CVE-2014-0483 in Django
Summary
by MITRE
The administrative interface (contrib.admin) in Django before 1.4.14, 1.5.x before 1.5.9, 1.6.x before 1.6.6, and 1.7 before release candidate 3 does not check if a field represents a relationship between models, which allows remote authenticated users to obtain sensitive information via a to_field parameter in a popup action to an admin change form page, as demonstrated by a /admin/auth/user/?pop=1&t=password URI.
If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 02/15/2022
The vulnerability described in CVE-2014-0483 represents a critical information disclosure issue within the Django web framework's administrative interface. This flaw exists in multiple versions of Django including 1.4.14, 1.5.9, 1.6.6, and pre-release versions of 1.7, making it a widespread concern affecting numerous applications that rely on Django's built-in admin functionality. The vulnerability stems from insufficient validation mechanisms within the administrative interface that fails to properly verify the nature of fields being accessed through the popup action mechanism. When an authenticated user accesses the admin interface and manipulates the to_field parameter within a popup action, the system does not adequately determine whether the targeted field represents a relationship between models, leading to potential exposure of sensitive data.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability occurs through the manipulation of URL parameters within Django's administrative change form pages. Specifically, when a user navigates to a URI such as /admin/auth/user/?pop=1&t=password, the system processes the to_field parameter without proper validation of the field's relationship properties. This allows attackers to exploit the administrative interface to extract information that should normally be restricted or protected. The flaw operates at the model relationship level where Django's admin interface fails to distinguish between regular fields and relationship fields, particularly those that reference other models through foreign keys or other relational constructs. This misconfiguration enables an authenticated attacker to bypass normal access controls and potentially retrieve sensitive information from related models through the popup mechanism.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple information disclosure, as it can enable attackers to gather intelligence about the application's data model structure and relationships. An authenticated user with access to the Django admin interface can leverage this vulnerability to discover internal model relationships, potentially exposing database schema details, user information, and other sensitive data that should remain protected within the application's security boundaries. The vulnerability is particularly concerning because it does not require special privileges beyond authentication to the administrative interface, meaning that any user with administrative access could exploit this flaw. This weakness can be exploited to map the application's data architecture, identify potential attack vectors, and gather information that could facilitate more sophisticated attacks against the application or its underlying infrastructure.
Organizations utilizing affected Django versions should immediately implement mitigation strategies to protect against exploitation of this vulnerability. The most effective approach involves upgrading to patched versions of Django where the administrative interface properly validates field relationships before processing to_field parameters. Additionally, administrators should consider implementing additional access controls and monitoring mechanisms around the administrative interface to detect unusual activity patterns that might indicate exploitation attempts. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-200, which addresses information disclosure issues, and can be categorized under ATT&CK technique T1213 for data from information repositories, as it enables unauthorized access to sensitive data through administrative interfaces. Security teams should also review their application's administrative access controls and implement principle of least privilege configurations to limit the potential damage from such vulnerabilities, particularly in environments where administrative access might be compromised or where multiple users share administrative privileges.