CVE-2007-3489 in VPN-1 UTM Edge
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in pop/WizU.html in the management interface in Check Point VPN-1 Edge X Embedded NGX 7.0.33x on the Check Point VPN-1 UTM Edge allows remote attackers to perform privileged actions as administrators, as demonstrated by a request with the swuuser and swupass parameters, which adds an administrator account. NOTE: the CSRF attack has no timing window because there is no logout capability in the management interface.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/20/2021
The CVE-2007-3489 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw in Check Point VPN-1 Edge X Embedded NGX 7.0.33x management interface, specifically within the pop/WizU.html component. This vulnerability falls under CWE-352, which categorizes cross-site request forgery as a direct result of insufficient session management and lack of proper request origin verification. The flaw exists in the administrative web interface of the Check Point UTM Edge appliance, making it a significant security concern for organizations relying on this network security platform. The vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it allows remote attackers to execute privileged actions without authentication, effectively bypassing the security controls designed to protect administrative functions.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from the absence of proper anti-CSRF tokens or validation mechanisms in the management interface's form processing. When an attacker crafts a malicious request containing the swuuser and swupass parameters, the system processes this request as if it originated from an authenticated administrator, thereby creating a new administrator account. This flaw is exacerbated by the complete absence of any logout functionality within the management interface, which removes any time-based protection that might otherwise limit the window of opportunity for exploitation. The vulnerability demonstrates a fundamental flaw in the web application's security architecture where the system fails to verify the authenticity of requests originating from the intended user interface, rather than from malicious third-party sites.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends far beyond simple account creation, as it provides attackers with elevated privileges that could lead to complete system compromise. Once an attacker gains administrative access through this CSRF attack, they can modify firewall rules, configure network policies, access sensitive logs, and potentially establish backdoors or exfiltrate data from the protected network. The attack requires no special privileges or authentication credentials from the attacker, making it particularly dangerous as it can be executed through social engineering techniques or by simply embedding a malicious link in a compromised website. The lack of timing window constraints means that the attack can be successful at any time, as there is no mechanism to invalidate sessions or limit the duration of administrative access, which significantly increases the attack surface and reduces the effectiveness of traditional security controls.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should implement immediate mitigations including network segmentation to isolate the management interface from untrusted networks, deployment of web application firewalls to detect and block CSRF attacks, and implementation of proper anti-CSRF token mechanisms in the affected components. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this as a privilege escalation technique under T1068, where attackers leverage application-level vulnerabilities to gain elevated system privileges. Additional defensive measures should include regular security assessments of web applications, implementation of proper input validation and output encoding, and ensuring that all management interfaces include robust session management controls with logout capabilities. Organizations should also consider implementing network access controls to limit direct access to the management interface to trusted administrative workstations only, and establish monitoring procedures to detect unauthorized administrative account creation or configuration changes that could indicate exploitation of this vulnerability.