CVE-2015-0741 in Prime Central for Hosted Collaboration Solution
Summary
by MITRE
Multiple cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerabilities in Cisco Prime Central for Hosted Collaboration Solution (PC4HCS) 10.6(1) and earlier allow remote attackers to hijack the authentication of arbitrary users, aka Bug ID CSCut04596.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 05/08/2018
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2015-0741 represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw discovered in Cisco Prime Central for Hosted Collaboration Solution version 10.6(1) and earlier releases. This vulnerability resides within the web-based administrative interface of the PC4HCS platform, which serves as a centralized management solution for hosted collaboration services. The flaw allows remote attackers to manipulate authenticated sessions without requiring knowledge of valid credentials, effectively enabling unauthorized access to administrative functions. The vulnerability is particularly concerning as it affects the core authentication mechanisms of the platform, potentially allowing attackers to execute malicious actions with elevated privileges.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from the absence of proper anti-CSRF token validation within the web application's request processing. When legitimate users interact with the PC4HCS administrative interface, the application fails to adequately verify that requests originate from authenticated users within the same session context. This omission creates a scenario where an attacker can craft malicious web pages or email attachments that, when visited by an authenticated user, automatically submit requests to the vulnerable application. The flaw specifically affects the authentication and authorization mechanisms, allowing attackers to perform actions such as modifying user accounts, changing system configurations, or executing administrative commands without proper authorization. The vulnerability manifests through the manipulation of HTTP requests that should require explicit user consent and authentication validation.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple unauthorized access, as it compromises the integrity of the entire collaboration platform. Attackers leveraging this flaw can hijack active user sessions and perform administrative functions that could lead to complete system compromise. The vulnerability affects the platform's ability to maintain secure user sessions and authenticate legitimate requests, potentially allowing for data exfiltration, service disruption, or unauthorized modifications to collaboration services. Organizations relying on PC4HCS for their hosted collaboration solutions face significant risk of unauthorized access to their communication infrastructure, which could result in service degradation, data breaches, or compliance violations. The remote nature of the attack means that exploitation can occur from anywhere on the internet without requiring physical access to the network infrastructure.
Security mitigations for this vulnerability should focus on implementing robust anti-CSRF token mechanisms within the web application framework. Organizations must ensure that all state-changing operations require valid, session-specific tokens that are generated and validated server-side. The implementation should follow established security patterns that align with CWE-352, which specifically addresses cross-site request forgery vulnerabilities. Additionally, organizations should implement proper session management controls, including secure cookie attributes, session timeout mechanisms, and regular security updates. Network segmentation and access controls can provide additional defense-in-depth measures, while monitoring and logging of administrative activities can help detect potential exploitation attempts. The remediation process should include immediate patch deployment from Cisco, along with comprehensive security assessments of the affected platform to identify any potential compromise or unauthorized access that may have already occurred.