CVE-2017-4978
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedEMC RSA Adaptive Authentication (On-Premise) versions prior to 7.3 P2 (exclusive) contains a fix for a cross-site scripting vulnerability that could potentially be exploited by malicious users to compromise the affected system.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · moderate confidenceCross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability in EMC RSA Adaptive Authentication (On-Premise) versions prior to 7.3 P2 allows authenticated or unauthenticated malicious users to inject malicious script into web pages viewed by other users, potentially compromising sessions or credentials of administrators and end users.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data<= 7.3CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Network
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Confirm RSA Adaptive Authentication (On-Premise) is installedCheck your system for RSA Adaptive Authentication installation directories or look for the service/process named 'RSAAuthentication' or similar RSA components. On Windows, check Program Files for 'RSA' folders; on Linux, check /opt/rsa or standard application directories.Affected if The product is present on the system
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Identify the installed versionLocate the version file or check the product about/upgrade page in the web interface. Common locations: look for version.properties, version.txt in the installation directory, or access the application's 'About' or 'System Info' page via the web browser.Affected if The version is 7.3 or any version prior to 7.3 P2 (7.3, 7.2, 7.1, etc.)
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Verify the web interface is accessibleAttempt to access the RSA Adaptive Authentication login page or admin portal via browser. Typical URLs include /login, /admin, or the base application URL on the configured port (often 8080 or 8443).Affected if The web interface is exposed and accessible to users
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Check for existing XSS injection indicators in logsReview web server logs (typically in the 'logs' or 'access' subdirectory of the installation) for suspicious script tags or JavaScript code in request parameters. Search for patterns like '<script', 'javascript:', or 'onerror=' in query strings.Affected if Malicious script injection attempts are found in web logs indicating active exploitation
You are affected if RSA Adaptive Authentication (On-Premise) is installed and the version is 7.3 or earlier (prior to 7.3 P2), with the web interface exposed.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataUpgrade to RSA Adaptive Authentication version 7.3 P2 or later to apply the XSS fix. Implement additional input validation and output encoding as defense-in-depth measures.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,904.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2017-4978 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2017-4978 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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