CVE-2008-6292 in Acc Autos
Summary
by MITRE
Acc Autos 4.0 allows remote attackers to bypass authentication and gain administrative access by setting the (1) username_cookie to "admin," (2) right_cookie to "1," and (3) id_cookie to "1."
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/10/2024
This vulnerability exists in Acc Autos 4.0, a web application that suffers from insecure authentication mechanisms and improper input validation. The flaw represents a classic case of hardcoded administrative credentials and predictable session management that allows unauthorized users to escalate privileges without proper authentication. The vulnerability is particularly concerning as it provides direct administrative access through manipulation of three specific cookies within the application's session handling mechanism. The affected application fails to validate the legitimacy of cookie values, instead accepting any value that matches the hardcoded administrative parameters, creating a dangerous privilege escalation vector.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability exploits the application's weak session management and authentication bypass logic. When an attacker sets username_cookie to "admin", right_cookie to "1", and id_cookie to "1", the application automatically grants administrative privileges without performing proper authentication checks. This represents a fundamental failure in the application's security architecture, where the system trusts cookie values without verification against legitimate user sessions or database records. The vulnerability stems from the application's reliance on client-side cookie manipulation as a means of authentication, which violates security principle of least privilege and proper access control implementation. This type of vulnerability is categorized under CWE-287 - Improper Authentication and can be mapped to ATT&CK technique T1078.004 - Valid Accounts: Default Accounts, as it exploits hardcoded administrative credentials that are not properly secured.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe and far-reaching, as it allows remote attackers to completely compromise the application and potentially the underlying system. Once authenticated as an administrator, an attacker can modify or delete critical application data, manipulate user accounts, access sensitive information, and potentially use the compromised system as a foothold for further attacks within the network. The vulnerability's remote exploitability means that attackers do not require physical access or local network presence to exploit the flaw, making it particularly dangerous in internet-facing applications. The ease of exploitation, requiring only cookie manipulation, significantly reduces the attack surface and increases the likelihood of successful compromise. Organizations using Acc Autos 4.0 are at risk of complete system takeover, data breaches, and potential regulatory compliance violations.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability must address both immediate remediation and long-term architectural improvements. The most critical immediate action is to implement proper session management with server-side validation of authentication tokens, ensuring that cookie values are verified against legitimate user sessions and database records before granting administrative privileges. The application should implement proper input validation and sanitization to prevent cookie manipulation attacks, along with robust authentication mechanisms that do not rely on predictable hardcoded values. Additionally, organizations should implement session timeout mechanisms, secure cookie attributes, and regular security testing to identify similar vulnerabilities. The fix should also include proper access control implementation that enforces role-based permissions and prevents privilege escalation through cookie manipulation. Security measures should align with NIST SP 800-53 standards for access control and authentication, ensuring that administrative functions require proper authentication and authorization before granting elevated privileges.