CVE-2010-5065 in Virtual War
Summary
by MITRE
popup.php in Virtual War (aka VWar) 1.6.1 R2 allows remote attackers to bypass intended member restrictions and read news posts via a modified newsid parameter in a printnews action.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/06/2018
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2010-5065 affects Virtual War version 1.6.1 R2, a web application designed for online gaming and community interaction. This security flaw resides within the popup.php script which handles news post display functionality. The vulnerability represents a critical access control issue that undermines the intended security model of the application's member-only content restrictions.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from insufficient input validation and access control enforcement within the news post retrieval mechanism. When users attempt to access news posts through the printnews action, the application fails to properly verify whether the requesting user possesses appropriate membership privileges before displaying content. The attacker can manipulate the newsid parameter to bypass these restrictions and access restricted news content that should only be visible to authenticated members. This flaw demonstrates a classic broken access control vulnerability that allows privilege escalation through parameter manipulation.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple information disclosure, as it enables unauthorized access to member-only content that may contain sensitive information, announcements, or community discussions. Attackers can exploit this weakness to gain insights into the application's internal operations, member activities, and potentially sensitive data that should remain restricted to authorized users only. This breach of confidentiality can lead to reputational damage, loss of member trust, and potential exploitation of additional vulnerabilities through gained intelligence about the application's structure and user base.
This vulnerability aligns with CWE-285, which addresses insufficient authorization in access control mechanisms, and relates to ATT&CK technique T1078 for valid accounts and T1566 for credential stuffing and privilege escalation through application flaws. The weakness represents a fundamental flaw in the application's authorization model where parameter validation does not adequately enforce membership-based access controls. Organizations should implement proper input sanitization, enforce strict access control checks, and validate user privileges for all content access requests to prevent similar vulnerabilities from being exploited in other web applications.
Mitigation strategies should include implementing robust access control validation that checks user authentication status and membership permissions before displaying any restricted content, adding proper input parameter validation to prevent manipulation of the newsid parameter, and implementing comprehensive logging of access attempts to detect unauthorized access patterns. Additionally, regular security code reviews and penetration testing should be conducted to identify and remediate similar access control vulnerabilities across the application's functionality. The fix should involve implementing proper session management, role-based access control checks, and ensuring that all user interactions with restricted content are properly authenticated and authorized before content delivery occurs.