CVE-2008-7204 in VirtueMart
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in VirtueMart 1.0.13a and earlier allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of administrators via unspecified vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/20/2019
The CVE-2008-7204 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw discovered in VirtueMart version 1.0.13a and earlier implementations. This vulnerability specifically targets the administrative authentication mechanisms of the e-commerce platform, creating a significant security risk that could allow remote attackers to gain unauthorized access to administrative functions. The vulnerability stems from the absence of proper anti-CSRF protection mechanisms within the application's administrative interfaces, making it susceptible to exploitation through maliciously crafted requests that can be executed without the knowledge or consent of authenticated administrators.
The technical flaw manifests as a failure to implement adequate CSRF protection tokens or validation mechanisms in the administrative forms and endpoints of VirtueMart. This absence creates a condition where an attacker can craft malicious web pages or email attachments containing embedded requests that, when executed by an authenticated administrator, will be processed as legitimate administrative commands. The unspecified vectors mentioned in the vulnerability description indicate that multiple attack pathways exist within the administrative interface, potentially including form submissions, AJAX requests, or direct URL parameter manipulation. This lack of specificity in the attack vectors suggests a fundamental design flaw in the application's security architecture rather than a single point of failure.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple unauthorized access to encompass potential complete system compromise. An attacker who successfully exploits this CSRF vulnerability could perform administrative actions such as modifying product catalogs, adjusting pricing structures, adding or removing users, changing system configurations, and potentially accessing sensitive customer data. The administrative hijacking capability means that the attacker could establish persistent access to the system, modify critical business operations, or even introduce backdoors for future exploitation. This vulnerability directly violates the principle of least privilege and undermines the integrity of the administrative authentication system, potentially leading to significant financial losses and reputational damage for organizations using affected versions of VirtueMart.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including upgrading to patched versions of VirtueMart, implementing proper CSRF token validation mechanisms, and establishing comprehensive monitoring for suspicious administrative activities. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery issues, and corresponds to ATT&CK technique T1566.001 for the initial access phase through malicious web content. Security measures should include implementing the SameSite cookie attributes, ensuring proper request validation, and conducting regular security assessments of web applications to identify similar vulnerabilities. Additionally, organizations should consider implementing web application firewalls and security headers to provide additional layers of protection against such attacks, while also establishing incident response procedures to quickly detect and respond to potential exploitation attempts.