A serious cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability discovered in the Evernote application for Windows can be exploited to steal files and execute arbitrary commands.
A researcher who uses the online moniker Sebao identified a stored XSS flaw in the Evernote app. He found that when a picture was added to a note and later renamed, JavaScript code could be added instead of a name. If the note was shared with another Evernote user, the code would get executed when the recipient clicked on the picture.
Evernote patched this security hole in September with the release of version 6.16. However,
TongQing Zhu of Knownsec 404 Team found that arbitrary code could still be injected into the name of an attached picture.
Unlike in the previous case, however, the code loads a Node.js file from a remote server. The script is executed via NodeWebKit, an application runtime that is used by Evernote in presentation mode.
For the attack to work, the attacker needs to convince the targeted user to open an Evernote note in presentation mode. If the exploit is successfully executed, the attacker can steal arbitrary files and execute commands.
TongQing Zhu showed how a hacker could exploit the vulnerability to read a Windows file and execute the Calculator application on the targeted system.
Evernote first patched the flaw, tracked as CVE-2018-18524, with the release of Evernote for Windows 6.16.1 beta in mid-October. The patch was rolled out to all users earlier this month with the release of Evernote 6.16.4.
TongQing Zhu has published a couple of videos showing how the vulnerability can be exploited:
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