Trustwave SpiderLabs Security Advisory: 
TWSL2024-003: Stored Cross-Site Scripting in Multiple REDCap Locations

Author: Hamza Hussain & Tim Stamopoulos

Published: 07/30/24
Version: 1.0

Vendor: Vanderbilt University
Product: REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture)
Version affected: 13.1.9

Product description:
REDCap is a secure web application for building and managing online surveys and databases. While REDCap can be used to collect virtually any type of data in any environment (including compliance with 21 CFR Part 11, FISMA, HIPAA, and GDPR), it is specifically geared to support online and offline data capture for research studies and operations.

The REDCap application is vulnerable to a cross-site scripting vulnerabilities across different application functions. This will allow an attacker to execute JavaScript code within the victim's browser and, for cookies without the "HttpOnly" attribute set, potentially retrieve some of the cookies used by REDCap. During Trustwave's testing, the REDCap session cookie had the "HttpOnly" attribute set.

PoC : 
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Location 1: Stored XSS in Calendar (CVE-2024-37396)
1. Navigate to the Calendar function on the left-hand side panel under a project.
2. Select a date in the calendar and click on the '+new' button to create an event.
3. Enter an XSS payload into the 'Notes' field, for example:
<a href="javascript&colon;alert(document.domain);">Click Me</a>
4. Observe the payload executed when clicking the "Click Me" button in the calendar event.
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Location 2: Stored XSS in Public Survey (CVE-2024-37395)
1. Navigate to the 'Designer' module under a given project and select the default survey instrument.
2. Insert the JavaScript payloads into the Survey Title and Survey Instructions field.
<a href="javascript&colon;alert(document.domain);">Click Me</a>
3. Finish and submit the survey.
4. Navigate to the survey through the generated public link.
4. Observe the payload executed when hitting the 'Click Me' button on the survey.
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Location 3: Stored XSS in Project Dashboards (CVE-2024-37394)
1. Navigate to the Project Dashboards module inside a project.
2. Select 'Create New Dashboard'
3. Enter the JavaScript payload into the 'Dashboard title' & 'Dashboard content' text box. For example:
<a href="javascript&colon;alert(document.domain);">Click Me</a>
4. Save the dashboard and navigate to it. Observe as the user can interact with elements on the page to execute the payload.

Remediation Steps:
Update REDCap to version 14.2.1 or later.

Revision History:
05/24/2024 - Vulnerability disclosed
05/24/2024 - Confirmed by vendor
06/07/2024 - CVEs issued
07/30/2024 - Advisory published


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application security tests globally. In addition, the SpiderLabs Research
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