CVE-2007-0912 in portal
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in admin/admin.adm.php in Jportal 2.3.1, and possibly earlier, allows remote attackers to perform privileged actions as administrators by tricking the admin into accessing a URL with modified arguments to admin/admin.adm.php.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/19/2018
The CVE-2007-0912 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw discovered in Jportal 2.3.1 and potentially earlier versions of the content management system. This vulnerability resides within the administrative interface component admin/admin.adm.php, which serves as a central control point for privileged user actions within the application. The flaw stems from the absence of proper authentication token validation mechanisms, allowing malicious actors to craft deceptive web requests that appear to originate from legitimate administrative sessions. Attackers can exploit this weakness by luring administrators into visiting specially crafted malicious web pages that contain hidden form submissions or javascript requests to the vulnerable admin endpoint. The vulnerability operates by leveraging the trust relationship between the web application and authenticated administrators, effectively enabling attackers to execute unauthorized administrative operations without possessing valid credentials.
This CSRF vulnerability directly maps to CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery weaknesses in web applications. The flaw demonstrates a fundamental failure in implementing proper request integrity verification mechanisms, particularly the absence of anti-CSRF tokens that should be embedded within all privileged administrative operations. From an operational security perspective, this vulnerability creates a severe risk landscape where attackers can perform critical administrative functions such as user account modifications, content deletion, system configuration changes, and privilege escalation without detection. The attack vector leverages social engineering techniques where administrators are tricked into clicking malicious links or visiting compromised websites, making it particularly dangerous due to its reliance on user behavior rather than technical exploitation of application vulnerabilities.
The impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple privilege escalation as it can lead to complete system compromise and unauthorized access to sensitive data. Attackers exploiting this flaw could potentially gain persistent access to administrative interfaces, modify critical system configurations, delete important content, or manipulate user permissions. The vulnerability's exploitation requires minimal technical skill, making it attractive to threat actors with varying levels of expertise. The attack model follows typical CSRF patterns where the malicious payload is delivered through carefully crafted web requests that automatically submit to the vulnerable endpoint when the administrator's browser processes the malicious content. This attack can be executed through various methods including phishing emails, compromised websites, or social engineering campaigns that direct administrators to malicious URLs.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2007-0912 should focus on implementing robust anti-CSRF token mechanisms throughout the administrative interface of Jportal. The solution involves generating unique, unpredictable tokens for each administrative session and validating these tokens with every privileged request. Security patches should ensure that all administrative operations require proper token verification before execution, preventing unauthorized modifications to system configurations. Organizations should also implement additional security measures such as session timeout controls, IP address monitoring, and comprehensive logging of administrative activities. The fix should align with established security frameworks and best practices, including the implementation of the OWASP CSRF Prevention Cheat Sheet recommendations. Regular security assessments and vulnerability scanning should be conducted to identify similar weaknesses in other components of the application. Additionally, user education programs should be implemented to raise awareness about social engineering attacks and the importance of verifying web requests before clicking on suspicious links. The vulnerability serves as a reminder of the critical importance of implementing comprehensive security controls in administrative interfaces and demonstrates how seemingly simple flaws can have devastating operational consequences.