CVE-2008-0266 in eTicket
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in admin.php in eTicket 1.5.5.2 allows remote attackers to change the administrative password and possibly perform other administrative tasks. NOTE: either the old password must be known, or the attacker must leverage a separate SQL injection vulnerability.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/16/2025
The CVE-2008-0266 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw discovered in the eTicket 1.5.5.2 web application's administrative interface. This vulnerability resides within the admin.php file and fundamentally undermines the application's security model by allowing unauthorized remote attackers to manipulate administrative functions without proper authentication. The flaw specifically enables attackers to change administrative passwords and potentially execute other privileged operations, creating a severe compromise of system integrity and access control mechanisms. The vulnerability's exploitation requires either knowledge of the existing administrative password or the presence of a secondary SQL injection vulnerability within the same application, highlighting the dangerous combination of multiple weaknesses that can amplify the impact of individual flaws.
From a technical perspective, this CSRF vulnerability operates by tricking authenticated users into executing unintended administrative actions through malicious web pages or crafted requests. The vulnerability stems from the application's failure to implement proper anti-CSRF tokens or validation mechanisms when processing administrative requests. When an administrator visits a malicious site or clicks on a compromised link, the attacker can submit requests to the admin.php endpoint that appear legitimate due to the administrator's existing authentication session. This weakness directly maps to CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery vulnerabilities, and demonstrates how inadequate session management and request validation can create exploitable attack vectors. The vulnerability's classification aligns with ATT&CK technique T1078.004, which covers legitimate credentials, as successful exploitation would grant attackers administrative access that they could then leverage for further compromise.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends far beyond simple password changes, as it provides attackers with elevated privileges within the eTicket system. Once an attacker successfully exploits this vulnerability, they can modify system configurations, manipulate user accounts, access sensitive data, and potentially establish persistent access through administrative backdoors. The requirement for either an existing password or a secondary SQL injection vulnerability creates multiple attack pathways, making the system more susceptible to exploitation across different threat scenarios. This vulnerability particularly affects organizations relying on eTicket for ticket management and support operations, where administrative compromise could lead to complete system takeover and data breaches. The impact is exacerbated by the fact that CSRF attacks can be delivered through various channels including email phishing, compromised websites, or social engineering campaigns that leverage user trust in legitimate web applications.
Effective mitigation strategies for CVE-2008-0266 require immediate implementation of proper anti-CSRF protections within the application's administrative interface. The primary solution involves implementing robust anti-CSRF tokens that are generated per session and validated for each administrative request, ensuring that requests originate from legitimate user interactions rather than malicious third-party sites. Additionally, the application should enforce strict input validation and implement proper session management controls that prevent session hijacking and unauthorized access. Organizations should also consider implementing additional security measures such as rate limiting on administrative functions, enhanced logging and monitoring of administrative activities, and regular security assessments to identify similar vulnerabilities. The fix should address the root cause by ensuring that all administrative functions require explicit user confirmation and proper authentication validation, aligning with security best practices outlined in OWASP's CSRF prevention guidelines and the principle of least privilege enforcement. Regular security updates and vulnerability assessments remain crucial for maintaining defense-in-depth measures against similar CSRF vulnerabilities that may exist in other application components or third-party libraries.