CVE-2004-2403 in YaBB
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in YaBB 1 GOLD SP 1.3.2 allows remote attackers to perform unauthorized actions as the administrative user via a link or IMG tag to YaBB.pl that specifies the desired action, id, and moda parameters.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/20/2019
The cross-site request forgery vulnerability identified as CVE-2004-2403 resides within YaBB 1 GOLD SP 1.3.2, a popular web-based bulletin board system that was widely deployed in the early 2000s. This vulnerability represents a critical security flaw in the application's authentication and authorization mechanisms, specifically targeting the administrative functions of the platform. The flaw enables malicious actors to exploit the trust relationship between the web application and its users, potentially allowing unauthorized modifications to the bulletin board's configuration and content management systems.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from the absence of proper anti-CSRF token validation within the YaBB.pl script. When administrators perform administrative actions through the web interface, the application does not require a unique, unpredictable token to verify that the request originates from a legitimate administrative session. Attackers can craft malicious links or embedded image tags that automatically submit requests to the YaBB.pl script with specific parameters including the desired action, id, and moda parameters. These parameters control various administrative functions such as user management, message deletion, and configuration changes, making the vulnerability particularly dangerous for system integrity and data confidentiality.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple unauthorized access, as it enables attackers to perform administrative actions without proper authentication. An attacker could potentially delete critical forum content, ban legitimate users, modify user permissions, or even escalate privileges within the system. The vulnerability affects the entire administrative functionality of the bulletin board, making it a significant threat to the platform's overall security posture. The ease of exploitation through simple HTML links or image tags means that even non-technical attackers can leverage this vulnerability effectively, making it particularly dangerous in environments where administrators frequently click on untrusted links or visit compromised websites.
This vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery weaknesses in web applications. The flaw demonstrates a classic lack of proper request validation and authentication mechanisms that should be implemented at the application level to prevent unauthorized operations. From an attacker's perspective, this vulnerability maps to several ATT&CK techniques including T1078 for valid accounts and T1566 for social engineering through malicious links. The exploitation requires minimal technical skill and can be automated, making it attractive to threat actors seeking to compromise web applications. Organizations running affected versions of YaBB should immediately implement mitigations including the introduction of anti-CSRF tokens, proper session management, and input validation controls to prevent unauthorized administrative actions. The vulnerability also underscores the importance of maintaining up-to-date security practices and the necessity of implementing comprehensive security testing procedures to identify and remediate such flaws before they can be exploited in production environments.