CVE-2010-4881 in ApPHP Calendar
Summary
by MITRE
Multiple cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerabilities in calendar.class.php in ApPHP Calendar (ApPHP CAL) allow remote attackers to hijack the authentication of unspecified victims for requests that use the (1) category_name, (2) category_description, (3) event_name, or (4) event_description parameter.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/12/2018
The CVE-2010-4881 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw discovered in the ApPHP Calendar application's calendar.class.php file. This vulnerability falls under the CWE-352 category, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery weaknesses in software applications. The flaw enables remote attackers to manipulate authenticated sessions by tricking users into executing unauthorized actions against a web application where they are currently authenticated. The vulnerability affects multiple parameters within the calendar management functionality, specifically targeting category_name, category_description, event_name, and event_description fields that are processed through the calendar.class.php component.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability exploits the absence of proper validation mechanisms in the application's request processing flow. When legitimate users interact with the calendar application, their authenticated sessions are susceptible to manipulation through carefully crafted malicious requests. Attackers can construct forged HTTP requests that leverage the victim's existing authentication context to perform unauthorized operations such as creating, modifying, or deleting calendar categories and events. The vulnerability's impact extends beyond simple data modification as it fundamentally undermines the application's session management and access control mechanisms, potentially allowing attackers to gain persistent control over calendar data and user permissions.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is substantial for organizations relying on ApPHP Calendar for event management and scheduling. Attackers could exploit this weakness to inject malicious content into calendar systems, manipulate event schedules, or potentially establish persistent backdoors through unauthorized category creation. The unspecified nature of victim authentication targets means that any authenticated user session could be compromised, making this vulnerability particularly dangerous in multi-user environments where calendar data represents sensitive organizational information. This flaw directly violates the principle of least privilege and can lead to data integrity compromises, unauthorized access to sensitive scheduling information, and potential disruption of business operations.
Security practitioners should implement multiple layers of defense to mitigate this CSRF vulnerability. The primary remediation involves implementing robust anti-CSRF token mechanisms that validate the authenticity of each request through unique, unpredictable tokens generated for each user session. Organizations should also consider implementing proper request origin validation, ensuring that requests originate from legitimate sources within the application's domain. Additionally, the application should enforce strict parameter validation and implement proper session management controls. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to techniques involving credential access and privilege escalation through session manipulation. Organizations should also conduct regular security assessments to identify similar vulnerabilities in other components and establish comprehensive monitoring systems to detect unauthorized calendar modifications that could indicate exploitation attempts.