CVE-2018-9160

What it actually does

The application embeds authentication credentials in plaintext within HTTP response bodies, exposing them to any party that can observe or intercept the traffic.

Why it matters to the business

Stolen credentials allow attackers to gain full control of the SickRage instance, leading to unauthorized access to media libraries, configuration changes, and potential lateral movement into connected systems.

How an attack unfolds

An attacker sends crafted HTTP requests to a vulnerable SickRage instance; the server responds with credential material in cleartext that the attacker extracts directly from the response body without authentication or special privileges.

How to fix it

Upgrade sickrage/sickrage (GIT) to commit 8156a74a68aea930d1e1047baba8b115c3abfc44 or later; disable unnecessary HTTP exposure and enforce TLS for all traffic until upgraded.

How to confirm the fix worked

Confirm the running commit is 8156a74a68aea930d1e1047baba8b115c3abfc44 or newer; inspect sample HTTP responses for absence of credential fields; re-test affected endpoints to verify credentials are no longer returned in plaintext.

Typical attack path

1. Attacker discovers an exposed SickRage web interface
2. Attacker issues HTTP requests to endpoints that trigger credential handling
3. Attacker captures the HTTP response containing embedded plaintext credentials
4. Attacker reuses the harvested credentials to authenticate and take over the instance

How to detect it

Review web server and application logs for requests to credential-handling endpoints; inspect captured HTTP responses or proxy logs for credential strings; correlate with authentication events from unexpected source IPs.

• HTTP responses containing both username and password fields in plaintext
• Requests to /api/v1/ or similar SickRage endpoints returning credential material
• Log entries showing authentication tokens or passwords echoed in response bodies

What your security team should do

• Apply the fixed commit immediately given the high EPSS score and weaponized exploit maturity
• Audit network exposure of SickRage instances and restrict access to trusted sources only
• Rotate any credentials that may have been transmitted through the vulnerable version
• Add monitoring for unexpected outbound authentication attempts originating from SickRage hosts