CVE-2012-1414 in Plume
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in manager/news.php in Plume CMS 1.2.4 and earlier allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of administrators for requests that create News pages via a publish action.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/26/2025
The CVE-2012-1414 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw discovered in Plume CMS version 1.2.4 and earlier. This vulnerability specifically targets the manager/news.php component of the content management system, creating a significant security risk for administrators who manage news content through the platform. The flaw enables remote attackers to exploit the authentication mechanism by crafting malicious requests that appear to originate from authenticated administrators, thereby compromising the integrity of the web application's access controls.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from the absence of proper anti-CSRF token validation within the publish action functionality of the news management interface. When administrators perform actions such as creating or publishing news pages through manager/news.php, the application fails to verify the authenticity of the request origin. This omission allows attackers to construct malicious web pages or exploit existing vulnerabilities in other web applications to trick authenticated administrators into executing unintended actions without their knowledge or consent. The vulnerability operates at the application layer and specifically targets the web application's session management and authentication mechanisms.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data manipulation, as it provides attackers with elevated privileges within the CMS environment. Successful exploitation enables attackers to create unauthorized news pages that could contain malicious content, phishing links, or other harmful materials. The administrative capabilities granted through this vulnerability allow for persistent modifications to the website's content, potential data exfiltration, and the establishment of backdoors or malicious workflows that could compromise the entire web application infrastructure. This type of attack vector represents a significant threat to content integrity and can result in reputational damage, regulatory compliance violations, and potential legal consequences for organizations using vulnerable CMS installations.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should implement immediate mitigations including the deployment of anti-CSRF tokens within all state-changing requests, proper session management controls, and comprehensive input validation for all user interactions. The implementation of the SameSite cookie attributes and Content Security Policy headers can provide additional layers of protection against cross-site request forgery attacks. Security professionals should also consider implementing web application firewalls and monitoring for suspicious activity patterns that might indicate CSRF attack attempts. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses cross-site request forgery weaknesses, and corresponds to techniques documented in the MITRE ATT&CK framework under the privilege escalation and persistence tactics. The remediation process should involve updating to the latest version of Plume CMS, implementing proper CSRF protection mechanisms, and conducting thorough security assessments of all web applications to identify similar vulnerabilities that might exist within the organization's digital infrastructure.