CVE-2006-4582 in The Address Book
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in The Address Book 1.04e allows remote attackers to perform unauthorized actions as other users via unspecified vectors, as demonstrated by deleting arbitrary users via the id parameter in a deleteuser action in users.php.
Be aware that VulDB is the high quality source for vulnerability data.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/03/2017
The CVE-2006-4582 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw in The Address Book version 1.04e, a web-based address management application. This vulnerability falls under the broader category of insecure direct object references and authorization issues, specifically manifesting as a CSRF attack vector that enables malicious actors to execute unauthorized operations on behalf of legitimate users. The vulnerability is particularly concerning as it demonstrates how a seemingly simple address book application can become a gateway for more significant security breaches through improper session management and lack of proper request validation mechanisms.
The technical exploitation of this CSRF vulnerability occurs through the manipulation of the id parameter within the deleteuser action of the users.php script. When a victim user navigates to a maliciously crafted webpage or clicks on a compromised link, the attack payload automatically submits a request to the vulnerable application without the user's knowledge or consent. The application processes this request as if it were a legitimate operation performed by the authenticated user, thereby allowing unauthorized deletion of arbitrary user accounts. This flaw stems from the absence of anti-CSRF tokens or other validation mechanisms that would verify the authenticity of the request origin and ensure that the action was intentionally initiated by the legitimate user.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple user deletion, as it fundamentally undermines the application's access control mechanisms and user authentication integrity. Attackers can leverage this weakness to perform a range of unauthorized actions including but not limited to account modifications, data manipulation, and privilege escalation within the application's user management system. The vulnerability particularly affects organizations that rely on The Address Book for managing user credentials and contact information, as successful exploitation could lead to complete compromise of user data and potential lateral movement within the network. This type of vulnerability aligns with attack patterns documented in the MITRE ATT&CK framework under the T1531 privilege escalation techniques, where attackers exploit application-level weaknesses to gain unauthorized access to resources.
The security implications of CVE-2006-4582 are compounded by the fact that CSRF attacks often go undetected until after damage has occurred, as they typically require minimal user interaction beyond visiting a malicious website. This vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of implementing proper CSRF protection mechanisms such as anti-CSRF tokens, origin validation checks, and referer header verification. Organizations should consider this flaw as a prime example of how legacy applications may lack modern security controls, particularly when compared to current industry standards and best practices. The vulnerability also highlights the necessity of regular security assessments and patch management programs, as similar flaws have been consistently identified in numerous web applications over the years. According to CWE guidelines, this represents a CWE-352 vulnerability category, specifically addressing cross-site request forgery issues that arise from insufficient anti-CSRF controls in web applications. The remediation approach should include implementing robust CSRF protection measures such as unique tokens for each user session, validating request origins, and ensuring that all state-changing operations require explicit user confirmation through multi-factor authentication or other verification mechanisms to prevent unauthorized exploitation.