CVE-2012-1227 in pluck
Summary
by MITRE
Multiple cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerabilities in admin.php in pluck 4.7 allow remote attackers to hijack the authentication of admins for requests that (1) modify the admin email address or (2) modify the blog title via a settings action; (3) add a page via an editpage action, or (4) add a categorie via the blog module.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/14/2019
The CVE-2012-1227 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw discovered in the pluck content management system version 4.7. This vulnerability resides within the admin.php file and demonstrates a fundamental weakness in the application's authentication and authorization mechanisms. The flaw allows remote attackers to exploit the system's lack of proper CSRF protection measures, enabling unauthorized administrative actions through maliciously crafted requests that appear to originate from legitimate administrators. The vulnerability specifically targets administrative functions within the pluck platform, making it particularly dangerous as it provides attackers with elevated privileges and control over critical system parameters.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from the absence of anti-CSRF tokens or proper validation mechanisms in the affected administrative endpoints. When administrators perform actions such as modifying the admin email address, changing the blog title, adding pages, or creating categories, the application fails to verify that these requests originate from authenticated administrators within the legitimate session context. This omission creates a pathway for attackers to craft malicious web pages or exploit existing vulnerabilities to trick administrators into executing unintended administrative commands without their knowledge or explicit consent. The vulnerability operates at the application layer and demonstrates poor input validation and session management practices that violate fundamental security principles.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data modification, as it provides attackers with complete administrative control over affected pluck installations. Successful exploitation could result in unauthorized modification of critical system parameters, including email configuration that might disrupt communication channels, blog title changes that could affect brand identity, and the ability to add new pages that could serve as entry points for further attacks. The addition of new categories or pages could also enable attackers to inject malicious content or redirect users to phishing sites, potentially leading to broader security compromise. This vulnerability directly affects the integrity and availability of the content management system, making it a serious concern for organizations relying on pluck for their web presence.
Organizations affected by CVE-2012-1227 should implement immediate mitigations including the deployment of anti-CSRF tokens across all administrative endpoints, proper session management validation, and the implementation of referer header checking mechanisms. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses cross-site request forgery weaknesses in web applications, and represents a clear violation of the principle of least privilege and proper authentication verification. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to techniques involving privilege escalation and persistence through administrative access, potentially enabling attackers to establish long-term presence within affected systems. The recommended remediation includes upgrading to patched versions of pluck, implementing proper CSRF protection mechanisms, and conducting comprehensive security audits of all administrative interfaces to identify similar vulnerabilities that might exist within the application's codebase.