CVE-2008-3322 in Recipe
Summary
by MITRE
admin/index.php in Maian Recipe 1.2 and earlier allows remote attackers to bypass authentication and gain administrative access by sending an arbitrary recipe_cookie cookie.
If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/01/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2008-3322 affects Maian Recipe version 1.2 and earlier, presenting a critical authentication bypass flaw that enables remote attackers to escalate privileges and gain full administrative control over the affected system. This issue resides within the admin/index.php component of the application, where improper validation of authentication tokens allows malicious actors to exploit a weakness in the cookie-based authentication mechanism. The vulnerability specifically targets the recipe_cookie cookie parameter, which should normally contain a legitimate authentication token but can be manipulated by attackers to assume administrative privileges without proper credentials.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation and authentication checks within the application's administrative interface. When the system processes the recipe_cookie parameter, it fails to properly verify the authenticity or integrity of the cookie value, allowing attackers to craft or modify cookie values that would normally be restricted to legitimate administrators. This represents a classic case of insufficient authentication controls, where the application's trust model is compromised through improper cookie validation. The flaw essentially creates a backdoor path into the administrative section of the application, bypassing all standard authentication mechanisms that should normally require valid username and password credentials.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe and far-reaching, as it provides attackers with complete administrative control over the Maian Recipe application. Once authenticated, attackers can manipulate all aspects of the recipe management system including adding, modifying, or deleting recipes, managing user accounts, accessing sensitive data, and potentially using the compromised system as a foothold for further attacks within the network. The remote nature of this vulnerability means that attackers do not require physical access to the system or local network presence, making it particularly dangerous for web applications hosted on publicly accessible servers. This authentication bypass effectively neutralizes all security controls that depend on proper administrative access validation.
Security professionals should address this vulnerability through immediate patching of the Maian Recipe application to version 1.2 or later, which contains the necessary fixes for the authentication bypass issue. Additionally, organizations should implement proper input validation for all cookie parameters and ensure that authentication tokens are properly verified using secure cryptographic methods. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-287 which addresses improper authentication, and could be mapped to ATT&CK technique T1078.004 for valid accounts and T1566.001 for spearphishing via email in attack scenarios where this vulnerability is leveraged as an initial access vector. Network segmentation and monitoring of cookie-based authentication patterns should be implemented to detect potential exploitation attempts, while regular security assessments should verify that authentication mechanisms are properly configured and validated to prevent similar issues in other applications.