CVE-2007-6752 in Drupal
Summary
by MITRE
** DISPUTED ** Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in Drupal 7.12 and earlier allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of arbitrary users for requests that end a session via the user/logout URI. NOTE: the vendor disputes the significance of this issue, by considering the "security benefit against platform complexity and performance impact" and concluding that a change to the logout behavior is not planned because "for most sites it is not worth the trade-off."
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/01/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2007-6752 represents a cross-site request forgery flaw that existed in Drupal versions 7.12 and earlier, specifically targeting the user/logout URI endpoint. This CSRF vulnerability operates by exploiting the trust relationship between a web application and its users, allowing remote attackers to manipulate authenticated sessions without direct knowledge of user credentials. The flaw enables malicious actors to construct specially crafted requests that, when executed by an authenticated user, can terminate their sessions or potentially hijack their authentication state. The vulnerability's classification under CWE-352 indicates it falls within the well-established category of cross-site request forgery attacks that exploit the implicit trust a web application places in requests originating from authenticated users. The security implications extend beyond simple session termination as CSRF attacks can potentially enable more sophisticated attacks by manipulating user sessions and authentication states.
The technical mechanism of this vulnerability relies on the absence of proper anti-CSRF token validation during logout operations. When users navigate to the user/logout URI, the application should verify that the request originates from a legitimate source within the same application context. However, in vulnerable Drupal versions, this validation was insufficient or absent, allowing attackers to craft malicious web pages or emails that, when visited by an authenticated user, would automatically trigger logout requests. The attack vector typically involves embedding malicious JavaScript or HTML forms within compromised websites that submit requests to the Drupal logout endpoint, effectively forcing users to log out of their sessions without their knowledge or consent. This particular implementation flaw demonstrates how session management functions can become attack surfaces when proper request origin verification mechanisms are not implemented. The vulnerability aligns with ATT&CK technique T1531 which focuses on using valid credentials to perform actions that compromise authentication systems.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents significant risks to Drupal-based websites that rely on session-based authentication for user management and administrative functions. The impact extends beyond simple user inconvenience to potentially enable more serious attacks such as session fixation or account takeover scenarios where attackers could manipulate user sessions to gain unauthorized access. The vendor's position on this issue, as noted in the description, reflects a complex balance between security improvements and the potential performance and complexity trade-offs associated with implementing comprehensive CSRF protection measures. This vendor stance demonstrates how security decisions often involve weighing multiple factors including application performance, user experience, and the actual threat landscape faced by different deployments. The decision not to implement changes to logout behavior illustrates how organizations may prioritize system stability and performance over certain security enhancements, particularly when the perceived risk is deemed low by the vendor's security team. However, from an industry security perspective, this vulnerability highlights the importance of comprehensive CSRF protection mechanisms, especially for critical functions like user authentication and session management. The vulnerability's disputed status does not diminish its potential impact on specific deployments where the risk assessment might differ from the vendor's overall security posture. Organizations running vulnerable Drupal versions should carefully evaluate their threat landscape and implement additional protective measures such as implementing custom CSRF token validation or restricting access to sensitive endpoints through additional authentication layers to mitigate potential exploitation risks.