CVE-2015-1424 in Gecko CMS
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in Gecko CMS 2.2 and 2.3 allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of administrators for requests that add an administrator user via a newuser request to admin/index.php.
If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/19/2025
The CVE-2015-1424 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw in Gecko CMS versions 2.2 and 2.3 that fundamentally undermines the application's administrative security controls. This vulnerability operates by exploiting the absence of proper anti-CSRF mechanisms in the administrative user creation endpoint, specifically targeting the newuser request handler within the admin/index.php file. The flaw enables remote attackers to construct malicious web pages or email attachments that automatically submit requests to the vulnerable CMS administration interface without the legitimate administrator's knowledge or consent.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability stems from the CMS's failure to validate the origin of administrative requests through proper CSRF token mechanisms. When an administrator visits a malicious page containing embedded requests to the admin/index.php endpoint with newuser parameters, the CMS processes these requests as legitimate due to the lack of anti-CSRF protections. This occurs because the application relies solely on session-based authentication without implementing additional verification mechanisms such as one-time tokens or referer header validation. The vulnerability is particularly dangerous because it targets the administrative user creation functionality, which directly compromises the CMS's access control model.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple privilege escalation to represent a complete compromise of the CMS's administrative integrity. An attacker who successfully exploits this vulnerability can add new administrator accounts with full privileges, effectively gaining persistent access to the entire content management system. This allows for complete content manipulation, user account modification, data exfiltration, and potential lateral movement within the compromised network infrastructure. The vulnerability's remote nature means that attackers do not require physical access or prior authentication credentials to exploit it, making it particularly dangerous for publicly accessible web applications.
The security implications align with CWE-352, which specifically addresses cross-site request forgery vulnerabilities in web applications, and demonstrates the critical importance of implementing proper anti-CSRF controls as outlined in OWASP Top Ten security practices. From an ATT&CK framework perspective, this vulnerability maps to T1078 (Valid Accounts) and T1566 (Phishing), as it enables attackers to establish persistent administrative access through social engineering or automated exploitation techniques. The vulnerability also represents a failure in the principle of least privilege, as it allows attackers to bypass authentication mechanisms that should only be accessible to legitimate administrators with proper authorization.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability require immediate implementation of robust anti-CSRF token mechanisms throughout the administrative interface, particularly for all state-changing operations including user creation, configuration changes, and privilege modifications. Organizations should implement time-based tokens that are generated server-side and validated on each request, ensuring that tokens are unique per session and expire after reasonable time periods. Additionally, proper referer header validation should be implemented to verify that requests originate from legitimate administrative pages. The CMS should also enforce strict input validation and implement rate limiting for administrative operations to prevent automated exploitation attempts. Regular security audits and penetration testing should be conducted to identify similar vulnerabilities in other parts of the application, while maintaining up-to-date security patches and implementing proper access controls to limit the impact of any potential exploitation attempts.