CVE-2012-4280 in Free Realty
Summary
by MITRE
Multiple cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerabilities in admin/agenteditor.php in Free Realty 3.1-0.6 allow remote attackers to hijack the authentication of administrators for requests that (1) add an agent via an addagent action or (2) modify an agent.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/11/2025
The CVE-2012-4280 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw discovered in the Free Realty 3.1-0.6 web application's administrative interface. This vulnerability specifically targets the admin/agenteditor.php file, which serves as the primary interface for managing real estate agents within the system. The flaw enables remote attackers to manipulate administrative functions without proper authentication by exploiting the absence of proper CSRF protection mechanisms in the application's request handling process. The vulnerability manifests when administrators perform actions related to agent management, creating a significant security risk that could lead to unauthorized modifications of the real estate database.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from the application's failure to validate the origin of requests made to the agenteditor.php endpoint. When administrators access the administrative interface to add or modify agent information, the application does not implement proper anti-CSRF tokens or referer validation checks. Attackers can craft malicious web pages or exploit existing vulnerabilities in other parts of the application to trick authenticated administrators into executing unintended actions. The vulnerability specifically affects two distinct operations: the addagent action that creates new agent accounts and the modification operations that alter existing agent records. This dual impact increases the potential damage as attackers can both introduce malicious agents and modify legitimate ones to gain deeper access or manipulate data.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple unauthorized access, as it provides attackers with the ability to completely compromise the administrative functionality of the Free Realty system. Once an attacker successfully exploits this vulnerability, they can add new administrator accounts, modify existing agent information, or potentially gain access to sensitive real estate data. The vulnerability creates a persistent threat vector that can be exploited repeatedly, as long as the attacker can convince an administrator to visit a malicious page while authenticated to the system. This risk is particularly severe in environments where administrators frequently access the system from potentially compromised networks or devices, as the attack can occur without the administrator's knowledge or consent.
Security professionals should note that this vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery weaknesses in web applications. The flaw also corresponds to techniques described in the ATT&CK framework under the privilege escalation and persistence categories, as attackers can use this vulnerability to establish long-term access to the administrative interface. Organizations using Free Realty 3.1-0.6 should immediately implement CSRF protection measures including the generation and validation of unique tokens for each user session, implementing referer header checks, and ensuring that all administrative actions require explicit user confirmation. Additionally, the application should be updated to a version that includes proper CSRF protection mechanisms, as the vulnerability represents a fundamental security flaw in the authentication handling process that cannot be effectively mitigated through network-level controls alone.