CVE-2010-1610 in OpenCart
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in index.php in OpenCart 1.4 allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of an application administrator for requests that create an administrative account via a POST request with the route parameter set to "user/user/insert." NOTE: some of these details are obtained from third party information.
If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/30/2019
The CVE-2010-1610 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw in OpenCart version 1.4's administrative interface. This vulnerability exists within the index.php file and enables remote attackers to exploit the system's authentication mechanisms through carefully crafted malicious requests. The flaw specifically targets the administrative account creation process, allowing unauthorized actors to establish new administrator accounts without proper authorization. The vulnerability manifests when a POST request is made with the route parameter explicitly set to "user/user/insert," which triggers the account creation functionality within the application's administrative backend.
The technical exploitation of this CSRF vulnerability relies on the absence of proper anti-CSRF token validation within the administrative interface. When an authenticated administrator visits a malicious website or clicks on a compromised link, the attacker can craft a request that automatically submits a POST operation to the OpenCart administration panel. This request contains the specific route parameter that bypasses normal access controls and directly invokes the user creation function. The vulnerability demonstrates a fundamental weakness in the application's session management and request validation processes, as it fails to verify the authenticity of requests originating from legitimate administrative sessions.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability poses severe security implications for OpenCart installations running version 1.4. An attacker who successfully exploits this flaw can escalate privileges by creating new administrative accounts with full system access rights. This capability allows for persistent unauthorized access to the e-commerce platform, enabling data theft, modification of product catalogs, manipulation of customer information, and potential compromise of the entire web application infrastructure. The vulnerability's impact extends beyond immediate account creation, as the newly created administrator accounts can be used to install malicious extensions, modify payment processing configurations, and gain access to sensitive financial data. The attack vector is particularly dangerous because it requires minimal user interaction beyond visiting a malicious site, making it a significant threat to online retail operations.
The vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery weaknesses in web applications. This classification indicates that the flaw represents a well-documented security gap in the application's design that allows unauthorized commands to be executed with the privileges of authenticated users. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to techniques involving privilege escalation and persistence within web applications. The attack pattern follows T1078.004 for valid accounts and T1566 for initial access through malicious web content. Organizations should implement comprehensive mitigations including the deployment of anti-CSRF tokens, implementation of referer header validation, and enforcement of strict session management protocols. Additionally, regular security updates and patch management procedures are essential to address such vulnerabilities that have been identified and documented in the security community. The vulnerability underscores the critical importance of maintaining up-to-date web application security practices and the necessity of implementing robust input validation mechanisms throughout the application's administrative interface.