CVE-2013-5494 in Unified MeetingPlace
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the web framework in Cisco Unified MeetingPlace Solution, as used in Unified MeetingPlace Web Conferencing and Unified MeetingPlace, allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of arbitrary users, aka Bug IDs CSCui45209 and CSCui44674.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/07/2022
The CVE-2013-5494 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw within Cisco Unified MeetingPlace web conferencing solutions, specifically affecting the web framework component that governs user authentication processes. This vulnerability enables remote attackers to exploit the lack of proper anti-CSRF mechanisms, allowing them to manipulate authenticated sessions and potentially gain unauthorized access to user accounts. The flaw manifests in the web application's failure to implement robust session management controls that would prevent malicious actors from crafting forged requests that appear to originate from legitimate authenticated users.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from the absence of anti-CSRF tokens or similar protective mechanisms within the web application's request processing pipeline. When users authenticate to the Unified MeetingPlace system, their session credentials are typically stored in cookies or other session identifiers that are automatically included with subsequent requests. However, the vulnerability allows attackers to construct malicious requests that leverage these existing session tokens without proper authorization checks, effectively enabling session hijacking attacks. This weakness directly violates the principle of least privilege and demonstrates a fundamental flaw in the application's security architecture.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple unauthorized access, as it can enable attackers to perform actions that users are authorized to execute within the meeting platform. Attackers could potentially schedule meetings, modify existing conference settings, access sensitive meeting data, or even manipulate user permissions within the system. The implications are particularly severe in enterprise environments where Unified MeetingPlace solutions are used for business-critical communications and collaborative work sessions. The vulnerability affects both the Web Conferencing and Unified MeetingPlace components, indicating a systemic weakness in the framework's security design that impacts multiple service areas.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability should include immediate implementation of proper anti-CSRF token mechanisms within the web application framework, ensuring that all state-changing requests require validation of user intent through unique tokens generated per session. Organizations should also implement robust session management controls including proper session timeout mechanisms, secure cookie attributes, and regular security audits of web applications. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery weaknesses, and represents a clear violation of the principle of authentication and session management as outlined in the OWASP Top Ten. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to T1566 (Phishing) and T1078 (Valid Accounts) techniques, as attackers can leverage compromised sessions to maintain persistent access to the system.
Organizations utilizing Cisco Unified MeetingPlace solutions should prioritize patching this vulnerability through official Cisco security advisories, while also implementing network-level controls such as web application firewalls to detect and block suspicious request patterns. The remediation process must include comprehensive testing to ensure that anti-CSRF protections are properly implemented without disrupting legitimate user functionality. Security teams should also conduct thorough vulnerability assessments to identify similar weaknesses in other web applications within their infrastructure, as this vulnerability demonstrates a pattern of insufficient session validation controls that could affect other systems using similar frameworks.