Kace Systems Management ApplianceApplication · Quest

CVE-2019-13081

MEDIUM · 5.4 CVSS v3.1 Published 2019-11-06
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
58/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable

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 · unedited
Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance Server Center 9.1.317 has an XSS vulnerability (via the title field in the /common/ticket_associated_tickets.php service desk ticket functionality) that allows an authenticated user to execute arbitrary JavaScript in a service desk user's browser.

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 confidence

Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance Server Center 9.1.317 contains a stored XSS vulnerability in the title field of /common/ticket_associated_tickets.php within the service desk ticket functionality. An authenticated attacker can inject malicious JavaScript that executes in the browser of other service desk users who view the affected ticket.

MitigationImplement proper input validation and output encoding/sanitization on the title field in ticket_associated_tickets.php to prevent script injection. Consider implementing a Content Security Policy (CSP) as defense-in-depth.

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
Kace Systems Management ApplianceApplication
Affected:= 9.1.317

CVSS 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:3.1/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Verify KACE SMA version
    Access the KACE SMA admin interface and navigate to the System Settings or About page to confirm the installed version is exactly 9.1.317
    Affected if Version displayed is 9.1.317 exactly
  2. Confirm service desk is enabled
    Log into the KACE SMA administrative console and check if the Service Desk module is provisioned and accessible to users
    Affected if Service Desk functionality is active and users can create or view tickets
  3. Identify the vulnerable endpoint
    Locate the file /common/ticket_associated_tickets.php within the KACE SMA web root directory
    Affected if The file exists and is accessible via the web interface
  4. Inspect ticket title fields for XSS payloads
    Query the database or examine ticket records in the Service Desk interface, specifically looking at the title field values in associated tickets for suspicious script tags or HTML
    Affected if Any ticket contains unsanitized script content in the title field that could execute in another user's browser
  5. Review user browser behavior
    As a different user account, navigate to view a ticket that may contain a crafted title and observe if JavaScript executes in the browser context
    Affected if JavaScript code in the ticket title executes when viewing the affected ticket

You are affected if your Quest KACE Systems Management Appliance is exactly version 9.1.317 and the Service Desk module is enabled, allowing authenticated users to create tickets with malicious title field content that executes for other users viewing those tickets.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Implement proper input validation and output encoding/sanitization on the title field in ticket_associated_tickets.php to prevent script injection. Consider implementing a Content Security Policy (CSP) as defense-in-depth.

Fix this in Kace Systems Management Appliance Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation3.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
9.0 hours of engineering $1,570
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Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2019-13081 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • 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
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data