CVE-2009-1733 in IPplan
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in IPplan 4.91a allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of administrators for requests that (1) change the password, (2) add users, or (3) delete users via unknown vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 11/09/2018
The CVE-2009-1733 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw discovered in IPplan version 4.91a, a network inventory and planning tool widely used for managing network resources. This vulnerability specifically targets the administrative functions of the application, creating a significant security risk for organizations that rely on IPplan for network management. The flaw enables remote attackers to manipulate authenticated sessions and perform administrative actions without proper authorization, fundamentally compromising the integrity of the application's access control mechanisms. The vulnerability falls under the CWE-352 category, which specifically addresses cross-site request forgery vulnerabilities, making it a well-documented and serious security concern in web application security.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from the absence of proper anti-CSRF token validation within the administrative interfaces of IPplan. When administrators perform actions such as changing passwords, adding new users, or deleting existing user accounts, the application fails to verify the authenticity of the request origin. Attackers can exploit this by crafting malicious web pages or emails containing embedded requests that, when executed by an authenticated administrator, perform unauthorized administrative operations. The vulnerability's impact extends beyond simple data modification as it directly compromises the authentication system, allowing attackers to potentially gain persistent access to the administrative functions of the network management tool.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe for organizations relying on IPplan for their network infrastructure management. An attacker who successfully exploits this CSRF vulnerability could completely compromise the administrative access controls of the network inventory system, leading to unauthorized user management, password changes that could lock out legitimate administrators, or the complete removal of user accounts that would disrupt network access controls. This vulnerability essentially allows an attacker to assume full administrative privileges within the IPplan environment, potentially leading to network-wide compromise as administrators often have access to critical network configuration data. The attack vector is particularly dangerous because it can be executed through social engineering techniques, making it difficult to detect and prevent through traditional network monitoring approaches.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including the deployment of anti-CSRF tokens for all administrative functions, proper validation of request origins, and implementation of additional authentication factors for sensitive operations. The vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of input validation and session management in web applications, aligning with ATT&CK technique T1548.003 for abuse of cloud infrastructure and T1566 for credential access through social engineering. Security measures should include regular security assessments of web applications, implementation of web application firewalls, and comprehensive staff training on recognizing and preventing social engineering attacks that could exploit such vulnerabilities. Additionally, organizations should consider implementing multi-factor authentication for administrative access and ensure that all web applications undergo regular security testing to identify and remediate similar CSRF vulnerabilities that could exist in other components of their network infrastructure.