CVE-2000-0102 is a high-severity vulnerability affecting the SalesCart shopping cart application. The core issue arises from the application's reliance on hidden form fields to store sensitive purchase information, which remote attackers can manipulate without authentication. Because these hidden fields are client-side and not properly validated or protected on the server side, an attacker can intercept and modify purchase details such as item prices, quantities, or payment information before submission. This vulnerability allows unauthorized users to alter the integrity of purchase transactions, potentially leading to financial fraud, incorrect order fulfillment, or denial of service through data corruption. The vulnerability is remotely exploitable over the network without any authentication or user interaction, increasing its risk. The CVSS score of 7.5 (AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P) reflects the ease of exploitation (low attack complexity), no authentication required, and partial to complete impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Despite its age and lack of a patch, no known exploits have been reported in the wild, but the fundamental design flaw remains a critical concern for any active deployments of SalesCart. The absence of affected version details suggests the vulnerability may be present in all versions or that versioning information is unavailable. Overall, this vulnerability highlights the risks of trusting client-side controls for sensitive data and the necessity of robust server-side validation and integrity checks in e-commerce applications.

For European organizations using SalesCart, this vulnerability could lead to significant financial losses due to fraudulent manipulation of purchase orders. Attackers could alter prices or quantities to reduce payment amounts or disrupt order processing, impacting revenue and customer trust. Additionally, the compromise of purchase data integrity could lead to legal and compliance issues under regulations such as GDPR, especially if customer data confidentiality is affected. The availability impact could manifest as denial of service or operational disruption if corrupted purchase data causes application failures. Given the vulnerability requires no authentication and can be exploited remotely, attackers from anywhere could target European e-commerce platforms, potentially affecting both small and large retailers. The lack of a patch means organizations must rely on compensating controls, increasing operational risk. Furthermore, the vulnerability could be leveraged as part of broader fraud schemes or combined with other attacks to escalate impact. Overall, the threat poses a direct risk to the financial operations and reputation of European businesses relying on SalesCart for online transactions.

Since no patch is available for this vulnerability, European organizations should implement several specific mitigations: 1) Enforce strict server-side validation and integrity checks on all purchase-related data received from clients, ignoring or revalidating hidden form fields to prevent tampering. 2) Implement cryptographic techniques such as digital signatures or HMACs on form data to detect unauthorized modifications. 3) Employ web application firewalls (WAFs) with custom rules to detect and block suspicious modifications to purchase parameters. 4) Monitor transaction logs for anomalies such as unexpected price changes or quantity alterations indicative of exploitation attempts. 5) Consider migrating to more secure and actively maintained e-commerce platforms if feasible. 6) Educate development teams on secure coding practices to avoid reliance on client-side controls for sensitive data. 7) Use HTTPS to protect data in transit and reduce the risk of interception and manipulation. 8) Conduct regular security assessments and penetration testing focused on input validation and transaction integrity. These targeted measures go beyond generic advice by focusing on compensating controls and detection strategies tailored to the nature of this vulnerability.