CVE-2009-4905 in Acc Statistics
Summary
by MITRE
Multiple cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerabilities in index.php in Acc Statistics 1.1 allow remote attackers to hijack the authentication of administrators for requests that change (1) passwords, (2) usernames, and (3) e-mail addresses.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/02/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2009-4905 represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw in the Acc Statistics 1.1 web application. This vulnerability resides within the index.php file and exposes the system to malicious attacks that can compromise administrative accounts through unauthorized privilege escalation. The flaw specifically affects the authentication mechanism by allowing remote attackers to manipulate administrative sessions without proper authorization, creating a significant security risk for organizations relying on this statistics platform.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from the absence of proper authentication tokens or session validation mechanisms within the affected web application. When administrators perform actions such as changing passwords, usernames, or email addresses through the index.php interface, the application fails to verify that these requests originate from legitimate administrative sessions. This omission creates a pathway for attackers to craft malicious requests that can be executed in the context of an authenticated administrator's session, effectively bypassing the normal authentication controls that should protect these sensitive operations.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple unauthorized access, as it directly compromises the integrity and confidentiality of administrative accounts. Attackers can leverage this flaw to completely take control of administrative privileges, potentially leading to complete system compromise, data exfiltration, or the installation of backdoors. The ability to modify passwords, usernames, and email addresses creates multiple attack vectors that can be exploited to maintain persistent access or to disrupt normal system operations. This vulnerability particularly affects organizations that rely on Acc Statistics for web analytics, as it undermines the trust model of the application and exposes critical system functions to unauthorized manipulation.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should implement immediate mitigations including the addition of anti-CSRF tokens to all administrative forms and requests, proper session management validation, and the implementation of referer header checks. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses cross-site request forgery weaknesses in web applications. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to techniques involving privilege escalation and credential access, specifically T1078 for valid accounts and T1566 for social engineering. The recommended remediation includes implementing proper input validation, session management, and ensuring that all administrative operations require explicit authentication tokens that are unique to each user session and time-bound to prevent replay attacks. Additionally, organizations should conduct comprehensive security assessments to identify similar vulnerabilities in other web applications and establish robust web application security testing procedures to prevent future occurrences of such critical flaws.