CVE-2014-8031 in WebEx Meetings Server
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in Cisco WebEx Meetings Server allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of arbitrary users, aka Bug ID CSCuj40456.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 07/09/2017
The CVE-2014-8031 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw discovered in Cisco WebEx Meetings Server software. This vulnerability resides within the server's authentication mechanism and enables remote attackers to manipulate authenticated sessions without proper authorization. The issue affects versions of Cisco WebEx Meetings Server that fail to implement adequate CSRF protection measures, creating a significant security risk for organizations relying on this collaboration platform for video conferencing and meeting management.
The technical flaw manifests through the absence of proper anti-CSRF tokens or validation mechanisms within the WebEx Meetings Server's web interface. When users authenticate to the system, the server should verify that requests originate from legitimate sources and contain appropriate session validation tokens. However, in vulnerable implementations, attackers can craft malicious web pages or emails that automatically submit requests to the WebEx server on behalf of authenticated users. This occurs because the server does not adequately verify the referer header or implement unique tokens that tie requests to specific user sessions, allowing unauthorized actions to be performed under legitimate user credentials.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple privilege escalation, as it enables complete session hijacking and unauthorized access to meeting resources. An attacker could potentially create, modify, or delete meetings, access confidential meeting data, and manipulate user accounts without detection. The vulnerability affects the core authentication and authorization functions of the WebEx platform, undermining the security model that organizations depend upon for secure collaboration. Organizations using WebEx Meetings Server may experience unauthorized access to sensitive business communications, potential data breaches, and disruption of legitimate business operations through unauthorized meeting modifications or deletions.
Cisco addressed this vulnerability through software updates and patches that implemented proper CSRF protection mechanisms including anti-CSRF token generation and validation. Organizations should immediately apply the relevant security patches released by Cisco to remediate this vulnerability. The mitigation strategy involves ensuring that all web requests to the WebEx server contain valid anti-CSRF tokens that are unique per session and properly validated by the server. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery weaknesses, and corresponds to techniques described in the MITRE ATT&CK framework under T1531 for Establishing Persistence and T1078 for Valid Accounts. Security teams should also implement additional monitoring for suspicious authentication patterns and consider network-level protections to detect and prevent exploitation attempts against vulnerable WebEx installations.