CVE-2018-16955
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 · uneditedThe login function of Oracle WebCenter Interaction Portal 10.3.3 is vulnerable to reflected cross-site scripting (XSS). The content of the in_hi_redirect parameter, when prefixed with the https:// scheme, is unsafely reflected in a HTML META tag in the HTTP response. NOTE: this CVE is assigned by MITRE and isn't validated by Oracle because Oracle WebCenter Interaction Portal is out of support.
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 · high confidenceThe login function of Oracle WebCenter Interaction Portal 10.3.3 contains a reflected XSS vulnerability. The in_hi_redirect parameter, when prefixed with https://, is unsafely reflected into an HTML META tag in the HTTP response without proper encoding or sanitization, allowing injection of malicious scripts.
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= 10.3.3CVSS 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
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Scope
- Changed
- Confidentiality
- Low
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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 Oracle WebCenter Interaction installationIdentify if Oracle WebCenter Interaction Portal is deployed in your environment. Check for web applications responding on typical ports (8080, 8090, 80) or search for process named 'ptportal' or 'oracle webcenter' on servers.Affected if Oracle WebCenter Interaction Portal 10.3.3 is installed and accessible.
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Verify the exact version numberAccess the portal login page and check the version information typically displayed in the footer, or query the application's /about page, or run: java -jar ptversion.jar against the installation directory if available.Affected if The installed version is exactly 10.3.3.
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Locate the login page endpointIdentify the login URL, commonly at /portal/login or /login. The vulnerable parameter in_hi_redirect is processed on the login form submission.Affected if The login page is accessible and accepts the in_hi_redirect parameter.
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Test for reflected XSS in in_hi_redirectSubmit a login request with in_hi_redirect set to 'https://';view-source to check if it appears unsanitized inside an HTML META tag. Alternatively, inject a simple payload like 'https://test' and inspect the response HTML for unencoded reflection.Affected if The in_hi_redirect parameter value is reflected directly into the response HTML without encoding, appearing inside a META tag.
You are affected if Oracle WebCenter Interaction Portal 10.3.3 is running and the in_hi_redirect parameter on the login page is reflected unsanitized in the HTTP response.
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 dataSince Oracle WebCenter Interaction Portal is out of support with no official patch available, implement input validation and output encoding on the in_hi_redirect parameter, or deploy a WAF rule to filter malicious payloads in this parameter.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2018-16955 — 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-2018-16955 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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