CVE-2008-3220 in Drupal
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in Drupal 5.x before 5.8 and 6.x before 6.3 allows remote attackers to perform administrative actions via vectors involving deletion of "translated strings."
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 09/30/2018
The CVE-2008-3220 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw discovered in the Drupal content management system affecting versions 5.x prior to 5.8 and 6.x prior to 6.3. This vulnerability resides within the translation module's handling of administrative actions, specifically targeting the deletion of translated strings functionality. The flaw enables remote attackers to execute unauthorized administrative operations without proper authentication, fundamentally compromising the security posture of affected Drupal installations. The vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of request origins and lack of proper anti-CSRF token implementation in the translation management interface.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability exploits the absence of proper CSRF protection mechanisms within Drupal's administrative pathways. When administrators access the translation module to delete translated strings, the system fails to validate that the request originates from a legitimate administrative session. Attackers can craft malicious web pages or emails containing specially crafted requests that, when visited by an authenticated administrator, execute the delete operation without the administrator's knowledge or consent. This occurs because the application does not implement robust token-based validation or referer header checking to verify the authenticity of administrative requests. The vulnerability specifically targets the translation string deletion functionality, which is typically restricted to users with administrative privileges, making it particularly dangerous as it allows attackers to manipulate content and potentially disrupt site operations.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data manipulation, as it provides attackers with the capability to perform administrative actions that could severely compromise website integrity and availability. Successful exploitation allows attackers to delete translated strings from the database, potentially leading to broken multilingual sites where content becomes inaccessible or corrupted. In more severe scenarios, attackers could leverage this vulnerability as a stepping stone for further attacks, potentially gaining deeper access to the system or executing additional malicious operations. The remote nature of this vulnerability means that attackers do not require physical access to the system or knowledge of administrative credentials beyond the ability to trick an administrator into visiting a malicious page. This makes the vulnerability particularly dangerous in environments where administrators frequently browse the internet or receive email communications from untrusted sources.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should immediately implement the security patches released by Drupal as part of their 5.8 and 6.3 versions, which address the CSRF protection gaps in the translation module. The mitigation strategy should also include implementing additional security measures such as web application firewalls that can detect and block suspicious request patterns, regular security audits of administrative interfaces, and enhanced monitoring of administrative activities. Security teams should also consider implementing proper session management practices and ensuring that all administrative functions require proper authentication tokens. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses cross-site request forgery weaknesses in web applications, and maps to ATT&CK technique T1078.004 for bypassing application access controls through manipulation of administrative functions. Regular security awareness training for administrators is essential to prevent social engineering attacks that might exploit this vulnerability by tricking users into visiting malicious pages containing the crafted requests.