CVE-2008-0272 in Drupal
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the aggregator module in Drupal 4.7.x before 4.7.11 and 5.x before 5.6 allows remote attackers to delete items from a feed as privileged users.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/30/2021
The CVE-2008-0272 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw within Drupal's aggregator module that affected versions 4.7.x prior to 4.7.11 and 5.x prior to 5.6. This vulnerability falls under the CWE-352 category, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery weaknesses in software applications. The flaw enables remote attackers to manipulate privileged users into executing unauthorized actions against their own Drupal sites without their knowledge or consent.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability exploits the lack of proper validation mechanisms within the aggregator module's feed deletion functionality. When a privileged user accesses a malicious webpage or clicks on a crafted link, the attacker can trigger automatic requests to the vulnerable Drupal installation that perform feed deletion operations. The vulnerability stems from the absence of anti-CSRF tokens or similar validation mechanisms that would normally verify the authenticity of requests originating from legitimate administrative interfaces. This allows attackers to leverage the privileges of authenticated users to carry out destructive actions on feed content.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is significant as it provides attackers with the ability to compromise feed management functionality within Drupal installations. Privileged users who visit malicious sites or are tricked into clicking compromised links can unknowingly delete valuable feed content, potentially disrupting content aggregation services and causing data loss. The vulnerability affects the integrity and availability of information within Drupal systems, as attackers can systematically remove feed items that may contain important news, updates, or other aggregated content. This creates a scenario where legitimate users lose access to critical information while attackers can manipulate the content management system without detection.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should implement immediate mitigations including upgrading to the patched versions of Drupal 4.7.11 and 5.6, which introduced proper CSRF token validation mechanisms. System administrators should also consider implementing additional security measures such as web application firewalls that can detect and block suspicious cross-site requests. The vulnerability demonstrates the importance of proper input validation and request authentication in web applications, aligning with ATT&CK technique T1566 which covers the exploitation of web application vulnerabilities. Organizations should conduct thorough security assessments of their Drupal installations to identify any other potential CSRF vulnerabilities and ensure that all administrative functions properly implement anti-CSRF protections to prevent unauthorized operations.