CVE-2007-3704 in Entertainment CMS
Summary
by MITRE
Entertainment CMS allows remote attackers to bypass authentication and perform certain administrative actions by setting the adminLogged cookie to "Administrator."
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/26/2017
This vulnerability exists within an entertainment content management system that fails to properly validate administrative privileges, creating a critical authentication bypass flaw. The issue stems from the system's reliance on a client-side cookie named adminLogged to determine administrative access levels. When an attacker manually sets this cookie value to "Administrator," the system accepts this input without proper server-side verification, allowing unauthorized users to gain administrative privileges. This represents a classic case of insufficient input validation and improper access control implementation that directly violates security best practices. The vulnerability enables attackers to perform arbitrary administrative actions including but not limited to user management, content modification, system configuration changes, and potentially data exfiltration. The flaw demonstrates a fundamental failure in the principle of least privilege and proper authentication mechanisms, as the system trusts client-side information without adequate server-side validation.
The technical nature of this vulnerability aligns with CWE-287, which addresses improper authentication issues, and specifically relates to CWE-346, concerning improper verification of intended recipient of data. This weakness creates a direct path for privilege escalation attacks where attackers can manipulate session state information to assume administrative roles. From an operational perspective, this vulnerability provides attackers with complete administrative control over the affected system, potentially leading to full system compromise, data breaches, and unauthorized access to sensitive information. The attack vector is particularly concerning because it requires minimal technical skill and can be executed through simple cookie manipulation techniques. The impact extends beyond immediate unauthorized access to include potential for persistent backdoor establishment and lateral movement within network environments where the system operates.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should immediately implement server-side validation of administrative privileges, ensuring that authentication decisions are made on the server rather than relying on client-side cookie values. The system must verify administrative access through proper authentication mechanisms before granting elevated privileges, implementing robust session management controls, and removing reliance on manipulable client-side state information. Security controls should include input sanitization, proper access control enforcement, and regular security testing to identify similar vulnerabilities. The implementation of multi-factor authentication, session timeout mechanisms, and comprehensive logging of administrative activities can help detect and prevent exploitation attempts. This vulnerability also highlights the importance of following secure coding practices as outlined in the OWASP Top Ten and NIST cybersecurity frameworks, emphasizing the need for proper authentication design and the elimination of trust in client-side data validation. Organizations should conduct thorough vulnerability assessments to identify other potential authentication bypass opportunities and ensure that all access control decisions are made through secure server-side validation mechanisms.