CVE-2015-3388 in Commerce Balanced Payments Module
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the Commerce Balanced Payments module for Drupal allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of arbitrary users for requests that delete the user's configured bank accounts via unspecified vectors.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/19/2019
The CVE-2015-3388 vulnerability represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw within the Commerce Balanced Payments module for Drupal platforms. This security weakness specifically targets the authentication and authorization mechanisms of e-commerce systems, creating a pathway for malicious actors to exploit user sessions and execute unauthorized actions. The vulnerability stems from insufficient validation of user requests, particularly when processing operations that modify sensitive financial data such as bank account configurations. Attackers can leverage this weakness to craft malicious requests that appear legitimate to the Drupal system, thereby bypassing normal security controls that protect user accounts and financial information.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability occurs within the Commerce Balanced Payments module's handling of user requests, where the system fails to properly verify the authenticity of incoming requests originating from authenticated users. This flaw allows remote attackers to construct specially crafted web pages or links that, when visited by an authenticated user, automatically submit requests to the vulnerable Drupal site. The specific vectors for exploitation remain unspecified in the CVE description, but typically involve social engineering techniques where users are诱导ed to click malicious links or visit compromised websites while logged into their Drupal accounts. The vulnerability's impact is particularly severe because it targets bank account deletion operations, which represent a critical financial transaction that could result in significant monetary loss for users and organizations.
From an operational perspective, this vulnerability exposes Drupal-based e-commerce platforms to substantial risk of financial fraud and user account compromise. The ability to delete user bank accounts without proper authorization creates a direct pathway for attackers to cause financial harm while potentially gaining access to additional user credentials or system information. The remote nature of the attack means that threat actors can exploit this vulnerability from anywhere on the internet, without requiring physical access to the target system or network. Organizations running Drupal sites with the Commerce Balanced Payments module are particularly vulnerable, as the flaw affects the core functionality of payment processing and user account management systems.
Security mitigations for CVE-2015-3388 should focus on implementing robust CSRF protection mechanisms within the affected Drupal module. The primary defense involves introducing anti-CSRF tokens that are generated for each user session and validated for every request that modifies user data or performs financial operations. Organizations should also ensure that all user-initiated requests undergo proper authentication verification and that sensitive operations require additional confirmation steps such as re-authentication or secondary verification. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery weaknesses, and relates to ATT&CK technique T1566 for credential access through social engineering. Regular security updates and patches should be applied immediately to address this vulnerability, as the Commerce Balanced Payments module likely received security fixes in subsequent releases. Organizations should also implement network monitoring to detect suspicious patterns in user account modifications and establish incident response procedures to quickly address potential exploitation attempts.