CVE-2014-8473 in Cloud Service Management
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in CA Cloud Service Management (CSM) before Summer 2014 allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of unspecified victims via unknown vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/03/2022
The CVE-2014-8473 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw discovered in CA Cloud Service Management software prior to the Summer 2014 release. This vulnerability resides within the authentication mechanisms of the cloud service management platform, creating a significant security risk for organizations relying on this software for their service management operations. The flaw enables remote attackers to manipulate authenticated sessions without proper authorization, potentially leading to unauthorized access and control over critical service management functions. The vulnerability's classification as a CSRF issue indicates that it exploits the trust relationship between a web application and its users, allowing malicious actors to perform actions on behalf of authenticated users without their knowledge or consent.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from inadequate protection mechanisms within the CA Cloud Service Management platform's session management and request validation processes. Attackers can leverage this weakness by crafting malicious web pages or links that, when visited by authenticated users, automatically submit requests to the vulnerable application. The unspecified nature of the attack vectors suggests that multiple entry points within the application's interface could be exploited, potentially affecting various service management functions including user account modifications, service requests, and administrative operations. This weakness specifically targets the authentication and authorization components of the platform, undermining the integrity of user sessions and potentially allowing full compromise of service management capabilities.
The operational impact of CVE-2014-8473 extends beyond simple unauthorized access, as it can enable attackers to manipulate critical service management workflows and potentially gain elevated privileges within the cloud environment. Organizations using CA Cloud Service Management before the Summer 2014 release faced significant risk of service disruption, data compromise, and unauthorized service provisioning. The vulnerability could allow attackers to perform actions such as creating new user accounts, modifying existing service requests, or accessing sensitive information stored within the service management platform. This type of vulnerability directly impacts the availability, integrity, and confidentiality of cloud service management operations, potentially affecting business continuity and regulatory compliance requirements for organizations managing critical IT services.
Organizations affected by this vulnerability should immediately implement mitigations including applying the vendor-provided security patches released after the Summer 2014 timeframe. The implementation of proper CSRF protection mechanisms such as anti-forgery tokens, origin validation checks, and secure session management practices should be prioritized. Security teams should conduct comprehensive vulnerability assessments to identify all instances of the vulnerable software within their infrastructure and ensure proper network segmentation to limit potential attack surfaces. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses cross-site request forgery weaknesses in web applications, and corresponds to tactics in the MITRE ATT&CK framework under the 'Initial Access' and 'Persistence' domains, where adversaries can establish unauthorized access through session hijacking techniques. The remediation process should also include user education regarding suspicious web content and the implementation of web application firewalls to detect and prevent exploitation attempts.