CVE-2012-5004 in H-Sphere
Summary
by MITRE
Multiple cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerabilities in Parallels H-Sphere 3.3 Patch 1 allow remote attackers to hijack the authentication of admins for requests that (1) add group plans via admin/group_plans.html or (2) add extra packages via admin/extra_packs/create_extra_pack.html.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/22/2019
The CVE-2012-5004 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw affecting Parallels H-Sphere 3.3 Patch 1, a web-based hosting control panel used by service providers to manage server resources and customer accounts. This vulnerability resides in the administrative interface of the platform, specifically targeting the authentication mechanisms that govern access to sensitive administrative functions. The flaw allows remote attackers to exploit the lack of proper anti-CSRF protections, enabling them to manipulate administrative sessions and execute unauthorized actions within the control panel environment.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from the absence of anti-CSRF tokens or similar validation mechanisms in two specific administrative endpoints. The first vulnerable path is admin/group_plans.html which permits attackers to add new group plans without proper authentication verification, while the second vulnerable endpoint admin/extra_packs/create_extra_pack.html allows unauthorized creation of extra packages. These endpoints fail to validate the authenticity of requests originating from legitimate administrative sessions, making them susceptible to exploitation through crafted malicious requests that leverage session cookies or other authentication tokens.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is severe and multifaceted for organizations using Parallels H-Sphere. An attacker who successfully exploits this CSRF vulnerability could gain unauthorized administrative access to modify critical hosting configurations, add malicious group plans that might enable further compromise, or create extra packages containing malicious code or backdoors. The implications extend beyond simple privilege escalation as these administrative actions could lead to complete system compromise, unauthorized resource consumption, data theft, or service disruption for multiple customers under the compromised hosting environment.
This vulnerability maps directly to CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery weaknesses in software applications. The flaw demonstrates poor input validation and authentication handling practices, where the application fails to verify the origin of requests made to administrative functions. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability aligns with techniques related to privilege escalation and initial access through web application attacks. The vulnerability also represents a failure in the application's security architecture, as it lacks proper request origin verification and session management controls that should be fundamental to administrative interfaces. Organizations should implement comprehensive mitigations including CSRF token implementation, proper request validation, and session management controls to address this vulnerability effectively.
The exploitation of this vulnerability requires minimal technical sophistication and can be accomplished through social engineering or by leveraging existing access to the target environment. Attackers typically craft malicious web pages or email attachments that automatically submit requests to the vulnerable endpoints when viewed by authenticated administrators, effectively hijacking their sessions to perform unauthorized administrative actions. This makes the vulnerability particularly dangerous in environments where administrators frequently access web applications from potentially compromised networks or devices.