CVE-2014-2974 in Silver-peak
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in php/user_account.php in Silver Peak VX through 6.2.4 allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of administrators for requests that create administrative accounts.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 08/21/2024
The CVE-2014-2974 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw within the Silver Peak VX platform version 6.2.4 and earlier. This vulnerability resides in the php/user_account.php component and specifically targets the administrative authentication mechanisms of the system. The flaw enables remote attackers to exploit the lack of proper CSRF protection measures, allowing them to hijack administrator sessions and execute unauthorized administrative account creation requests. Such a vulnerability fundamentally undermines the platform's access control and authentication security model, creating a severe risk for organizations relying on Silver Peak VX for their network infrastructure management.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from the absence of anti-CSRF tokens or similar validation mechanisms within the user account creation process. When administrators access the php/user_account.php endpoint to create new administrative accounts, the system fails to verify the authenticity of the request origin. Attackers can craft malicious web pages or leverage existing social engineering techniques to trick administrators into submitting forged requests that appear legitimate to the server. This occurs because the vulnerable application does not implement proper request validation that would ensure the request originates from the legitimate user interface rather than a malicious third-party site.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple privilege escalation to encompass complete system compromise. An attacker who successfully exploits this CSRF flaw can create administrative accounts with full privileges, effectively gaining persistent access to the Silver Peak VX management interface. This capability allows for unauthorized configuration changes, data manipulation, and potential lateral movement within the network infrastructure. The vulnerability particularly affects organizations that rely on Silver Peak VX for their network management, as it provides attackers with a pathway to establish backdoors and maintain long-term access to critical network operations. The attack vector is particularly dangerous because it requires minimal user interaction beyond the administrator's normal browsing activities.
Organizations should implement comprehensive mitigations including immediate patching of affected Silver Peak VX versions to 6.2.5 or later, which contain the necessary CSRF protection mechanisms. The implementation of anti-CSRF tokens within all administrative functions represents the primary defensive measure, aligning with CWE-352 standards for CSRF protection. Network segmentation and monitoring of administrative account creation activities should be enhanced to detect suspicious patterns. Additionally, implementing multi-factor authentication for administrative accounts and regular security audits of web applications can provide additional layers of defense. This vulnerability demonstrates the critical importance of CSRF protection in administrative interfaces and aligns with ATT&CK technique T1078 for valid accounts and T1566 for social engineering approaches that leverage authentication mechanisms.