CVE-2006-2495 in Serendipity
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the Entry Manager in Serendipity before 1.0-beta3 allows remote attackers to perform unauthorized actions as a logged-in user via a link or IMG tag.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/27/2018
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2006-2495 represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw within the Entry Manager component of Serendipity blogging platform versions prior to 1.0-beta3. This weakness stems from the application's insufficient validation of origin requests, allowing malicious actors to exploit the trust relationship between users and the web application. The vulnerability specifically affects the Entry Manager module which handles content creation and modification operations within the blogging system.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability occurs when a logged-in user visits a malicious web page containing a crafted link or embedded image tag that triggers unauthorized actions within the Serendipity application. The flaw exists because the application fails to implement proper anti-CSRF token mechanisms or request origin verification. When a user's browser automatically loads the malicious content, it sends requests to the vulnerable Serendipity instance using the user's existing authenticated session cookies, effectively executing unauthorized commands without the user's knowledge or consent. This attack vector operates through the standard HTTP protocol without requiring any special privileges or access to the target system.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is significant as it enables remote attackers to perform arbitrary actions within the blogging platform with the privileges of any logged-in user. An attacker could potentially delete entries, modify content, create new posts, or even change user permissions if the targeted user has administrative privileges. The attack requires minimal technical expertise to execute and can be delivered through various means including email attachments, compromised websites, or social engineering campaigns. The vulnerability essentially allows attackers to hijack legitimate user sessions and perform unauthorized operations that the user would not normally be able to execute.
Security practitioners should note that this vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery weaknesses in web applications. The flaw also corresponds to techniques described in the MITRE ATT&CK framework under the T1566 tactic for initial access through spearphishing attachments and the T1078 technique for valid accounts. Organizations using Serendipity versions prior to 1.0-beta3 should immediately implement the recommended patch to address this vulnerability. The mitigation strategy involves implementing proper anti-CSRF token generation and validation mechanisms, ensuring that all state-changing operations require verification of the request origin, and enforcing strict session management practices. Additionally, administrators should consider implementing Content Security Policy headers and regular security audits to prevent similar vulnerabilities in other components of the web application stack.