CVE-2009-2572 in Fivestar Module For Drupal
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the Fivestar module 5.x-1.x before 5.x-1.14 and 6.x-1.x before 6.x-1.14, a module for Drupal, allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of arbitrary users for requests that cast votes.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/22/2017
The CVE-2009-2572 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw within the Fivestar module for Drupal content management systems. This vulnerability specifically affects versions 5.x-1.x prior to 5.x-1.14 and 6.x-1.x prior to 6.x-1.14, creating a significant security risk for Drupal installations that utilize this voting module. The flaw enables remote attackers to exploit the authentication mechanisms of legitimate users by crafting malicious requests that appear to originate from authenticated sessions, thereby compromising the integrity of user voting activities.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from the Fivestar module's failure to properly validate the origin of voting requests. When users interact with the voting functionality, the module should verify that requests are genuinely initiated by the authenticated user rather than being forged by malicious third parties. However, the vulnerability exists because the module lacks proper anti-CSRF token validation mechanisms. Attackers can construct specially crafted web pages or emails containing hidden form submissions that automatically trigger vote casting requests to the vulnerable Drupal site, effectively hijacking authenticated sessions without requiring any credentials.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple vote manipulation, as it represents a fundamental breach in the authentication and authorization mechanisms of Drupal sites using the Fivestar module. An attacker could potentially cast multiple votes on behalf of users, manipulate voting results, or even influence the visibility of content based on voting scores. This creates serious implications for sites that rely on user-generated content rating systems, community voting, or any functionality where voting integrity is crucial. The vulnerability essentially undermines the trust model of the application by allowing unauthorized actions to be performed under legitimate user identities, potentially leading to reputation damage, content manipulation, and loss of user confidence.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should immediately implement the available security patches provided by Drupal core developers, specifically upgrading to Fivestar module versions 5.x-1.14 or 6.x-1.14 respectively. Additionally, system administrators should conduct comprehensive security audits of their Drupal installations to identify any other modules that may be susceptible to similar CSRF vulnerabilities. The mitigation strategy should include implementing proper CSRF token validation mechanisms, enabling secure session management, and deploying web application firewalls that can detect and block suspicious cross-site request patterns. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery weaknesses, and represents a typical example of how web application security controls can be bypassed when proper input validation and session management mechanisms are not properly implemented. The ATT&CK framework categorizes this as a privilege escalation technique where adversaries leverage existing authenticated sessions to perform unauthorized actions, demonstrating the critical importance of implementing robust anti-CSRF protections in web applications.