CVE-2008-7024 in Gemini Portal
Summary
by MITRE
admin.php in Arz Development The Gemini Portal 4.7 and earlier allows remote attackers to bypass authentication and gain administrator privileges by setting the user cookie to "admin" and setting the name parameter to "users."
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/04/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2008-7024 represents a critical authentication bypass flaw within the Arz Development The Gemini Portal version 4.7 and earlier. This issue resides in the admin.php component which governs administrative access controls for the web application. The flaw stems from improper validation of user credentials and session management mechanisms that fail to adequately verify the legitimacy of administrative access requests.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability exploits a predictable and easily manipulable cookie value to achieve unauthorized administrative access. Attackers can simply manipulate the user cookie to contain the value "admin" while simultaneously setting the name parameter to "users" to bypass the normal authentication flow. This type of vulnerability falls under CWE-287 which specifically addresses improper authentication mechanisms in software applications. The flaw demonstrates a fundamental weakness in the application's security architecture where cookie-based authentication is not properly validated against legitimate user accounts or session tokens.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability presents a severe risk to organizations utilizing The Gemini Portal as it allows remote attackers to gain full administrative privileges without requiring legitimate credentials or authentication factors. The ease of exploitation means that an attacker with minimal technical expertise can escalate privileges and potentially compromise the entire application infrastructure. This vulnerability directly maps to attack techniques described in the MITRE ATT&CK framework under T1078 which covers valid accounts and T1566 which covers credential harvesting. The impact extends beyond simple unauthorized access as administrators can modify system configurations, access sensitive data, manipulate user accounts, and potentially establish persistent backdoors within the application environment.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should immediately implement multiple layers of mitigation strategies to address the authentication bypass risk. The primary remediation involves patching the application to version 4.8 or later where the authentication mechanisms have been properly strengthened. Additionally, administrators should implement strict input validation and sanitization measures to prevent parameter manipulation attacks. Network-level protections including web application firewalls and intrusion detection systems should be configured to monitor for suspicious cookie values and parameter combinations. The implementation of multi-factor authentication and robust session management protocols would further mitigate the risk of similar vulnerabilities in the future. Security monitoring should include regular audits of authentication logs and cookie management practices to detect potential exploitation attempts. Organizations should also consider implementing principle of least privilege access controls and regular security assessments to identify and remediate similar authentication bypass vulnerabilities across their entire application portfolio.