CVE-2007-3416 in WebAPP
Summary
by MITRE
Multiple cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerabilities in the administration of (1) polls, (2) profiles, (3) IP bans, and (4) forums in (a) web-app.org WebAPP 0.8 through 0.9.9.6; and (b) web-app.net WebAPP 0.9.9.3.3, 0.9.9.3.4, and 2007; allow remote attackers to perform deletions as administrators.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/04/2018
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2007-3416 represents a critical cross-site request forgery weakness affecting administrative functions within web-app.org WebAPP versions 0.8 through 0.9.9.6 and web-app.net WebAPP versions 0.9.9.3.3, 0.9.9.3.4, and 2007. This flaw specifically targets four key administrative components including polls management, user profiles, IP address banning, and forum administration. The vulnerability stems from the absence of proper anti-CSRF mechanisms in these administrative interfaces, allowing malicious actors to exploit the system through carefully crafted requests that appear legitimate to the web application. The flaw is categorized under CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery vulnerabilities in software applications.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability allows remote attackers to execute unauthorized administrative actions by tricking authenticated users into visiting malicious websites or clicking on compromised links. When administrators navigate to these malicious sites, the attacker can craft requests that automatically submit deletion commands to the vulnerable web application's administrative endpoints. The flaw specifically enables deletion operations rather than arbitrary modifications, making it particularly dangerous as it allows attackers to remove critical data, user accounts, or system configurations without proper authorization. This type of attack exploits the trust relationship between the web application and the authenticated user, leveraging the user's administrative privileges to perform destructive actions.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe and multifaceted, particularly in environments where web applications handle sensitive user data or critical system configurations. Attackers could potentially remove entire polls, delete user profiles, lift IP bans that might be protecting the system from malicious activity, or destroy forum content, leading to complete data loss or system compromise. The vulnerability affects both web-app.org and web-app.net implementations, indicating a widespread issue within these software distributions. From an attacker's perspective, this represents a low-effort, high-impact method for gaining unauthorized administrative control over affected systems, making it a prime target for exploitation in various threat scenarios.
Organizations using affected versions of these web applications should immediately implement CSRF protection mechanisms including the use of anti-CSRF tokens, proper request validation, and implementing the principle of least privilege for administrative functions. The mitigation strategy should involve adding unique, unpredictable tokens to all administrative requests and validating these tokens server-side before processing any deletion operations. Additionally, implementing proper session management and ensuring that administrative actions require explicit user confirmation can significantly reduce the risk of exploitation. From a security posture perspective, this vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1548.002 which involves exploiting weaknesses in authentication mechanisms to gain elevated privileges, and represents a clear example of how insufficient input validation and lack of proper access controls can lead to unauthorized administrative access and data destruction operations.