CVE-2012-5394 in MediaWiki
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the CentralAuth extension for MediaWiki before 1.19.9, 1.20.x before 1.20.8, and 1.21.x before 1.21.3 allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of users for requests that login via vectors involving image loading.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/02/2019
The CVE-2012-5394 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw within the CentralAuth extension of MediaWiki, a widely deployed open-source wiki software platform. This vulnerability affects multiple versions of MediaWiki including releases prior to 1.19.9, 1.20.8, and 1.21.3, making it a significant security risk for organizations relying on wiki-based collaboration systems. The flaw specifically targets the authentication mechanisms within MediaWiki's CentralAuth extension, which is designed to provide centralized user authentication across multiple wiki instances within an organization's infrastructure. The vulnerability's impact extends beyond typical CSRF scenarios due to its specific interaction with image loading vectors, creating unique attack surface characteristics.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of authentication tokens within the CentralAuth extension's request processing. When users navigate to pages containing maliciously crafted image tags or other embedded content, the browser automatically attempts to load these resources without proper authentication verification. This automatic behavior enables attackers to construct malicious web pages that, when visited by authenticated users, can execute unauthorized actions against the MediaWiki instance. The vulnerability operates under CWE-352, which classifies cross-site request forgery as a weakness where the application fails to validate that requests originate from the legitimate user. The attack vector leverages the fact that MediaWiki's authentication system does not adequately distinguish between legitimate image loading requests and maliciously constructed requests that exploit the authentication state.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is substantial as it allows remote attackers to hijack user sessions and perform unauthorized actions within the MediaWiki environment. Attackers can potentially gain elevated privileges, modify content, create new user accounts, or perform other administrative functions without the target user's knowledge or consent. The specific nature of the vulnerability involving image loading vectors makes it particularly insidious because users may unknowingly trigger malicious requests simply by viewing web pages containing compromised media content. This characteristic aligns with ATT&CK technique T1566, which describes social engineering attacks that manipulate users into executing malicious actions, and T1071.004, which covers application layer protocol manipulation through web services. The vulnerability essentially enables attackers to perform authenticated operations on behalf of legitimate users, creating potential for data exfiltration, content tampering, and privilege escalation within wiki environments.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should immediately implement mitigation strategies including updating to patched versions of MediaWiki, specifically versions 1.19.9, 1.20.8, or 1.21.3, depending on their current deployment. The update process should include thorough testing to ensure compatibility with existing wiki configurations and extensions. Additionally, administrators should implement proper CSRF token validation mechanisms and consider implementing Content Security Policy headers to restrict image loading from untrusted sources. Network-level protections such as web application firewalls can provide additional defense-in-depth measures, though they should not be relied upon as the sole mitigation. The vulnerability demonstrates the importance of maintaining up-to-date software versions and proper input validation in authentication systems, as highlighted by industry standards such as OWASP Top Ten and NIST cybersecurity guidelines for web application security. Organizations should also conduct security assessments to identify other potential CSRF vulnerabilities within their MediaWiki installations and related web applications.