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CVE-2023-41265: Qlik Sense HTTP Tunneling Vulnerability

CVE-2023-41265 is rated critical with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.9 and affects Qlik Sense. Per its scoring, it can be exploited over the network, without any user interaction. The scored impact on confidentiality, integrity and availability is the highest available. CISA added it to its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on 2023-12-07, which means exploitation in the wild has been observed.

Vulnerability description

An HTTP Request Tunneling vulnerability found in Qlik Sense Enterprise for Windows for versions May 2023 Patch 3 and earlier, February 2023 Patch 7 and earlier, November 2022 Patch 10 and earlier, and August 2022 Patch 12 and earlier allows a remote attacker to elevate their privilege by tunneling HTTP requests in the raw HTTP request. This allows them to send requests that get executed by the backend server hosting the repository application. This is fixed in August 2023 IR, May 2023 Patch 4, February 2023 Patch 8, November 2022 Patch 11, and August 2022 Patch 13.

Severity breakdown

CVSS v3.1 9.9: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

  • Attack vector: Network. Exploitable remotely over the network, with no need for local or physical access.
  • Attack complexity: Low. No special conditions; the attack can be repeated reliably.
  • Privileges required: Low. A basic user account is enough.
  • User interaction: None. No action from any user is needed.
  • Scope: Changed. Impact reaches beyond the vulnerable component to other resources.
  • Confidentiality impact: High. Total loss of confidentiality; sensitive data can be fully disclosed.
  • Integrity impact: High. Total loss of integrity; data or system state can be fully modified.
  • Availability impact: High. Total loss of availability; the component can be shut down.

Underlying weakness

CWE-444: Inconsistent Interpretation of HTTP Requests

The product acts as an intermediary HTTP agent (such as a proxy or firewall) in the data flow between two entities such as a client and server, but it does not interpret malformed HTTP requests or responses in ways that are consistent with how the messages will be processed by those entities that are at the ultimate destination.

Affected products

  • Qlik Sense: august_2022; august_2022 patch_1; august_2022 patch_10; august_2022 patch_11; august_2022 patch_12; august_2022 patch_2; august_2022 patch_3; august_2022 patch_4; august_2022 patch_5; august_2022 patch_6; august_2022 patch_7; august_2022 patch_8

References