CVE-2012-4393 in ownCloud
Summary
by MITRE
Multiple cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerabilities in ownCloud before 4.0.6 allow remote attackers to hijack the authentication of arbitrary users for requests that use (1) addBookmark.php, (2) delBookmark.php, or (3) editBookmark.php in bookmarks/ajax/; (4) calendar/delete.php, (5) calendar/edit.php, (6) calendar/new.php, (7) calendar/update.php, (8) event/delete.php, (9) event/edit.php, (10) event/move.php, (11) event/new.php, (12) import/import.php, (13) settings/setfirstday.php, (14) settings/settimeformat.php, (15) share/changepermission.php, (16) share/share.php, (17) or share/unshare.php in calendar/ajax/; (18) external/ajax/setsites.php, (19) files/ajax/delete.php, (20) files/ajax/move.php, (21) files/ajax/newfile.php, (22) files/ajax/newfolder.php, (23) files/ajax/rename.php, (24) files_sharing/ajax/email.php, (25) files_sharing/ajax/setpermissions.php, (26) files_sharing/ajax/share.php, (27) files_sharing/ajax/toggleresharing.php, (28) files_sharing/ajax/togglesharewitheveryone.php, (29) files_sharing/ajax/unshare.php, (30) files_texteditor/ajax/savefile.php, (31) files_versions/ajax/rollbackVersion.php, (32) gallery/ajax/createAlbum.php, (33) gallery/ajax/sharing.php, (34) tasks/ajax/addtask.php, (35) tasks/ajax/addtaskform.php, (36) tasks/ajax/delete.php, or (37) tasks/ajax/edittask.php in apps/; or administrators for requests that use (38) changepassword.php, (39) creategroup.php, (40) createuser.php, (41) disableapp.php, (42) enableapp.php, (43) lostpassword.php, (44) removegroup.php, (45) removeuser.php, (46) setlanguage.php, (47) setloglevel.php, (48) setquota.php, or (49) togglegroups.php in settings/ajax/.
Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/31/2025
The vulnerability described in CVE-2012-4393 represents a critical cross-site request forgery issue affecting ownCloud versions prior to 4.0.6. This vulnerability stems from the absence of proper CSRF protection mechanisms in numerous AJAX endpoints throughout the application's architecture. The flaw allows remote attackers to manipulate authenticated sessions by tricking users into executing unintended actions through maliciously crafted requests that appear to originate from legitimate administrative or user interfaces. The affected endpoints span across multiple application modules including bookmarks, calendar, files, sharing, tasks, and settings functionalities, creating a widespread attack surface that could enable unauthorized modifications to user data, calendar events, file systems, and administrative configurations.
The technical exploitation of this vulnerability relies on the fundamental principle that web applications cannot distinguish between legitimate requests originating from authenticated users and malicious requests crafted by attackers. In the context of ownCloud, attackers could construct specially formatted HTTP requests that, when executed by a victim's browser, would perform unauthorized operations on the target system. The vulnerability affects both standard user functionalities and administrative operations, with the latter being particularly concerning as they could enable attackers to modify user accounts, disable applications, change passwords, and manipulate system-level configurations. This flaw directly maps to CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery vulnerabilities in software applications, and aligns with ATT&CK technique T1078.004 for Valid Accounts and T1566.001 for Phishing, as exploitation typically requires social engineering to deliver malicious payloads to authenticated users.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple data manipulation to encompass potential complete system compromise. Attackers could leverage these CSRF vulnerabilities to gain persistent access to user accounts, modify calendar entries to include malicious links or content, delete or modify critical files through the file management system, and manipulate sharing permissions to gain unauthorized access to other users' data. The attack vectors are particularly dangerous because they can be executed without requiring authentication credentials from the attacker, relying instead on the victim's existing authenticated session. Administrative endpoints present even greater risk, as successful exploitation could enable attackers to create new user accounts, disable security features, modify system configurations, or even change administrator passwords, potentially leading to complete system takeover. The widespread nature of affected endpoints means that a single successful CSRF attack could provide attackers with access to multiple application functionalities, making this vulnerability particularly dangerous for organizations relying on ownCloud for file storage and collaboration services.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require immediate implementation of proper CSRF protection mechanisms throughout the application. The most effective approach involves implementing anti-CSRF tokens that are generated per user session and validated on each request to ensure that the request originates from the legitimate user interface rather than a malicious third-party site. Organizations should also implement proper input validation and authentication checks on all AJAX endpoints, particularly those that modify system state or user data. The vulnerability highlights the importance of following secure coding practices and implementing comprehensive security testing procedures, including automated scanning for CSRF vulnerabilities and manual security reviews of all web application endpoints. Additionally, organizations should ensure that all ownCloud installations are updated to version 4.0.6 or later, where these CSRF protections have been implemented. Network-level protections such as web application firewalls and proper session management policies can provide additional layers of defense, though these should not be considered substitutes for proper application-level CSRF protection. The vulnerability underscores the critical need for continuous security monitoring and regular security updates in collaborative environments where user sessions are frequently active and potentially exposed to various attack vectors.