CVE-2015-4267 in Identity Services Engine
Summary
by MITRE
Cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability in the web framework in Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) 1.2(0.793), 1.3(0.876), 1.4(0.109), 2.0(0.147), and 2.0(0.169) allows remote attackers to hijack the authentication of arbitrary users, aka Bug ID CSCus09940.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/01/2022
The Cisco Identity Services Engine (ISE) web framework contains a critical cross-site request forgery vulnerability that enables remote attackers to hijack user authentications without requiring valid credentials. This vulnerability affects multiple versions including 1.2(0.793), 1.3(0.876), 1.4(0.109), 2.0(0.147), and 2.0(0.169) of the ISE platform, making it a widespread concern for organizations utilizing Cisco's identity and access management solutions. The flaw resides in the web application's failure to properly validate and enforce anti-CSRF protections, creating an exploitable condition that undermines the security of the authentication mechanism.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from the absence of proper anti-CSRF tokens within critical web requests. When legitimate users interact with the ISE web interface, the application fails to require or validate unique tokens that would prevent unauthorized requests from being executed on behalf of authenticated users. This weakness allows attackers to craft malicious requests that leverage the victim's existing authentication session, effectively bypassing the normal authentication process. The vulnerability operates by tricking authenticated users into executing unintended actions through maliciously crafted web requests, typically delivered via phishing emails or compromised websites that exploit the trust relationship between the user's browser and the ISE web application.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple authentication bypass, as it provides attackers with the capability to perform arbitrary administrative actions within the ISE environment. An attacker who successfully exploits this vulnerability could gain unauthorized access to network access control policies, modify user credentials, create new user accounts, or even disable critical security features. This represents a severe compromise of the ISE platform's integrity and confidentiality, as it allows attackers to assume the identity of any authenticated user within the system. The vulnerability's remote nature means that attackers do not require physical access to the network or direct network connectivity to the ISE server, making it particularly dangerous in enterprise environments where such systems are often exposed to untrusted network segments.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations including applying the latest security patches released by Cisco, enabling proper CSRF protection mechanisms within the web application, and implementing network segmentation to limit access to the ISE administrative interfaces. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery issues, and corresponds to ATT&CK technique T1566.001 for Phishing and T1566.002 for Spearphishing via Service, as attackers would likely leverage these methods to deliver malicious payloads. Additionally, organizations should consider implementing web application firewalls and monitoring for suspicious authentication patterns to detect potential exploitation attempts. The security community should also evaluate their existing security controls and ensure that proper access controls and session management mechanisms are in place to prevent similar vulnerabilities from occurring in other web applications within their infrastructure.