CVE-2015-0115 in Leads
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in IBM Leads 7.x, 8.1.0 before 8.1.0.14, 8.2, 8.5.0 before 8.5.0.7.3, 8.6.0 before 8.6.0.8.1, 9.0.0 through 9.0.0.4, 9.1.0 before 9.1.0.6.1, and 9.1.1 before 9.1.1.0.2 allows remote authenticated users to hijack the authentication of customer accounts.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 04/19/2019
The CVE-2015-0115 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw affecting multiple versions of IBM Leads software across its 7.x, 8.x, 9.x release lines. This vulnerability specifically targets the authentication mechanisms within the application, creating a scenario where authenticated users can be tricked into executing unintended actions without their knowledge or consent. The flaw exists in the application's failure to properly validate and verify the authenticity of requests originating from legitimate user sessions, allowing malicious actors to craft deceptive requests that appear to come from authenticated users.
From a technical perspective, the vulnerability stems from insufficient CSRF token validation mechanisms within the IBM Leads application framework. The system does not adequately enforce request integrity checks that would normally prevent unauthorized modifications to authenticated sessions. This weakness enables attackers to leverage the authenticated user's session cookies and credentials to perform actions that the user did not explicitly authorize. The vulnerability operates at the application layer and specifically affects the authentication and session management components that govern how user credentials are validated and maintained throughout the application lifecycle.
The operational impact of this vulnerability is significant, as it directly enables session hijacking and unauthorized account manipulation within the IBM Leads platform. Remote authenticated users can exploit this weakness to perform actions such as modifying lead records, changing user permissions, accessing restricted data, or even escalating their privileges within the system. The vulnerability particularly affects customer account management functionalities, potentially allowing attackers to gain unauthorized access to sensitive customer information and business-critical data within the leads management system. This compromises the integrity and confidentiality of customer data while undermining the application's authentication controls.
Security practitioners should consider this vulnerability in relation to CWE-352, which specifically addresses cross-site request forgery vulnerabilities, and align it with ATT&CK technique T1566 for credential access through social engineering. The mitigation strategy should include implementing robust CSRF token generation and validation mechanisms, ensuring that all state-changing operations require proper authentication tokens that are verified against the user's session. Organizations should also implement additional security controls such as SameSite cookie attributes, referrer header validation, and proper session management practices. The affected IBM Leads versions require immediate patching to address the vulnerability, with administrators monitoring for any suspicious activities that might indicate exploitation attempts and implementing network-level protections to prevent unauthorized access to the vulnerable application components.