CVE-2013-3424 in Secure Access Control System
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in Administration and View pages in Cisco Secure Access Control System (ACS) allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of arbitrary users, aka Bug ID CSCud75177.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/18/2021
The CVE-2013-3424 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw within Cisco Secure Access Control System ACS administration and view pages. This vulnerability resides in the web-based management interface of the Cisco Secure ACS platform, which serves as a central authentication, authorization, and accounting server for network access control. The flaw allows remote attackers to manipulate authenticated sessions by tricking users into executing unintended actions within the context of their active sessions, effectively bypassing the authentication mechanisms that should protect administrative functions.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from the absence of proper anti-CSRF token validation in the affected administrative endpoints. When users navigate to the vulnerable pages within the Cisco Secure ACS interface, the system fails to validate that requests originate from legitimate sources within the same session context. This omission creates a pathway for attackers to craft malicious web pages or send specially crafted requests that, when executed by authenticated users, perform unauthorized administrative actions. The vulnerability specifically affects the authentication and authorization functions that are critical to maintaining network security boundaries and user access controls.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple privilege escalation, as it enables attackers to gain unauthorized access to critical network management functions. An attacker who successfully exploits this flaw could potentially modify user accounts, alter access policies, disable security features, or even gain complete administrative control over the Cisco Secure ACS server. This compromises the entire network access control infrastructure, potentially allowing unauthorized users to bypass authentication mechanisms for network resources. The vulnerability affects organizations that rely on Cisco Secure ACS for network access control, particularly those with large user bases or critical network segments that depend on centralized authentication services.
Organizations should implement multiple layers of mitigation strategies to address this vulnerability. The primary recommendation involves applying the latest security patches from Cisco, which include proper CSRF token validation mechanisms and session management improvements. Network segmentation and access controls should be reviewed to limit exposure of administrative interfaces to trusted networks only. Additionally, implementing web application firewalls and monitoring for suspicious authentication-related activities can help detect exploitation attempts. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery weaknesses in web applications, and maps to ATT&CK technique T1566 for initial access through malicious web content. Regular security assessments of web-based management interfaces and comprehensive session management reviews should be conducted to prevent similar vulnerabilities from emerging in other network infrastructure components.