CVE-2008-6449 in XR-730
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in multiple Century Systems routers including XR-410 before 1.6.9, XR-510 before 3.5.3, XR-440 before 1.7.8, and other XR series routers from XR-510 to XR-730 allows remote attackers to modify configuration as the administrator via unknown vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/01/2018
The CVE-2008-6449 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw affecting multiple Century Systems routers within the XR series. This vulnerability specifically impacts models ranging from XR-410 versions prior to 1.6.9 through XR-730 series devices, creating a significant security risk for network infrastructure. The flaw allows remote attackers to manipulate administrative configurations without proper authentication, fundamentally compromising the integrity of network device management. The vulnerability exists due to insufficient validation of request origins and lack of proper anti-CSRF mechanisms within the router's web administration interface.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from the absence of anti-CSRF tokens or similar protective measures in the affected router firmware versions. When administrators access the web-based management interface, the system fails to verify that requests originate from legitimate administrative sessions rather than maliciously crafted requests. This weakness enables attackers to construct specially formatted web pages or send crafted HTTP requests that, when executed by an authenticated administrator, perform unauthorized configuration changes. The attack vector operates through the exploitation of the trust relationship between the web interface and authenticated sessions, allowing manipulation of critical network parameters such as firewall rules, routing configurations, or administrative credentials.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple configuration modification, as it fundamentally undermines the security posture of affected networks. Attackers can leverage this weakness to establish persistent backdoors, disable security features, redirect traffic through malicious endpoints, or compromise the entire network infrastructure. The remote nature of the attack means that threat actors do not require physical access or local network presence to exploit the vulnerability, making it particularly dangerous for enterprise and critical infrastructure deployments. Organizations using affected router models face potential data breaches, network disruption, and complete loss of administrative control over their network devices.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2008-6449 should prioritize immediate firmware updates to versions that address the CSRF vulnerability, specifically targeting the mentioned version ranges for each affected model. Network administrators must conduct comprehensive inventory assessments to identify all affected devices within their infrastructure and implement mandatory firmware upgrade procedures. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which categorizes cross-site request forgery as a critical security weakness requiring proper origin validation and anti-CSRF token implementation. Additionally, this vulnerability maps to ATT&CK technique T1071.004, which covers application layer protocol usage, and T1566, which involves credential harvesting through social engineering. Organizations should also implement network segmentation, disable unnecessary web management interfaces, and deploy intrusion detection systems to monitor for suspicious administrative activities. Regular security assessments and vulnerability scanning should be conducted to ensure continued protection against similar CSRF threats in other network equipment.