CVE-2017-12965

published 2017-08-23

CVE-2017-12965: Session fixation vulnerability in Apache2Triad 1.5.4 allows remote attackers to hijack web sessions via the PHPSESSID parameter.

Priority P2 65 critical 9.8 CVSS 3.0

AV N AC L PR N UI N S U C H I H A H

EXPLOIT

Session fixation vulnerability in Apache2Triad 1.5.4 allows remote attackers to hijack web sessions via the PHPSESSID parameter.

Affected

1 ranges

Vendor	Product	Version range	Fixed in
apache2triad	apache2triad	—	—

Detection & IOCs extracted from sources · hover to see the quote

cookie PHPSESSID=HACKED123↗

path C:\apache2triad\temp↗

url http://VICTIM-IP/phpxmail/?PHPSESSID=HACKED123↗

url http://VICTIM-IP/phpxmail/main.php?action=servercmd↗

• → Detect session fixation attempts by monitoring HTTP requests where the PHPSESSID cookie value remains identical before and after authentication — a fixed session ID indicates exploitation. ↗
• → Alert on PHPSESSID values supplied via URL query parameter (GET-based session fixation) targeting Apache2Triad endpoints such as /phpxmail/. ↗
• → Monitor for creation of session files matching the pattern sess_* in C:\apache2triad\temp with attacker-controlled arbitrary names (e.g., sess_HACKED123), which indicates a persisted fixed session. ↗
• → Monitor access to /phpxmail/main.php?action=servercmd without a preceding standard authentication flow, which may indicate session fixation-based authentication bypass. ↗
• → Detect unexpected writes or modifications to slimftpd.conf under C:\apache2triad\ftp, which may indicate XSS payload persistence (CVE-2017-12971, chained with session fixation). ↗

• · Apache2Triad 1.5.4 does not regenerate the PHPSESSID after authentication, and will accept and persist any arbitrary attacker-supplied session cookie value, making session fixation trivially exploitable. ↗
• · The fixed PHPSESSID persists across multiple Apache2Triad sub-applications (e.g., phpxmail), meaning a single fixed session grants access to all bundled applications. ↗
• · The vendor has confirmed the product is no longer maintained; no patch will be issued. Detection and removal are the only mitigations. ↗

CVSS provenance

nvd v3.0 9.8 CRITICAL CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

nvd v2.0 7.5 HIGH AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P

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