CVE-2008-7151 in Live
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in Live 5.x before 5.x-0.1, a module for Drupal, allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of unspecified privileged users for requests that can be leveraged to execute arbitrary PHP code.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/19/2019
The CVE-2008-7151 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw within the Live 5.x module for Drupal platforms prior to version 5.x-0.1. This vulnerability resides in the module's failure to implement proper anti-CSRF mechanisms, creating a fundamental security weakness that can be exploited by remote attackers to manipulate authenticated sessions. The vulnerability specifically targets privileged users within the Drupal ecosystem, making it particularly dangerous as it could enable attackers to perform actions with elevated privileges. The flaw allows adversaries to craft malicious requests that appear to originate from legitimate authenticated users, effectively bypassing standard authentication controls that should prevent unauthorized access to administrative functions.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from the absence of CSRF tokens or similar validation mechanisms within the Live 5.x module's request handling process. When privileged users interact with the module's functionality, the system fails to verify that requests originate from the intended user rather than from a malicious third party. This design oversight creates a pathway for attackers to construct specially crafted web requests that, when executed by an authenticated user, can trigger unintended actions within the Drupal application. The vulnerability's classification as a CSRF issue aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery weaknesses in software applications. The module's architecture appears to have been designed without proper session validation controls, allowing unauthorized command execution through seemingly legitimate user requests.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple session hijacking, as it can be leveraged to execute arbitrary PHP code within the Drupal environment. This capability represents a severe escalation from basic CSRF exploitation, as it allows attackers to potentially gain complete control over the affected web application. Privileged users who interact with the Live 5.x module become potential targets for this attack vector, with the implications being particularly dire for administrators or users with elevated permissions. Attackers could exploit this vulnerability to modify content, create new user accounts, access sensitive data, or even install malicious code that persists across application sessions. The attack surface is further expanded by the fact that the vulnerability affects the module's authentication handling rather than just its input validation, making it more difficult to detect and prevent through traditional security measures.
Organizations running affected versions of the Live 5.x module should immediately implement multiple layers of mitigation strategies to protect their Drupal installations. The primary recommendation involves upgrading to version 5.x-0.1 or later, which includes proper CSRF protection mechanisms. Additionally, administrators should consider implementing Content Security Policy headers, which can provide additional protection against cross-site scripting and request manipulation attempts. Network-level protections such as web application firewalls can help detect and block malicious requests attempting to exploit this vulnerability. The implementation of proper session management controls, including the use of anti-CSRF tokens for all privileged operations, should be enforced across the entire Drupal platform. This vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of proper authentication validation in web applications and aligns with ATT&CK technique T1566, which covers the exploitation of vulnerabilities in web applications through CSRF attacks. Security teams should also conduct comprehensive vulnerability assessments to identify any other modules or components that might be susceptible to similar authentication bypass scenarios, ensuring that all parts of the web application architecture maintain proper session integrity and user authentication validation.