CVE-2009-4828 in Ad Manager Pro
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in administration/admins.php in Ad Manager Pro (aka AdManagerPro) 3.0 allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of administrators for requests that create new administrative users via an admin_created action. NOTE: some of these details are obtained from third party information.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/03/2025
The CVE-2009-4828 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw in Ad Manager Pro version 3.0's administrative interface. This vulnerability exists within the administration/admins.php file and specifically targets the admin_created action functionality that handles the creation of new administrative user accounts. The flaw enables remote attackers to manipulate administrative sessions by crafting malicious requests that appear to originate from legitimate administrative users. The vulnerability stems from the application's failure to implement proper anti-CSRF mechanisms, leaving the administrative interface susceptible to unauthorized user creation operations that can significantly compromise system security and access controls.
This CSRF vulnerability operates by exploiting the trust relationship between the web application and authenticated administrative users. When administrators perform actions within the application, their session cookies are automatically included with each request, creating a persistent authentication context. The flaw allows attackers to construct malicious web pages or emails that, when visited by an authenticated administrator, automatically submit requests to the vulnerable administration endpoint. The attack vector specifically targets the admin_created action which handles user creation, enabling attackers to add new administrative accounts without proper authorization. This represents a classic CSRF attack pattern where the application processes requests without verifying the authenticity of the request origin, violating fundamental web security principles.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple unauthorized access, as it fundamentally compromises the integrity of the administrative user management system. An attacker who successfully exploits this vulnerability can create new administrative accounts with full privileges, potentially gaining persistent access to the system and enabling further attacks such as data exfiltration, system modification, or complete system compromise. The vulnerability affects the application's authentication and authorization mechanisms, undermining the security model that relies on proper user management controls. This type of flaw is particularly dangerous in administrative interfaces where elevated privileges are involved, as it allows attackers to bypass normal access controls and escalate their privileges within the application.
Security professionals should recognize this vulnerability as a variant of CWE-352, which specifically addresses cross-site request forgery weaknesses in web applications. The flaw aligns with ATT&CK technique T1078.004, which covers legitimate credentials use through administrative access, as successful exploitation would allow attackers to establish persistent administrative access. The vulnerability demonstrates a critical failure in input validation and request verification within the administrative interface, representing a common pattern in web application security where proper CSRF token implementation is missing or inadequate. Organizations using Ad Manager Pro 3.0 should implement immediate mitigations including the deployment of anti-CSRF tokens, proper request origin verification, and the enforcement of session management controls to prevent unauthorized administrative actions.
The mitigation strategy for this vulnerability involves implementing robust anti-CSRF measures that ensure all administrative actions require proper authentication tokens that are validated against the originating request. Organizations should deploy unique, unpredictable tokens for each administrative session and validate these tokens on every administrative request. Additionally, implementing proper referer header validation and enforcing strict session management controls can help prevent unauthorized administrative operations. The application should also implement rate limiting and monitoring for administrative user creation events to detect potential abuse attempts. Regular security audits and penetration testing should be conducted to identify similar vulnerabilities in other administrative interfaces, as CSRF flaws often exist in multiple components of web applications. The vulnerability serves as a reminder of the critical importance of implementing comprehensive CSRF protection mechanisms in all administrative interfaces where user actions can result in privilege escalation or system compromise.