CVE-2015-2334 in MyBB
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the Admin Control Panel (ACP) login in MyBB (aka MyBulletinBoard) before 1.8.4 allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of unspecified victims via unknown vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 01/10/2018
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2015-2334 represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw within the Admin Control Panel login mechanism of MyBB versions prior to 1.8.4. This weakness resides in the web application's authentication system where the administrative interface fails to properly validate the origin of incoming requests, creating an exploitable condition that enables unauthorized users to manipulate authenticated sessions. The vulnerability specifically affects the ACP login functionality, which serves as the primary administrative interface for managing forum configurations, user accounts, and content moderation. Attackers can leverage this flaw to execute unauthorized administrative actions by tricking victims into visiting malicious web pages that submit forged requests to the vulnerable MyBB installation. The unspecified nature of the attack vectors suggests multiple potential exploitation methods including social engineering campaigns, phishing attacks, or compromised websites that embed malicious code to exploit the CSRF vulnerability.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from the absence of proper anti-CSRF tokens or validation mechanisms within the administrative login process. In a properly secured environment, the ACP login functionality should implement unique, unpredictable tokens that are tied to the user's session and validated upon each request. When these protections are missing, attackers can craft malicious HTTP requests that appear to originate from legitimate administrative sessions, effectively allowing them to perform administrative actions without proper authentication. This flaw falls under the Common Weakness Enumeration category CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery vulnerabilities where web applications fail to validate the source of requests. The vulnerability's impact is particularly severe because it targets the administrative control panel, which typically possesses the highest privileges within the application, allowing attackers to gain complete control over forum operations, user management, content modification, and system configuration changes.
The operational consequences of this vulnerability extend beyond simple unauthorized access, as successful exploitation can result in complete system compromise of MyBB installations. Attackers can leverage the administrative privileges to modify forum settings, add or remove users, delete content, inject malicious scripts, and potentially establish backdoors for persistent access. The remote nature of the attack means that exploitation does not require physical access to the system or network, making it particularly dangerous for organizations running vulnerable MyBB installations. According to the MITRE ATT&CK framework, this vulnerability maps to techniques involving credential access and privilege escalation, specifically targeting the administrative interface to gain elevated privileges within the application. The attack surface is broad since any user with access to the vulnerable MyBB installation could potentially be targeted, making this a widespread concern for forum administrators. Organizations running affected versions should immediately implement mitigation strategies including patching to version 1.8.4 or later, implementing additional security controls such as CSRF protection mechanisms, and conducting thorough security assessments of their web applications. The vulnerability highlights the critical importance of proper input validation and session management in web applications, particularly within administrative interfaces where the potential impact of exploitation is maximized.