CVE-2007-4914 in IP.Board
Summary
by MITRE
Unspecified vulnerability in the subscriptions manager in Invision Power Board (IPB or IP.Board) 2.3.1 before 20070912 allows remote authenticated users to change the member ID and reduce the privilege level of arbitrary users via a crafted payment form, related to (1) class_gw_2checkout.php, (2) class_gw_authorizenet.php, (3) class_gw_nochex.php, (4) class_gw_paypal.php, and (5) class_gw_safshop.php in sources/classes/paymentgateways/.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 10/30/2017
This vulnerability exists within the subscriptions manager component of Invision Power Board version 2.3.1, specifically before the security patch released on September 12, 2007. The flaw represents a critical authorization bypass issue that allows authenticated attackers to manipulate user privileges through crafted payment form submissions. The vulnerability affects multiple payment gateway classes including 2checkout, authorizenet, nochex, paypal, and safshop implementations within the sources/classes/paymentgateways/ directory structure. This represents a significant security weakness that undermines the integrity of user privilege management within the forum platform.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and privilege checking mechanisms within the payment gateway processing classes. When authenticated users submit payment forms through these gateway interfaces, the system fails to properly verify that the requesting user has appropriate authorization to modify other users' membership levels. The flaw specifically manifests in the way the system processes member ID parameters and privilege level modifications during payment transaction handling. This allows an attacker to manipulate form data to target arbitrary user accounts and reduce their privilege levels, effectively creating a privilege escalation attack vector.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple privilege reduction as it enables attackers to potentially demote administrators to regular members or manipulate user access controls within the forum environment. This could result in unauthorized access to administrative functions, data manipulation, or the ability to bypass security controls that protect sensitive forum operations. The vulnerability affects the core membership management system, potentially compromising the entire user access control framework of the Invision Power Board installation. Attackers could exploit this to undermine forum security, access restricted content, or disrupt normal user operations.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability should focus on implementing proper input validation and privilege checking mechanisms within the payment gateway processing classes. The recommended approach involves strengthening authentication checks to ensure that users can only modify their own account details or have explicit authorization to modify other users' privileges. Security patches should enforce strict parameter validation for member ID fields and implement proper access control lists that verify user permissions before allowing privilege modifications. Organizations should also consider implementing additional monitoring for suspicious privilege change activities and ensure that all payment gateway implementations follow secure coding practices. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-284 (Improper Access Control) and could be categorized under ATT&CK technique T1078 (Valid Accounts) as it exploits authenticated user sessions to escalate privileges. The fix should involve comprehensive code review of all payment gateway classes and implementation of robust privilege validation mechanisms to prevent unauthorized privilege modifications.