerabilities
Following responsible disclosure on June 18, 2024, three vulnerabilities were addressed in Roundcube versions 1.6.8 and 1.5.8, released on August 4, 2024.
List of Vulnerabilities:
- CVE-2024-42008: A cross-site scripting flaw via a malicious email attachment served with a dangerous Content-Type header.
- CVE-2024-42009: A cross-site scripting flaw that arises from post-processing of sanitized HTML content.
- CVE-2024-42010: An information disclosure flaw that stems from insufficient CSS filtering.
Potential Impact of Exploitation
Successful exploitation could allow unauthenticated attackers to steal emails, contacts, and send emails from a victim's account. Attackers can gain a persistent foothold in the victim's browser, enabling continuous email exfiltration or stealing the victim's password on subsequent entries.
For a successful attack, no user interaction beyond viewing the attacker's email is required to exploit CVE-2024-42009. For CVE-2024-42008, the victim needs to click once, though this interaction can be made subtle by the attacker.
Nation-State Actors Involvement
Additional technical details have been withheld to allow users time to update. This precaution is crucial, given that vulnerabilities in webmail software have historically been exploited by nation-state actors like APT28, Winter Vivern, and TAG-70.
Other Notable Vulnerabilities
In related news, a maximum-severity local privilege escalation flaw in the RaspAP open-source project (CVE-2024-41637) has been addressed in version 3.1.5. This flaw, with a CVSS score of 10.0, allows an attacker to gain root access and execute critical commands. The www-data user had write access and sudo privileges, enabling the attacker to modify services and escalate their access from www-data to root.
What Users Should Do
Users of Roundcube webmail are strongly advised to update to the latest versions (1.6.8 or 1.5.8) immediately. This update will mitigate the risk of these vulnerabilities being exploited.
For non-technical users, think of it like updating your kitchen appliances to prevent them from being used by intruders. Updating to the latest version helps ensure your emails and passwords stay safe from hackers.
