CVE-2015-5534 in OxWall
Summary
by MITRE
Multiple cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerabilities in Oxwall before 1.8 allow remote attackers to hijack the authentication of administrators for requests that (1) put the website under maintenance via the maintenance_enable parameter or (2) conduct cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks via the maintenance_text parameter to admin/pages/maintenance.
Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.
Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/22/2024
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2015-5534 represents a critical cross-site request forgery flaw affecting Oxwall versions prior to 1.8. This vulnerability resides within the administrative interface of the Oxwall social networking platform, specifically targeting the maintenance functionality that allows administrators to control website availability. The flaw enables remote attackers to manipulate administrative sessions without requiring valid credentials, creating a significant security risk for organizations relying on this platform for their online presence.
The technical implementation of this CSRF vulnerability stems from the absence of proper authentication tokens or session validation mechanisms when processing maintenance-related requests. Attackers can construct malicious web pages or email attachments that, when visited by an authenticated administrator, automatically submit requests to the Oxwall administration interface. The vulnerability manifests through two distinct attack vectors: the maintenance_enable parameter that can place the entire website into maintenance mode, and the maintenance_text parameter that facilitates cross-site scripting attacks by allowing arbitrary HTML content to be injected into the maintenance page. Both parameters operate without adequate CSRF protection measures, making them prime targets for exploitation.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple privilege escalation, as it provides attackers with the ability to completely disrupt website services and potentially establish persistent attack vectors. When an administrator visits a malicious page, the system automatically enables maintenance mode, effectively taking the website offline and preventing legitimate users from accessing services. Additionally, the maintenance_text parameter creates a cross-site scripting vulnerability that allows attackers to inject malicious scripts into the maintenance page, potentially compromising user sessions or redirecting visitors to malicious sites. This dual nature of the vulnerability enables attackers to both disrupt services and establish persistent footholds within the target environment.
Organizations utilizing Oxwall platforms prior to version 1.8 should immediately implement mitigation strategies to address this vulnerability. The primary remediation involves upgrading to Oxwall version 1.8 or later, which includes proper CSRF token implementation and session validation controls. Additionally, administrators should review their network configurations to limit administrative access to trusted networks and implement web application firewalls to detect and block suspicious requests. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-352, which specifically addresses Cross-Site Request Forgery weaknesses, and maps to ATT&CK technique T1071.004 for application layer protocol manipulation. Security teams should also consider implementing additional monitoring for administrative activities and establishing incident response procedures to quickly identify and respond to potential exploitation attempts.